The Day of The Bush Bastard---A Country Gone To Hell with Americans Arrested on the Sidelines for Booing

Bush’s second inauguration

America’s day of shame

By David Walsh
21 January 2005

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In yesterday’s inaugural address, George W. Bush gave notice to the world that American imperialism intends to press forward with its drive for world domination. The US president issued a call to arms, a jihad, making clear that no country or government will be permitted to stand in America’s path.

With this speech, Bush and those elements in the ruling elite for whom he speaks set out to dispel any illusions that either the disaster in Iraq or mass international opposition to Washington’s militarism will deter his new administration from pursuing its reactionary goals.

True to form, Bush delivered a series of disconnected assertions, lies and banalities. He made no coherent argument, but repeated certain key phrases over and over again, centering on the God-given mandate of the US to intervene anywhere in the world to advance the cause of “freedom.” In a 20-minute speech, the president uttered the words “free” or “freedom” 34 times, and the word “liberty” another 12 times.

The absurd repetition of “freedom” is unlikely to deceive anyone, certainly not victims and opponents of his first administration’s crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the rest of this government stand waist deep in blood and filth, responsible for the killing of more than 100,000 Iraqis and the death and maiming of thousands of American soldiers.

The US government and military have spelled out what sort of “freedom” they have in mind for the Iraqi people and the rest of the world in Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and Fallujah: repression, torture, military occupation, the destruction of entire cities. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan also promised to “liberate” the populations of Europe and Asia.

The reactionary, fantastical substance of Bush’s speech cannot be separated from its setting. The freedom that Bush continually invoked to justify militarism and war was conspicuously absent at the inauguration. Virtual martial law had been imposed in the nation’s capital. Thousands of protesters were kept out of sight by an army of police.

At one point, while Bush was reaffirming his dedication to the cause of liberty, a policeman could be seen demanding that a banner be taken down. Toward the end of speech the television cameras showed protesters, who had apparently dared to boo Bush’s remarks, being taken into custody.

The master of ceremonies at the inauguration, Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, had been forced to resign in disgrace as Senate majority leader in 2002 following his praise for the 1948 presidential campaign of Strom Thurmond, who ran as the candidate of the States’ Rights Party on a segregationist program. One news commentator spoke of the particularly strong “Mississippi influence” in the inaugural events. The noxious power of the Christian right could be felt throughout. Prayers, religious hymns and praise to God abounded.

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