Speech doesn't cut it

War with Iraq is now all but inevitable, with President Bush telling the nation Tuesday night that Saddam Hussein had blown his "final chance" to disarm.

Though Bush's State of the Union address touched on domestic issues including his recent tax proposal, Medicare reform, and drug treatment, the prospect of war overshadowed all else. It is a course of action that will affect every single American and cost many lives.

Although there were similar anti-war protests in anticipation of the Gulf War in 1991, that engagement was actually supported by the majority of the country. The current conflict could hardly be more to the contrary.

As more and more US troops depart for the Middle East, public support for a war _ already low _ has been sinking even further. The international opinion is much the same. Of course, there is quite possibly a good deal of intelligence regarding Iraq and its weapons that cannot be made public. Unfortunately, with the information currently available, Bush has certainly not made a convincing argument for war.

The President's tax policy is equally problematic. Its centerpiece is the elimination of the corporate dividend tax, which produces two relatively undesirable results. The first is an immediate windfall to mostly wealthy stockholders as stocks get a one-time boost (the middle class tends to hold most of their stock in pension or retirement plans, and poorer people usually do not own any). The second is that the benefit of the new law will be realized in a much longer time period than, say, an across-the-board tax credit. Indeed, Fed Chair Alan Greenspan has indicated that the plan will provide virtually no short-term stimulus.

If Bush intends to follow through with the policies he outlined Tuesday night _ and if he hopes to gain a mandate for war with Iraq _ he's going to need to come up with a clearer rationale for his decisions. Otherwise, his approval rating won't be going anywhere but down.