Inauguration

The contrast between the Bush 2005 inauguration and the new Iraqi leaders was a juxtaposition of Saddam’s last presidential inauguration and Bush’s egg-pelted 2001 inauguration. The new 2005 leaders in America and Iraq are appointees of the oil industry. Iraq became America’s unacknowledged 51st state which, like many other states in the union, was annexed through violent occupation.

President Bush opened his inaugural celebrations with a lavish two-hour tribute to the military, but ominously warned servicemen and women that “much more will be asked of you in the months and years ahead”. “In Afghanistan and Iraq, the liberty that has been won at great cost now must be secured,” Bush said at the close of the tribute.

Democracy is losing the war not just in Iraq, but in America, on an unprecedented scale. Fear permeates and dominates the lives of all Americans -- just as it does Iraqis -- as they watched the inauguration ceremonies of their leaders funded and propped up by the oil industry. Leaders whose populace wonder who really elected them and who they truly represent. Both Baghdad and Washington D.C. appeared more like cities under siege as the curtains of steel security fences and concrete barriers went up to protect the democratically elected leaders of the two countries.

The word “freedom” was used 24 times by President Bush in his 2005 inauguration speech now referred to as his “freedom speech”. More than half a million American soldiers have died throughout history – including 140,415 on the Union side in the Civil War – in the pursuit of “freedom”. The protracted “freedom on the march” in Iraq is demoralizing the military, America and the world.

The Bush 2005 “freedom” inauguration was the most lavish and extravagant presidential swearing-in in history. It was also the most heavily guarded with unprecedented security. No different than the inauguration of the Iraqi Constitutional Assembly. The $40 million U.S. inaugural party tab was picked up by 120 wealthy donors, most notably ExxonMobil, Chevron, Texaco and Occidental Petroleum, who have all written checks for the maximum amount permitted. For that, they got two tables at a candlelight dinner to be attended by President Bush, along with tickets to other events involving key players on Capitol Hill.

ExxonMobil gave a further $50,000 towards the Black Tie and Boots Ball, whose guests included the President, House majority leader Tom Delay and House Energy and Commerce Secretary Joe Barton. With the Iraqi oil squabbles resolved to their satisfaction, the proposal to open up the Arctic National Wildlife refuge in Alaska to tap into the estimated 16 billion barrels of oil that lie beneath its frozen surface was surely explored over champagne, as was the pending Energy Bill, which will give the energy industry $31 billion in tax breaks and incentives.

The difference America faces, and refuses to recognize or come to terms with, is that Iraqis, like the Vietnamese and every other liberation movement at the sunset of the 20th century and the dawn of the 21st, are not “heathens” fighting born-again Christians with bows and arrows. Unlike Native-Americans, Hawaiians and even Puerto Ricans, the Iraqis and Vietnamese do what they have been doing for centuries. Fight to the death for what is rightfully theirs.

America, like its Commander-In-Chief on inauguration day 2005, was thinking no different than all foreigners in Iraq – and many Iraqis -- how do I get out of this place? Any wonder President Bush did not mention the word Iraq once in his second inaugural speech?

America, like all major cities in Iraq, is under siege by the same oiligarchy and Islamic terrorist insurgents. Insurgents who have created a democratic quagmire, not just in Iraq, but America! The insurgents roaming the streets of Baghdad and Iraq with impunity are no different than the gangs of lobbyists in Washington D.C. that control the Capital and America.