2002 State of the Union Address

The 2002 State of the Union Address was given by the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush, on January 29, 2002, at 9:00 p.m. EST, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives to the 107th United States Congress. It was Bush's first State of the Union Address and his second speech to a joint session of the United States Congress. Presiding over this joint session was the House speaker, Dennis Hastert, accompanied by Dick Cheney, the vice president, in his capacity as the president of the Senate.

In front of members of the 107th United States Congress, along with special civilian and military guests, Bush addressed the U.S. as he delivered his first State of the Union address. The speech covered the effects of the September 11 attacks four months earlier and Bush's plans to prevent future terrorist attacks upon the United States. Bush gave a progress report on the global war on terrorism and detailed his plans to end terrorism and bring all terrorists to justice, either by legal prosecution or death.

The issues inside the United States were also addressed by Bush, including his plan to strengthening the U.S. economy after a recession. The speech was centered on foreign affairs and was well received by both Republicans and Democrats. He said, "In four short months, our nation has comforted the victims, begun to rebuild New York and the Pentagon, rallied a great coalition, captured, arrested, and rid the world of thousands of terrorists, destroyed Afghanistan's terrorist training camps, saved a people from starvation, and freed a country from brutal oppression." In that statement, Bush referred to how the United States deposed the Taliban from its rule over Afghanistan. He stated that the U.S. deposed the Emirate of Afghanistan, because the Islamic regime did not respect the human rights of Afghan citizens.

"State of the Union" addresses are mandated by Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constitution which states that the President of the United States of America must inform the U.S. Congress regarding issues of the state and specific recommendations for new programs and initiatives. Since 1790, State of the Union addresses have been given once a year. They were given originally as written reports, but are now given as verbal orations before a formal audience, with the U.S. president addressing joint sessions of the U.S. Congress at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., with the U.S. Vice President and U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives sitting on a podium behind the president.

As the U.S. president, Bush gave the 2002 State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002. He addressed a joint session of the 107th U.S. Congress and special guests, as well as the U.S. and the international community through the televised speech.

The 2002 State of the Union address was the first to be delivered by Bush after the September 11 attacks of 2001. The oration addressed the attacks on the U.S. and his plan of action, as well as his goals for the remainder of his term as President. In the address, Bush first introduced the term "axis of evil" in referring to the countries of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, with the oration being primarily centered on foreign policy.

Bush spoke about the September 11 attacks four months prior that killed thousands of people in New York City, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda carried out the attack with 19 hijackers that took over four commercial airline flights and crashed them into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City's Lower Manhattan, and into the Pentagon in Virginia's Arlington County.

During the attack, two of the hijacked airplanes crashed into the upper portions of the twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. United Airlines Flight 93, which was also taken over by hijackers, failed to crash into its intended target in Washington, D.C. when passengers on the flight received information about the ongoing attacks and revolted against the terrorists, causing the plane to crash in an open field in the rural Pennsylvanian countryside.