What I Want to Hear in the State of the Union

Here are some lines I would like to hear from President Obama in tonight's State of the Union:

• "We will stand with the people of Afghanistan and use both our military and civilian power through the elections this year and beyond to ensure that girls continue to go to school, democracy gets implanted, and peace and prosperity come to that faraway corner of the globe. In return, Afghanistan will never again be a training ground and safe haven for terrorists. We will leave a small force of at least 10,000 troops to secure the gains in education, infrastructure, democracy, and human rights."

• "We will be uncompromising in expanding freedom in the world. We will redouble our assistance efforts in partnership with our friends and allies to support the expansion of democracy, fight corruption, and support human rights. Political dissidents in Ukraine, Belarus, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and elsewhere will have no better friend than the United States of America. The work of creating democracy is slow and often hard. Many governments seek to thwart us and have become more sophisticated in holding back the tide of history. At the same time, religious minorities need to be protected. Ethnic cleansing of Christians in the Middle East is morally wrong and we will work to stop it."

• "We seek a democratic Iran at peace with its neighbors and we will use our assistance to help dissidents in Iran. We are working with Iran to come to an agreement on its nuclear program. At the same time, I want the people of Iran to know that we will continue to seek a democratic and free Iran. Ronald Reagan negotiated with the Soviets but he always sought to support dissidents behind the Iron Curtain, and we use our assistance to do the same in Iran."

• "We will work with Congress to make the United States a commercial and trade partner of choice in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. We will remove restrictions to American investments in energy such as the so-called Carbon Cap because if we do not offer competitive financing, others such as China will."

• "We will work with our allies in Europe to support Ukraine. Ukraine has a choice -- it can be a vassal state of Russia or it can have closer ties to Europe and the rest of the world. It can continue to be a kleptocracy or it can be a society under the rule of law. We will use our bilateral and multilateral aid to help Ukraine become a constructive member of the society of nations."

Note: a short except of this appears here.

From Shadow Government