Revealing rhetoric.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Editor's Note - Editorial

I get paid to watch State of the Union addresses. Why else endure the torture? Bush's speech was just another exercise in war propaganda, but I want to point out a few particularly offensive passages.

Most bloodcurdling moment: After Bush boasted of apprehending 3,000 suspected terrorists, he said, "And many others have met a different fate. Let me put it to you this way: They are no longer a problem for the United States and our friends and allies." That brought down the house, even though Bush was talking about extrajudicial killings, and even though one of those his Administration has assassinated was a U.S. citizen incinerated by a Predator missile in Yemen. Still, Bush couldn't leave well enough alone: "One by one, the terrorists are learning the meaning of American justice."

Most ominous passage: "We will fight with the full force and might of the United States," he vowed, suggesting that nuclear weapons are very much on the table.

Most absurd nationalistic lines: "We are called to defend the safety of our people, and the hopes of all mankind. And we accept this responsibility. ... This call of history has come to the right country."

Most fervently religious: "We do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all of life, and all of history."

Most Orwellian: "We seek peace. We strive for peace. And sometimes peace must be defended."

Most offensive use of the passive voice: "If war is forced upon us...." Bush said that phrase twice to drive home the suggestion that he is some reluctant, peace-loving warrior. But no one is forcing Bush to go to war. He's been forcing the war option from day one!

A Peace group wanted to take its message onto the air waves on the night of Bush's State of the Union address. The AntiWar Video Fund had purchased time on CNN in Washington, D.C., that...