Obama will address Afghanistan and gun control

President Barack Obama will give his second Sate of the Union Address Tuesday and there are numerous topics he could cover ranging from health care to Afghanistan.

In President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1934 State of the Union address, he said “without regard to party.” This has been a recurring theme with Obama and has been emphasised since the shootings in Tuscon, Ariz. Obama has blamed the shootings on a heated political agenda by two competing parties. FDR used the phrase in an attempt to unite a nation during times of economic hardship and to recognize that everyone was affected by the Depression, regardless of party.

Obama, much like President John F. Kennedy, entered office as a Democrat after eight years of a Republican administration. JFK was also first Catholic president of the U.S. and his loyalties to the country were questioned because of it. Obama's religion has been questioned and greatly factored into many voter's decisions. JFK took office in the middle of a seven-month-long recession. "The present state of our economy is disturbing," JFK said in his first State of the Union address. At the time JFK took office, business bankruptcies had reached their highest levels since the Depression. The economy was in a similar state when Obama took office.


President Richard M. Nixon entered office in the middle of an ongoing war. Much like Obama inherited the war in Iraq, Nixon inherited the Vietnam War from his predecessor. In his first State of the Union address, Nixon said foreign policy would be the nation's top priority. In this particular State of the Unions address, Nixon said that because of the country's military strength, the country had a responsibility to defend newly formed nations or those with weak and vulnerable governments. This is a theme of the war in Iraq. American troops have been in Iraq for about a decade now. Our reasons for staying in Iraq and not fully withdrawing are to ensure the strength of the Iraqi government. Under both presidencies, reasons for remaining in a war were protect the oppressed citizens of distant nations; it was clear in both instances that the war needed to end.

I predict Obama will address the recent and tragic shootings in Tuscon, Ariz. He will most likely attempt to relate it to intense political rivalry. He will encourage the nation to set its political ideologies aside and unite. Like many politicians, Obama will use the shooting to further an agenda. The agenda in this case will be unity in an attempt to alleviate some pressure from the opposing party. His notions of unity will be criticized as they have been in the media by many Republicans recently. He will also address gun control, but not anything in depth. Obviously, there is no clear solution to prevent such atrocities from occurring and no one could have anticipated the shootings in Tuscon. Obama recognizes this.

Obama will undoubtedly address the war in Iraq, as well as the war in Afghanistan. Vice President Joe Biden recently visited Afghanistan and was confident that the country was capable of stability with the help of NATO and the U.S. government. Biden said he and Obama anticipate a reduction of U.S. troops in Afghanistan beginning July and Obama will undoubtedly bring this up in his State of the Union address. However, this still leaves the matter of complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.  If Obama were to give approximate dates of the return of U.S. troops, he would win a lot of support from both Republicans and Democrats.