Creating poetic, memorable lines is the easy part of speechwriting. Fine-tuning policy stances, however, is fraught with challenges. How would you advise Bush to describe the situation in Iraq? The war on terrorism?
Here's your chance to test your political instincts.
We've written five mock policy sections that Bush may address in his speech Tuesday night. In each, you'll find a pulldown menu highlighting key options.
Part 1: Iraq
We stand at the brink of war tonight. As commander in chief, I have deployed a quarter of a million US soldiers around Iraq. If called upon, America's bravest are there to fight for the security of the United States and the world.
We are confronted with an aggressive dictator who is determined to deceive the world. Saddam Hussein says he has destroyed his weapons of mass destruction, but will not offer proof. UN weapons inspectors, who have tried for years to verify his claims, have met obstruction, intimidation, and obfuscation. It is time to declare that
Saddam Hussein cannot hide what he has done with these weapons in the past. He ordered Iraqi planes to drop canisters of deadly chemical agents on one of his own cities. Thousands of Iraqi Kurds died. During a war with Iran, Iraq fired thousands of chemical shells, killing untold troops and civilians. The danger today is that
Last fall, I challenged the United Nations to confront this threat to world security. Iraq never fulfilled its obligations to the UN after being driven from Kuwait. And, despite a new Security Council resolution, Iraq has still not met its obligations. Specifically,
Still, some counsel delay. But the United States will not play these games for another 12 years. And so, tonight, I am urging
May God protect and preserve our men and women in uniform in the days ahead.
Next up: War on Terrorism [print this page before moving on if you want a copy of your speech] »
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