Bush looks back to the future

In a Washington brimming with pageantry under fortress-like security, US President George Bush looked ahead to his second inauguration, pledging to forge unity in a nation divided by political differences. “I am eager and ready for the work ahead,” Bush declared.

In his inaugural address today, Bush will tell the country that events and common sense have led him to one conclusion: “The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands.

"The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.”

The threat of terrorism prompted what authorities promised would be the tightest inaugural security ever. A half a million people were expected to throng the city for the swearing-in and the traditional parade along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.

“This is the cause that unites our country and gives hope to the world and will lead us to a future of peace,” Bush told the crowd. “We have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom, and America will always be faithful to that cause.”

Inauguration is a time of unity for the country, the president said.

“With the campaign behind us, Americans lift up our sights to the years ahead and to the great goals we will achieve for our country. I am eager and ready for the work ahead.”

After the fireworks, the Bushes were the guests of honour at three “candlelight dinners” for the biggest donors to the inauguration, which was expected to cost more than $40m (€30.7m).

At noon local time (5pm Irish time) today on the West Front of the Capitol, Bush will place his hand on a family Bible – the same one he used in 2001 – and be sworn in for a second term, a sequel to four turbulent years marked by the nation’s worst terrorist attack, a US-led invasion of Afghanistan and a war in Iraq that has claimed the lives of more than 1,300 Americans.

Bush begins his new term with the lowest approval rating at that point of any recent two-term president – 49% in an Associated Press poll this month. Iraq is the dominant concern of Americans, and Bush is the first US president to be inaugurated in wartime since Richard Nixon in 1973.