The Hindu : International : All set for Bush's inauguration

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Friday, Jan 21, 2005

International

International

All set for Bush's inauguration

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JAN. 20. The U.S. President, George W Bush, will take the oath of office for his second term later today with many saying the road ahead is going to be quite bumpy given the kind of domestic and foreign policy challenges.

Mr. Bush is expected to deliver a 17-minute address to the nation summing up his agenda. The speech is said to have gone through at least 20 revisions, but one of its major themes is said to be freedom. It will be inspirational as opposed to initiatives-driven, the latter being reserved for the State of the Union Address on February 2.

"The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world ...In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty," he will say.

More than 500,000 people braving the chilly weather in the capital are expected to witness this 55th inauguration of a President.

Protests

Hundreds of thousands more will be protesting all over the country against the President and for a variety of reasons. Demonstrators will find it quite hard to get close to the inaugural events because of tight security. But this has not dampened the mood as they hold that Mr. Bush has not only turned his back on many important domestic issues but also embarked on disastrous adventures abroad that threaten national security interests.

Mr. Bush has given every indication that his second term will be driven by domestic issues which are primarily reforms of social security system and education besides leaving an imprint on the Supreme Court.

And in foreign policy, he will have to find a way out of the mess in Iraq, all of this going back to the decisions of the last four years.

"Plotting revenge"

AP reports:

In Geneva, they will read patriotic poetry. In Vienna, they will drown their sorrows and plot their revenge. In London, they will stage a candlelight protest outside the U.S. embassy.

Across Europe, a land none too friendly to the U.S. President, George W. Bush, locals and American expatriates united in their opposition to the U.S. President were marking his inauguration with some unabashed Bush-bashing.

In Britain, anti-Bush demonstrators planned a candlelight protest outside the American embassy in central London.

Protesters in Germany got an early start with a candlelight vigil on Wednesday evening in front of Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate, where they held a dozen American flags upside down to symbolise an SOS distress call.

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