On January 23, 2007 President Bush addressed the American people. This is a long standing practice in the art of American governance. Every year around this time, the sitting U.S. President is obligated to tell his fellow Americans how he has managed the affairs of the state and how his administration has advanced the American interest both in the domestic and the international arenas. Much has been written about this practice during the last century.

The significance of the practice and the implications it has for the American people have multiplied because of America’s international status as a superpower against the Soviet Union and increasingly as the only superpower in the world today. President Bush in the tradition of this particular address raised a number of issues which have great consequences for his presidency. Like the Hollywood actors and actresses in what some of us called Hollywood West, political actors on this side of the Mississippi and the Potomac rivers who are increasingly called members of Hollywood East, are particularly concerned about their ratings and the weight of scholarly pens on their legacies.

In assessing the President’s speech before the Congress there was a deep sense of concern about a number of domestic issues. There was the concern of immigration and all the problems inextricably linked to its implications for the society. Since this is a big issue that affects a vast number of states and local communities in United States, the President finds its imperative to call for more orderly migration of labor across the border. He called upon Americans to work energetically on a guest worker program. This is an issue that Democrats Congress would find palatable, but the President is likely to face significant opposition from his own party. Even when he had the votes to pass a guest worker program, the Republican Party had many nay-Sayers to get his program supported in congress.

This issue is critical for states bordering Mexico, and the Great Debate will continue to rage in the coming months and even years before we reach a final solution. Unlike the rest of the world where this issue is relevant but not particularly sensitive, the issue of illegal immigration and all the political language associated with it. In addition to this issue which resonates locally and has grave consequences internationally, the President talked about America’s intoxication with oil. This language of moderation and creative responsibility in the national consumption of oil is popular in many circles. However, although our greed for oil may be rebuked here and there by our national leaders, there tends to be a chronic case of historical amnesiac perpetrated by our love affair with automobiles and power-consuming gadgetry.

Besides immigration, oil, education and social security, the President made reference to the big monster called the Iraq War. This crisis of national concern was expected to receive greater attention. The President actually used the war in Iraq to develop a historical argument for America’s long- term commitment to the democratic principle and to the propagation of such a principle in the development of free and justice societies. It was in this context that he gave his views about the changes taking place in Iraq and their consequences for the future of democracy, peace and stability in that part of the world. It was also in this context that he railed against Iran as well as Sunni and Shia terrorists. In fact what is striking about this presentation is the President’s deliberate linkage of the al-Qaedi forces and the radical Shia forces together.

In his view, these political tendencies in the Islamic World posed grave dangers to American life and security. At least that is the impression one gets from the upbeat stance of his reference to America’s milk of human kindness through developmental assistance to Africa. This speech clearly put forth a reaffirmation of a Bush social welfare program for the politically vulnerable and badly ravaged and diseased Africans. While looking ways to restore law and order in Iraq, the President turned his attention to Africa with the feeling of sympathy and mercy. Poor Africa!

What is particularly interesting in Bush’s speech is his forgetful avoidance of Somali, the Humpty Dumpty that had a great fall. According to Professor Sulayman S. Nyang at Howard University, “Somali became an African Humpty Dumpty with the collapse of the Siad Barre’s regime many years ago”.

Bush Senior introduced Americans to the tragedy of Somalia with his military action then known as “Operation Restore Hope in Somalia” and Hollywood immortalized that venture in Black Hawk Down. As the president was speaking, Somalia was once again featuring prominently in the political horizons of the young Bush. The war against international terrorists is raging there. Ethiopia is now drawn into that conflict. Some people have already drawn parallel between America’s involvement in Iraq and Ethiopia’s. This speech of the President gave us no idea as to where America is in this contest.

Was Somalia ignored to minimize the gravity of America’s intrusion in overseas territories? Was the decision taken to avoid any suggestion that Iraq and Somalia are connected and Americans should pay greater attention to it? These are questions Somali Americans and their kinsmen and women at the Horn of Africa will debate for weeks and months and years to come.

Another message that flowed from the President’s speech was his strong call for an aid package of more than one billion to confront HIV/Aids in the African continent. This call for a campaign against HIV/Aids is part of previous presidential statements. Here his talk about the millennium fund and the consequences it has for African development and political democratization is likely to resonate with some Africans.

My analysis of President Bush’s speech led me to conclude that Africa was brought into the picture because of her venerability to foreign manipulation against international terrorism. To add insult to African venerability in the war against terrorism, the new policy makes Africa a double victim of forces of poverty on one hand and the subversions of international terrorism on the other hand.

The writer can be reached @ acharmd3@aol.com

Robot  Villager

# 1 On January 23, 2007 President Bush addressed the American people. This is a long standing practic...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 14.03.2007 06:40