Looking Forward: A Model State of the Union Address for January, 2009

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from CommonDreams:


Published on Monday, January 22, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
Looking Forward: A Model State of the Union Address for January, 2009
by William D. Hartung

The 2008 presidential race is already well under way, with candidates beginning to clarify their positions on Iraq, climate change, and other key issues. In advance of President Bush's State of the Union address tomorrow night, it would be interesting to look ahead at what a new president might address in his or her first State of the Union address in January 2009. Below is an optimistic model of one such address, which assumes that the United States has fully or partially withdrawn from Iraq, creating room to discuss other pressing foreign policy issues.

My Fellow Americans,

The State of the Union is strong. And working together with partners around the world, we can use our strength to make the world an even better place for our children and grandchildren.

Our fundamental principle in working towards a safer, better world must be the concept that every human life is precious, from America to Iraq, from China to North Korea, from Chile to Colombia, or from the Sudan to South Africa. We must protect humanity from all of the threats we face - whether from terrorism, or nuclear weapons, or environmental destruction, or outbreaks of disease, or entrenched poverty.

Not only must we preserve life in all corners of our interconnected world, we must make it worth living. Every person on this earth should have the opportunity to reach their full potential, to unleash the intelligence and creativity that makes each of us unique.

And we can only reach our full potential by working together to foster cooperation rather than confrontation; unity rather than division; and hope rather than fear.

In moving forward on this ambitious but essential agenda, we have much to learn from our experiences of recent years. Perhaps the most important lesson of all is the recognition of the basic generosity of the American people. From aid to tsunami victims in Asia to help for those displaced and devastated by a hurricane on our own Gulf Coast, Americans from all walks of life have given of their time, their energy, and their money to respond to these immense human tragedies. Now, we need a government as decent and generous as its people.

We also need to recognize that we are most effective when we work together with other nations to solve the complex problems that we face.

We ignore this lesson at our peril. In Iraq, we have seen the danger of plunging forward without heeding the advice of our friends and allies. After expending hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives, we are no closer to a solution now than we were at the outset of the war. We would be far better off today if we had done more listening, and engaged in less arm-twisting, in crafting a solution to the threats posed by the regime of Saddam Hussein.

By contrast, when we have contributed to global efforts to deal with threats like the HIV-AIDS crisis, we have made progress. We have far to go, but the common understanding of the scope of the problem and the need to solve it on a global basis has had a genuine, positive impact on the lives of millions.

Just as our communities work better when people are encouraged to participate in community organizations from the PTA to little league to kids' soccer, so will the world work better when more nations feel empowered to participate when decisions are being made on how to address global threats like climate change or childhood disease. ......(more)

The rest is at: http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0122-21.htm