A Presidential Guilt Trip

As most of my friends are almost as hopeless in their dorkiness as I am, I am sure that nearly everyone reading this post made it a point to watch president Bush's State of the Union speech on TV last weekend.

I'm a little disappointed that I was unable to sit with my buddies and engage in a drinking game while watching the speech, since tossing back a shot every time there was a mention of 'security' or 'freedom' would have resulted in us getting pretty effectively wasted.

Better writers than I have blasted the proposed social security reforms in a more informed way than I could manage, and the jingoism of the administration has long since been shredded to pieces, but I would like to jot down some words regarding the shameless show of guilt-inducing "patriotism" with which the president decided to assault the country.

I'll be blunt.

Ms. Janet Norwood, mother of Sgt. Byron Norwood of the US Marines, deserved better than the contrived sentimentality and obligatory applause she received as she hugged Iraqi voter Safia Taleb Suhail.

It was inexcusable for Bush to dupe Ms. Norwood, a victim of her host's ridiculous war, into becoming an instrument of propaganda.

I'm sure Ms. Norwood was honored to be the guest of a man as powerful as the president of the US. I'm sure that countless Americans, watching the carefully orchestrated event, were deeply moved. I find that deeply depressing, for it goes to show how skillfully Bush is using theatrics to justify the war.

This tactic of the Republicans in general and Bush in particular, of guilt-tripping Americans into supporting the war, is disgusting.