Bush remembers war veterans at inauguration

Bush remembers war veterans at inauguration

WASHINGTON – President Bush, proclaiming himself a war president, opened three days of celebrations marking his inauguration with a flag-waving tribute to America’s war veterans and those who have fallen in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush is to be sworn in for a second four-year term at midday today on Capitol Hill and thousands of Republicans were flocking to Washington for the celebrations under extremely heavy security.

Police scrambled to handle an emergency a block away from the White House and near the planned route for the inaugural parade. Police surrounded a man in a van who claimed to have 15 gallons of gasoline and threatened to blow it up if he did not get his child back, the FBI said.

“It’s domestic, not terrorism,” said an FBI spokeswoman.

Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld went to the MCI Center in Washington for an event called “Saluting Those Who Serve” that honored war veterans and the valor of the fallen in conflicts from the Revolutionary War to Iraq.

His father, former President Bush, read an emotional letter he had written to his family after surviving the shooting down of his warplane by Japanese guns in 1944.

Among the 7,000 people in the audience were troops wounded in combat, 75 family members of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and as many as 80 winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military award. The event was beamed to troop gatherings in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“You are making America safer for not only those of us who live today but for future generations of Americans. Your sacrifice has made it possible for our children and grandchildren to grow up in a safer world,” Bush told them.

The decision to have the first official inaugural event honoring war veterans and those killed in war reflected the nature of Bush’s first term, which was dominated by conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, prompting him to declare himself a “war president” a year ago.

Bush told the troops 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. We still face terrorist enemies who wish to harm our people, and are seeking weapons that would allow them to kill on an unprecedented scale. These enemies must be stopped, and you are the ones who will stop them.”

Bush said “the promise of liberty is spreading across the world” and cited Iraq’s scheduled Jan. 30 elections, which insurgents are trying to derail with bloodshed.

“In coming days, the Iraqi people will have their chance to go to the polls, to begin the process of creating a democratic government that will answer to the people, instead of to a thug and a tyrant,” he said.

The inaugural events, with a $40 million price tag paid for largely by donors, are taking place against a backdrop of ongoing bloodshed in Iraq and with polls showing Bush begins his second term without a clear mandate to lead the country.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll said 45 percent of those surveyed would prefer the country go in the direction Bush wanted to lead it, while 39 percent said Democrats should lead the way.

Democrats in the minority in both houses of the U.S. Congress have signaled they will fight many of Bush’s core proposals such as changing the Social Security retirement system.