Departing Bush defends War on Terror

President Bush has made his last speech as Commander in Chief. In his 17 minute address he said he had helped keep America safe. “There has not been a terror attack on US soil in seven years” he said. The outgoing leader made a tribute to the men and women in the US military and their fight in the War on Terror. He said America was leading the world “towards a new age where freedom belongs to all nations”.

The toll would be far worse if we had not acted and he insisted America would return to a position of strong economic growth. The decades ahead will bring more hard choices.
With regards the war on terror, Bush said America did nothing to seek a war and added that it was important to “reject isolationism” and to defend the United States from those that wanted to harm the country.

“We will never tire, never falter, never fail” he said.

In departing, he thanked the American people and paid tribute to President-Elect Barak Obama. “Goodnight, God bless this house and our next president” he said before leaving the stage [BBC / CNN / White House].

Bush bails out US car giants

With Christmas round the corner the American car industry has been given an early gift in the form of a massive $17.4 billion bail out. President Bush announced the loan on Friday, less than three weeks before he hands his office to President elect Barack Obama.

The reasoning behind the President’s decision was that allowing the US car industry to fail would not be "a responsible course of action". He said that not helping out the industry would leave Obama with added problems. There are conditions though. The firms must show they’ve spent wisely and not paid out in executive perks including the much publicised private jets. But sceptics suggest the problems in the automotive trade cannot be solved quickly. Speaking to
Channel Four News, Dr Daniel Griswold of the Cato institute said that other Foreign car manufacturers were not suffering the same problems and that Bush’s claims suggesting that the US car industry failure would be “too much to bear” were highly exaggerated [BBC].

It is not just US car manufacturers that are running into financial difficulties. As consumers tighten their belt car sales the world over are falling. Britain has seen massive drops in car sales with Jaguar Land Rover being of particular concern. The car firm, which employs about 15,000 in the UK, said last month that it faces "unprecedented trading conditions" as global sales for the whole of the car industry have fallen sharply since the summer. But there is unlikely to be the same help seen in the US. Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson told the BBC, "We are analysing very carefully what is going on in the [car] sector, and we will make good judgments in good time if it is appropriate for the government to take any action or if it is possible for us to do so". But he added there was not “an open chequebook” available.

The financial crisis has taken it toll in many sectors. Besides banking institutions, the retail market has been particularly hard hit. Today MFI, which filed for administration in November, finally closed its stores leaving 1,400 people out of work [BBC]. Woolworths is gradually winding up its business will all store due to shut by early January. Nearly 30,000 will find themselves unemployed when the 99 year old store finally closes its doors, a particularly sad legacy for a business that has survived the Great Depression and several economic downturns. It appears no business is immune from this current recession

Bush attacked with shoes in Iraq

George W Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on Sunday, but not all went well after someone threw a pair of shoes at him. President Bush shrugged off the incident saying, “so what if a guy threw a shoe at me, it is one way to get attention. It’s like going to a political rally and having someone yell at you. It’s like driving down the street and have people not gesturing with all five fingers”. He dismissed the ‘attack’ as a way of getting attention but said he did not know what the man’s cause was. He added that he “didn’t feel the least bit threatened by it” and went on to say that other journalists in the room had apologized for the reporter’s actions.

During the press conference a journalist had stood up shouting in Arabic, "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog" before throwing a pair of size 10 shoes towards the President. Both shoes missed the President one only missed him by inches and security seemed slow to restrain the man who was eventually pulled to the ground [BBC / CNN / Sky News / al Jazeera].

The shoe throwing incident detracted from the main reason President Bush visited the country. He and Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki had arranged the meeting to sign a new security agreement between the two countries. However footage of the American leader ducking the flying footwear dominated headlines. The throwing of shoes is an Arab insult and after the fall of Saddam Hussein many Iraqis were seen to throw shoes at Saddam’s portraits and statues. Only recently protesters in Baghdad were seen to throw shoes at an effigy of George Bush.