President Bush delivers his State of the Union address tonight, and after making his case for war against Iraq in last year’s speech some think he’ll be defending that decision this year. Iowa Congressman Tom Latham doesn’t think so. He says the president will be talking about our national security and the importance of completing the job in Iraq. He says with the capture of Saddam Hussein, everyone understands we’re much safer. Latham, a republican from Alexander, says the president doesn’t have to defend his decision to go into Iraq.He says he thinks everyone understands why we went into Iraq, and the purpose and the great job that our people in uniform have done. Iowa Congressman Jim Leach says Bush’s speech writers haven’t asked him for foreign policy advice, but this is what he’d tell them if they did. He says he would tell them to remember very carefully that anything said about foreign policy is heavily intended for audiences abroad. He says anything said on foreign policy to advance domestic agendas is often a mistake. Leach, a republican from Iowa City, says U.S. policy has a big impact. He says the foreign policy of the U.S. affects other countries very directly, and if we want to influence other countries in the way we want them to move in, we have to speak in ways that bring them together, not divide them.
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