Round Two

On the day after George W. Bush's inauguration, his super-rich backers, who ponied up $40 million to cover the cost of the entertainment, wake up and congratulate themselves on having bought a place at the table. The rest of us, who could not afford to put up hundreds of thousands of dollars, wake up to a $17 million bill for inaugural security. After all, the best kind of party is one where someone else gets stuck with the check.

Looking back on four years and ahead to four more, President Bush gave a speech in which he promised the same thing, only more so. Amid the festivities ostensibly dedicated to the military, he paid lip service to the 1,366 (and counting) American soldiers who gave their lives in pursuit of his obsession with "getting" Saddam Hussein. He exhorted more young men and women to fill the ranks of a military which can't meet recruiting quotas and is forcing retiring soldiers back into uniform en route to Iraq.

"Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants," he said, referring, of course, to his wants.

He declared in almost messianic vocabulary that his second-term mission is nothing less than to export democracy to "every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." Sounds good on the surface -- but from this President, and given the post-speech spin, he seems determined to take the very same policy which failed so disastrously in Iraq and apply it to the rest of the world.

Become democratic, Bush implied, or face the consequences. Don’t do it because it's better for everyone involved. Do it because we'll destroy you if you don't.

Having purged his top ranks of all but the most sycophantic of yes-men, the most powerful man in the world has no one nearby to tell him this is a recipe not for a golden age of world peace, but rather for endless and permanent war. And with his resolve to ignore those who don't agree with him 200%, he's not going to listen to anyone who says so.

He called on the Almighty so many times one would be forgiven for thinking he was speaking from a pulpit instead of a podium. He called the spread of democracy a divine mission, all but saying that we know better than everyone else, and that with God is on our side we can't lose. Then again, since he has said numerous times that God speaks to him and that he carries out the heavenly will, one wonders if Bush sees himself as a latter-day Moses, bringing the carrot of freedom and the stick of plagues.

With all this onwarding of Christian soldiers, one wonders if Bush reassured longtime family friend Saudi ambassador Bandar bin Sultan (a.k.a. "Bandar Bush") that Riyadh will once again receive a free ride thanks to longstanding business ties between the Bush family and the Saudi royals. In any event, Saudi Arabia, home to Osama bin Laden, most of the 9/11 hijackers and a royal family with a long and sordid history of supporting Islamic extremists, will likely be exempt from Bush's crusade just as it was exempt from the War on Terror™.

Afterwards, much luxury was on display at the capital's nine inaugural balls, where Republicans and their well-heeled financiers danced and schmoozed the night away to the theme of "Celebrating Freedom and Honoring Service." Mere citizens weren't allowed anywhere near the merriment, not with $1,000 ticket prices, 400 pounds of lobster, and a very exclusive guest list.

Slightly smarting from news reports of fat-cat gluttony, organizers gave free tickets to the "Commander in Chief Ball" to 2,000 military personnel and their families. Of course, the attendees were all handpicked by the Pentagon to ensure an appreciative crowd and to weed out anyone who might say anything uncomfortable. You know, those subversive party-poopers who just have to ask why their friends and relatives continue to be killed fighting in a country which was no threat to America.

Meanwhile, over in free Iraq, our men and women in uniform continue to fight and die defending themselves against the happily liberated Iraqi people. Being told to stop whining and accept "the army we have," they continue to scrounge junkyards for makeshift armor plating for their vehicles and ask their families to pass the collection plate at home in the hopes of getting enough money to buy bulletproof vests.

Some people along the parade route in Washington, and at other locations around the country, did not feel at one with the cheering crowds and made their feelings plain with protest and dissent. Demonstrating that they have taken the inaugural message of freedom to heart, a number of Bush supporters along the route and on talk radio promptly attacked the protesters as "traitors."

Ahead, we see four more years of doubletalk and doublethink, of propagandistic calls to war and calls to spend, of projecting happy illusions while hiding from reality, of cloaking real intentions in soothing language. Hold on tight.