George Bush began his second presidential term yesterday with a call to American action abroad, committing the US to the spread of global democracy and “ending tyranny in our world”.

In arguably the most combative inauguration speech for 50 years, Mr Bush made clear that the Afghan and Iraqi wars had not diminished his determination to take the counter-terrorism campaign to America’s enemies. He depicted those conflicts as part of a much broader mission, which he phrased in almost messianic terms.

“By our efforts, we have lit … a fire in the minds of men. It warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world,” Mr Bush said on the steps of the Capitol, tens of thousands listening rapt on Washington’s snow-covered National Mall and along Pennsylvania Avenue.

The speech, steeped in religious language, was addressed first to the world and only secondly to the American people. Mr Bush portrayed a planet consumed by the struggle between liberty and tyranny in which the US would not stand aside.

“So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world,” he said.

The confrontations to come would not necessarily be “the task of arms”, Mr Bush said, but at a time of rising speculation over his second-term plans for Iran, the president did not exclude the possibility of further battles. He pledged: “We will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary.” To the American people, concerned at the US death toll in Iraq, he argued that the only way to defend the country was to promote democracy overseas and thus uproot the source of threats to the homeland.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

Bush inauguration: Pomp and circumstance
guardian.co.uk
The band played Hail to the Chief. A 21-gun salute sounded. Then, protected by a bulletproof shield, President George Bush repeated his message to the enemies of democracy.

“The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham Lincoln did, ‘Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it’,” Mr Bush said. Republican Washington roared its approval. But, in Iraq, where the “outlaw regime” of Saddam Hussein experienced the righteous wrath of President Bush, there was barely time to listen to such noble sentiment.

A couple of hours before President Bush spoke, British soldiers close to Basra were coping with the aftermath of the first suicide attack on their forces in the region. The explosion took place at the Shaibah logistics base, four miles from the southern Shia city, which had previously remained relatively quiet while the Sunni insurgency rages elsewhere in the country. Several British soldiers and Iraqi civilians were injured. The scandal of “Britain’s Abu Ghraib” has generated its first reprisal. A statement from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of the al-Qa’ida Organisation of Holy War in Iraq, claimed the attack as a “response to the harm inflicted by British occupation forces on our brothers in prison”.

The attacks are multiplying and spreading. Insurgents shelled a hospital in Mosul. Five fighters were killed inside a mosque and nine were arrested. Three Iraqi army soldiers were killed by a bomb in Samarra. Two fighters died in Ramadi.

With each suicide bomb and mortar attack, the chances of occupied Iraq enjoying a democratic election on 30 January grow slimmer. The elected president of the Iraqi constitutional assembly, whoever he is, will need more than a bulletproof shield to keep the insurgents at bay.

BRITS MOCK BUSH INAUGURATION
drudgereport.com
Editors of major London newspapers wasted no time mocking President Bush’s inauguration address.

Assorted splash headlines will greet readers on Friday morning:

“BUSH: HAVE I GOT NUKES FOR YOU, George Bush pledged all-out global war on terrorists and tyrants,” headlines the STAR.

“POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE, The band played Hail to the Chief. A 21-gun salute sounded. Then, protected by a bullet-proof shield, President George Bush repeated his message to the enemies of democracy,” screams the INDEPENDENT.

The TELEGRAPH slapped: “DEFIANT BUSH DOESN’T MENTION THE WAR, President George W Bush began his second term in unapologetic style yesterday, pledging to maintain his muscular foreign policy and spread freedom “to the darkest corners of the world.”

The TIMES rips: “HIS SECOND-TERM MISSION: TO END TYRANNY ON EARTH, Four years ago he was the Accidental President, scion of a ruling family propelled into the highest office more by genetics and duty than by political zeal and ideological mission.”

The GUARDIAN: “SMILES FOR THE FAMILY, A FIERY WARNING FOR THE WORLD.”

Well, thing is, there is so very much to mock…

MENA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Haj pilgrims pelted stones at symbols of the devil on Friday, with many saying they were targeting President Bush and other world leaders seen as oppressing Muslims.

Last year, 250 people were crushed to death at Mena’s Jamarat Bridge, but so far new measures by the Saudi authorities have averted any stampedes. This year, more than 2.5 million Muslims streamed into the area for the stoning, meant as an act of purification and rejection of temptation.

Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, in a joint speech, urged Muslims to shun terrorism which they said meant “warring against God and his Prophet,” to follow Islam’s teachings of moderation and forgiveness and to unite.

Many pilgrims said they were thinking of Bush and his allies while they were hurling pebbles at the site where the devil is said to have appeared to the biblical patriarch Abraham.

“Yes, the devil is Bush and that other one from Israel — (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon. And there’s (British Prime Minister) Blair too,” said Egyptian Tia’amah Mohammed.

“We throw the stones so we can vent our anger at them.”
Full Article: nytimes.com/reuters

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 20 – The most wanted insurgent in Iraq acknowledged in an Internet audio message on Thursday that a top guerrilla leader had died in fighting in Falluja, but he vowed to continue waging holy war against the Americans.

In the 75-minute message, the militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, insisted that the holy war “could last months and years.”

“In the fight against the arrogant American tyrant who carries the flag of the cross, we find that despite its military might, it is being crushed emotionally and morally,” he said, according to a translation from Reuters. “Our battle with the enemy is a battle of streets and towns and has many tactical, defensive and offensive methods. Fierce wars are not decided in days or weeks.”
Full Article: nytimes.com

Really? Big news.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 – Just hours before being sworn in for a second term, Vice President Dick Cheney publicly raised the possibility on Thursday that Israel “might well decide to act first” to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

In an interview on the MSNBC program “Imus in the Morning,” a highly unusual forum for Mr. Cheney, he appeared to use the danger of Israeli military action as one more reason that the Iranians should reach a diplomatic agreement to disarm, noting dryly that any such strike would leave “a diplomatic mess afterwards” and should be avoided.
President Bush, in his inaugural speech on Thursday, appeared to have Iran, among other countries, in mind when he said he was committed to “the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.”
Full Article: nytimes.com

VIENNA (Reuters) – Intelligence agency reports indicating that Iran imported large quantities of a substance which could be used in a nuclear weapon appear unfounded, Western diplomats said on Friday.

But the diplomats, briefed on an investigation by the United Nations, said there was evidence that Iran had tried to buy significant quantities of the substance — beryllium metal — and that the U.N. nuclear watchdog was aware of the attempts.

Beryllium metal has civilian uses, but some officials believe Iran wanted to combine it with another substance in a bomb.

The United States and the European Union fear Iran harbors nuclear weapons ambitions, and on Thursday Vice President Dick Cheney said the Muslim nation was at the top of the administration’s list of world trouble spots.

President Bush said earlier this week he would not rule out the use of force against Iran if it continued to “stonewall” the international community.
Full Article: nytimes.com/reuters

Hopes that the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships could soon resume peace talks were raised when hundreds of armed Palestinian police were today deployed across the northern Gaza Strip to prevent rocket attacks by militants.

The deployment, with officers patrolling in pickup trucks, came after Israel had renewed security co-ordination with the Palestinians earlier this week. Sources also said attempts by the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to persuade armed groups to call a ceasefire were making progress.

In all, around 3,000 members of the Palestinian security forces will take up positions in the northern third of Gaza – the first such move since the current intifada began in 2000.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

Yeah, a divide and conquer strategey is really going to do a lot for peace.

An environmental collapse that would transform the world into a “global Somalia” could begin in 50 years if we fail to do anything about it, a world authority on the rise and fall of civilisations warned yesterday. Professor Jared Diamond, of the University of California, Los Angeles, said society was on the brink of irreversible decline unless 12 major environmental problems were tackled.

Professor Diamond, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, has spent many years studying the reasons why some societies in history thrived and others slipped into decline. He cited present-day Somalia as among several places where environmental degradation has already helped to trigger a collapse of government and the rule of law.

“Conditions of Somalia will spread,” he said. “Somalia is an example of a worst-case scenario. State government has collapsed; it is a dry landscape, difficult to manage and, not surprisingly, it has problems of environmental degradation.

“There are plenty of countries where state government is moving towards collapse … We will be living in a global Somalia if we don’t do anything about it. My children, who are 17 years old, will be living in a global Somalia unless we solve our problems.”

He warned that the omens were not looking good for the rich countries to survive the 21st century without a serious and possibly catastrophic drop in their present standard of living.
Full Article: independent.co.uk

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia’s aboriginal population is booming as more people identify themselves as indigenous, but Aborigines continue to be the nation’s most disadvantaged group, dying some 17 years younger.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2005 snapshot of Australia shows the indigenous population has grown at twice the rate of the overall population since 1996.

There are now 458,500 Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders living in Australia, making up 2.3 percent of the 20 million population, up from 283,000 a decade earlier, said the report released on Friday.
Full Article: nytimes.com/reuters

Negotiations over a disasters action plan stalled yesterday when the US demanded that references to climate change as a cause of natural calamities be removed from the final document.

Australia, Canada and the US requested changes in the action plan – aimed at avoiding another disaster like the Indian Ocean tsunamis which led to more than 160,000 deaths – to be adopted at the end of the week at the UN’s World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan.

Citing differences in world opinion over the causes of climate change and the enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol, a US official said the demand for the changes was made to enable delegates to concentrate on mitigating the effects of natural disasters.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former union leader sworn to fighting poverty, has flown into flak after taking delivery of a £30m presidential plane.

The state-of-the-art Airbus, which has already been dubbed AeroLula, seats 55 people and has hi-tech communications, meeting rooms, an intensive care unit, and a presidential suite and shower. The leader sampled its delights yesterday, visiting a Colombian border town.

The image seems at odds with a man whose 2002 election campaign was built around ending hunger.

The furore comes amid a sense of disappointment that the Lula administration has kept orthodox economic policies and, some say, relegated lofty social aims.
guardian.co.uk