Last night my sister in law asked me about Bush’s State of the Union Message. She is not a Bush fan. I am, but less of one now. Here are two observations, both of which have been previously mentioned in this blog.
• Bush got it half right when he said that the country was addicted to oil. Our country is cross-addicted. The second, and more challenge is an addiction to pork. Click here for the most recent of seven postings. Many conservatives were disappointed at his failure to confront this challenge.
• In defending the domestic surveillance program, the President said “If there are people inside our country who are talking with Al Qaida, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again.” While I agree with the thought, it does raise a question about reconciling the Global Strike Plan with the just war criteria of last resort.
It is possible to reconcile a preemptive strike with the just war criteria that starting a war should be a last resort. However, any such argument would have to assume an intelligence assessment that demonstrates immanent danger. Given the administration’s past performance, intelligence of this quality is highly unlikely.
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