My take on the Inauguration
Well it took me a while but I finally got around to watching and reading the Bush Inaugural Speech. I've seen a few comments about it over the weekend and it didn't seem to be very well received, from either side. To me it seemed to be very vague and non-committal about how he is going to bring freedom and liberty to the world. Of course he didn't mention torture, death squads and the Pentagon's new secret intelligence unit. He never mentioned Iraq or any other country by name. Not much mention of domestic issues either. Another interesting thing was toward the end, if you watch it, there was some yelling and such. It seemed as if a few protesters got in and started exercising their freedom and liberty.

One thing to keep in mind about Bush's foreign policy is that it is driven by the neo-conservatives. The neocon foreign policy is actually the exact opposite of the conservative foreign policy. The conservative foreign policy is isolationist and the neocon foreign policy is interventionist. Jim Lobe lays out the neocon philosophy pretty good in this article, What Is a Neo-Conservative Anyway?

As neo-con godfather Irving Kristol once remarked, a neo-conservative is a ''liberal who was mugged by reality''. True to that description, neo-cons generally originated on the left side of the political spectrum and some times from the far left. Many, such as Kristol himself, have Trotskyite roots that are still reflected in their polemical and organizational skills and ideological zeal.

Now that he has had his accountability moment and the neocon agenda has been ratified the neocons are back in vogue. Now that he has been reelected and doesn't have to worry about reelection he can do whatever he wants.

I'm sure by now you know the freedom vs. liberty score in the speech. For me it was nothing new and this President can say whatever he likes but what actually matters is what he does. Usually what he does has nothing to do with liberty and freedom.

A couple of interesting commentaries on the speech. One from David Corn who kept a running commentary and another on The Hidden Passages in Bush's Inaugural Address.

The Bush Administration hides another policy change by releasing it on a Friday
White House Scraps 'Coalition of the Willing' List

The White House has scrapped its list of Iraq allies known as the 45-member "coalition of the willing," which Washington used to back its argument that the 2003 invasion was a multilateral action, an official said on Friday.

- posted by Mom/Dad @ 8:07 AM