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Introduction

President George W. Bush gave the 2002 State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002 . The president addressed Congress and special guests as well as the whole country through his televised speech. State of the Union addresses are mandated by Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constitution and states that the president must address congress with the issues of the state and make recommendations. Since 1790, State of the Union addresses have been given once a year. The president addresses a joint session of congress with the vice president and speaker of the house on the podium behind him . The 2002 State of the Union address was the first after the September 11th attacks. The speech addressed the attacks on America and his plan of action as well as his goals for his term as president. It also introduced the term “axis of evil” of evil to the nation, which was surrounded with much controversy .

September 11th Attacks

President Bush talked about the devastating attacks that killed thousands in New York City and Washington, D.C. The Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda organized the attack with 19 hijackers that took over 4 commercial flights and crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. As a result, the president declared the War on Terror against any nation harboring terrorists. His goals for the war were to end terrorism to end their threat on the United States and to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. The president called for a large increase in defense spending to improve the weapons and aircraft used in the War on Terror .

Axis of Evil

The “axis of evil” was a term first used by President Bush in this address. The axis of evil is made up of three countries: Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. These countries were cited as countries perusing chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons and having terrorist training camps. The president warned, “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.” His goal was to disarm these countries and destroy their terrorist training camps .