Circumstances

George W. Bush’s 2002 State of the Union address was delivered on the 29th of January at the United States Capitol building, in front of the US Congress.

A State of the Union address is an annual speech US presidents are required to address to the Congress, according to the US Constitution. In this type of speech, presidents normally evaluate the situation in the country and propose different policies and reforms that they deem fit to deal with the issues at hand.

The 2002 State of the Union address came at a very difficult time in US history, four months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the attacks, four planes were hijacked and crashed into the twin towers of World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing around 3,000 people and injuring 6,000 more.

After the attacks—coordinated by terrorist group al-Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden— George W. Bush (who was serving his first year as US President) declared a global War on Terror and invaded Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda was located. The invasion was originally backed only by Canada and the UK and later on by 40 other UN states.

In the speech, there are ...