Four more years...

Of war, lies and idiocy.

On January 25, 2005 George W. Bush was sworn into his second term as President of the United States.

If George's inauguration speech was an indicator of what he has planned for the next four years, the world has little to be optimistic about. Unlike his first inauguration, where Bush basically claimed he was going to focus on domestic issues, this one made it abundantly clear that the US will continue to "export" democracy.

For a half a century, America defended our own freedom by standing watch on distant borders. After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical. And then there came a day of fire.

We have seen our vulnerability and we have seen its deepest source.

For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny, prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder, violence will gather and multiply in destructive power and cross the most defended borders and raise a mortal threat.

We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands.

Uh-huh. Right. Signal #1 that GWB and his cronies are most interested in one thing - continuing to prosecute wars in foreign lands - on the faulty assumption that if you attack someone in their own country, they can't return the favour. Nice idea - except terrorists don't obey the same rules as countries.

America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal, instead, is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom and make their own way.

Yeah - we know what kind of governments the US installs in countries - they usually make whatever they replaced look like a Sunday School class. (Remember Pinochet in Chile; or the Military Junta in Argentina; the Shah in Iran?)

If it wasn't bad enough that the US is committed on two fronts right now (Iraq and Afghanistan), there are emerging signs of American designs on Iran. If the US thinks that they will be able to withdraw from Iraq after the coming elections, they are badly mistaken. The odds are distinctly against that - whatever government emerges in Iraq will desperately need American military intervention to support it - otherwise the natural tribal divisions of that land will simply tear the government apart - leaving a mess that will make the Somalia screw up look pretty mild.

Bush's speech avoided talking about local policy - but then again, the last election was won on fear, not on policy.