- Reuters
With the U.S. Treasury building in the background U.S. President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush walk along Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House in the inaugural parade in Washington yesterday. Bush was inaugurated for a second term.
WASHINGTON (AP):
GEORGE W. Bush swore the United States presidential oath for a second term in turbulent times yesterday and issued a sweeping pledge to spread liberty and freedom "to the darkest corners of the world."
"Our country has accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfil and would be dishonourable to abandon," said the president, who led the nation to war in Iraq in a first term marked by terrorist attacks on the United States.
WORLD'S OPPRESSED
In a speech delivered before a vast throng of fellow Americans spilling away from the steps of the Capitol building, Bush said he would place the nation on the side of the world's oppressed people. "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you."
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, 80, ailing with thyroid cancer and the subject of retirement speculation, administered the oath of office. The 58-year-old president placed one hand on a family Bible and raised the other as he recited an oath as old as the Republic.
The weather was cold; security extraordinarily tight for the nation's 55th inauguration, first since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Sharp-shooters dressed in black scanned the vast crowd from rooftops and hundreds of police stood shoulder to shoulder along the route of the mid-afternoon inaugural parade.
