George W. Bush

George Walker Bush (born July                 George W. Bush
6, 1946) is, since January 20,
2001, the 43rd and current
President of the United States. Order:           43rd President
Immediately before becoming     Term of Office:  January 20, 2001 - present
President, he was Governor of
the State of Texas.             Predecessor:     Bill Clinton
                                Date of Birth:   Saturday, July 6, 1946
Bush is the second U.S.
President to be the son of a    Place of Birth:  New Haven, Connecticut
President. Bush's father,       First Lady:      Laura Welch Bush
George H. W. Bush, was the 41st Profession:      Businessman
President of the United States.
The first, John Quincy Adams,   Political Party: Republican
was the son of John Adams.      Vice President:  Richard B. Cheney

Bush was the winner of one of the closest elections in American history,
defeating Democratic Vice President Al Gore by only five electoral votes
(see U.S. presidential election, 2000). The election results were hotly
contested for several weeks until December 12, 2000, when the US Supreme
Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Bush in the case Bush v. Gore, and are still
disputed by some.

Personal Life and Education

Bush was born in Connecticut and grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas. He
has four younger siblings: Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. A younger sister,
Robin, died of leukemia in 1953, at the age of three.

He followed his father and grandfather in education at Phillips Academy and
Yale University, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1968 and where he
joined Delta Kappa Epsilon and the Skull and Bones Society. He then received
a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School. He
is the first president with an MBA degree.

Bush enrolled in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War and
served as an F-102 pilot for a period until he was grounded after failing to
appear for a mandatory physical exam and drug test. Controversy exists over
whether he broke the law by going Absent Without Leave (AWOL). Bush insists
that he did serve as a pilot during his entire tour of duty. However, no
documents confirming this have been made available.

He had serious problems with alcohol for years after college, including a
drunk driving arrest in Maine in 1976. Allegations of past cocaine use have
been widely circulated. Bush himself has refused to comment on any past
history of drug use.

Bush married Laura Welch in 1977 and in 1986, he forswore alcohol and became
a born-again Christian, converting from Episcopalian Christianity to his
wife's religion, Methodism. They have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna.

Political Family

The family has long been involved in politics:

   * His father George H.W. Bush was the 41st president of the United
     States.
   * His younger brother Jeb Bush is the current Governor of Florida.
   * His younger brother Neil Bush was on the board of directors of
     Silverado Savings and Loan during the Savings and Loan scandals of the
     1980s.
   * His grandfather Prescott Bush served as a US Senator from Connecticut.
   * His uncle, also named Prescott Bush, served as chairman of the US-China
     Chamber of Commerce.
   * His great-grandfather Samuel P. Bush, a close advisor to President
     Hoover, was president of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Business and Political Career

Bush began his career in the oil industry in 1975 when he formed the oil and
gas exploration company Arbusto Energy and continued working in the energy
industry until 1986. His forays into the industry were disastrous, losing
millions of dollars.

In 1978 Bush ran for the House of Representatives and was defeated by the
Democratic State Senator Kent Hance.

After working on his father's successful 1988 presidential campaign, he
assembled a group of partners from his father's close friends and purchased
the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989.

Bush was involved in controversial stock trades while serving on the board
of directors of Harken Energy Corp. in 1990. Bush has claimed that he sold
Harken stock on the assumption of a positive corporate outlook. However, on
April 20 of that year, company President Mikel D. Faulkner told the
directors that the company was facing grave financial problems, including a
serious cash crisis that was exacerbated by pressure from lenders, as well
as a slumping oil market. After receiving this dire news, in June Bush sold
212,140 shares of Harken stock. Shortly thereafter, on August 20, Harken
reported a $23.2 million quarterly loss. Bush waited 36 weeks to file an SEC
form about his sale. An SEC investigation, conducted while Bush's father was
President of the United States, declared "the investigation has been
terminated as to the conduct of Mr. Bush, and that, at this time, no
enforcement action is contemplated with respect to him." but the
investigation's termination "must in no way be construed as indicating that
the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result." As
President, Bush has refused to authorize the SEC to release its full report
on the investigation. When reporters asked Bush about his Harken activities,
he told them that they "need to look back on the director's minutes",
although this would in fact be impossible because Harken has declined to
release its board records ever since questions were first raised concerning
Bush's activities there.

The sale of Harken stock helped pay off a loan for his purchase of a partial
interest in the Texas Rangers. He served as managing general partner of the
Rangers until he was elected Governor of Texas on November 8, 1994 over
incumbent Ann Richards. When the team was sold in 1998, Bush had earned
$15,000,000.

He went on to become the first Texas governor to be elected to consecutive
four-year terms. His tenure in office featured a reputation for bipartisan
leadership, and some controversy, even international controversy. During
Bush's tenure, Texas saw a sharp rise in capital punishment.

Public Image and Personality

As the eldest son of George H. W. Bush, G. W. Bush's nickname with his
family and close friends, according to some reports, is "Junior", more
common than "Dubya" among his close associates (it is by no means clear that
this nickname is actually used, or in what context). Well known for his like
of nicknames and habit of bestowing others with them, Bush is also known by
many nicknames himself. Few if any public figures can match the number that
have come into common use for him.

Newspapers occasionally refer to President George W. Bush by the initial W,
sometimes spelled out as Dubya (a "folksy Texan pronunciation" of
"double-U"). This usage can often be seen in New York tabloids. Western
journalists typically try to find the shortest possible term to refer to a
subject, most often to save space in headlines, and the current US president
uses the same common form of his name -- George Bush -- as his father, who
was president 8 years before him.

Bush has many other nicknames as well that are used in a neutral sense, a
positive sense, or in an ironic way mocking the positive sense. Sometimes he
is referred to as "GW", with the initials of both his first and middle
names. "Bush II" implies a dynastic succession from father to son and,
"Bush-43" (meaning the forty-third president), along similar lines,
distinguishes son from father (who is referred to as Bush-41). A positive
appellation for Bush is "The "Liberator of Baghdad", praising the US
invasion of Iraq as a "liberation" of the Iraqi people from dictator Saddam
Hussein. People sometimes refer to him as "The Bushinator", likening his
military prowess to that of the lead role in The Terminator.

President Bush's political opponents often use nicknames for him in a
disparaging sense; he was acquired just as many of these as he has nicknames
he actually likes. The most familiar and popular of all the exclusively
negative nicknames identified with George W. Bush is "Shrub" -- a pun on his
last name, since he's a smaller Bush. This nickname was popularized by Texas
newspaper columnist Molly Ivins, who used the name as a title of her book on
him. "King George" is thrown at him with the implication that he's as
oppressive as the British monarchy was toward the early American colonists,
along with its variants "King George II" and "Little George". Howard Dean
used this, in evoking the Boston Tea Party, in a campaign speech September
23, 2003 . "Baby Bush" is, like "Bush II" and "Bush-43", used to distinguish
him from Poppy Bush (the nickname of choice for George H. W. Bush), but it
is usually used with infantile overtones. The reversal of this, "Bush Baby",
is used a crack likening him to an African primate (see galago). "Bushie" is
the natural belittling diminutive of "Bush", (compare Moonie). Detractors
frequently dismiss him as "Dumbo" as well, due to their estimation of the
much-debated issue of Bush's IQ. Hybrids such as "Dumbya" (from Dumbo and
Dubya) and "Shrubya" (from Shrub and Dubya) or variations are often
derisively used as well in speech and informal writing.

For a smear of both parties, "Gush" was coupled with "Bore" in descriptions
of Election 2000 as the "Gush and Bore election", juxtaposing his surname
spooneristically with that of Al Gore (whose only two nicknames, by marked
contrast, are Al Bore and Al Snore). The highly caustic and controversial
"Bushitler" is used by his most extreme opponents to express hatred towards
the US president and to liken him to Adolf Hitler (see Godwin's Law).

Bush himself bestows nicknames on nearly everyone he meets, e.g. Jean
Chrétien, prime minister of Canada, longest-serving leader of the G8 with
three and a half decades of experience in the Canadian cabinet, is reputedly
"Dino" (short for "Dinosaur"). This flippancy sometimes infects others and
can backfire either on Bush or on them. In 2000, Bush was overheard
privately referring to New York Times reporter Adam Clymer as a "major
league asshole," possibly because Clymer had previously published editorial
comment which directly insulted Mr. Bush. In another famous incident in
2002, Jean Chrétien's press secretary, exasperated after a Bush speech at
NATO in Europe, was heard to say "what a moron". The reputed lack of
intellect of Mr. Bush has caused this word to be used often by his opponents
- it was repeated in fact over and over during press coverage of the moron
incident, especially on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the US
Cable News Network. The Canadian Global News even went so far as to dissect
the dictionary meaning of "moron" with a panel on the air, to decide whether
Bush met the criteria. The panel was split along predictable political
lines.

As these incidents suggest, criticism of Bush the candidate and Bush the
President have sometimes centered less around policy than on the perception
that he was not intelligent. This perception was based on his dissipated
youth, his constant verbal gaffes and mangling of words ("subliminable"),
his lack of interest in policy details, and also on his embrace of Texan
culture.

Questions about the intelligence of major candidates also became an issue
during the 2000 election. Bush and Al Gore were both ridiculed with
collections of assorted oddities. Some have attempted to compare their
current respective intellectual capacities by going decades back to their
academic achievements. According to that criterion, Bush's academic record
and background was by and large comparable to Gore's. For example, Bush's
verbal SAT score was 566, Al Gore's was 625. In addition, Gore received
lower grades in his second year at Harvard University than any semester
recorded on Bush's transcript from Yale, and Gore earned no degrees higher
than a Bachelor of Arts in Government (Gore having flunked out of graduate
school twice), while Bush earned a Master of Business Administration from
Harvard. However, neither the correlation between SAT verbal scores and
academic excellence, nor between academic excellence and intelligence, can
be established; for example, Rhodes Scholar Bill Bradley's verbal SAT was a
low 485, and an academic record does not take into account the difficulty of
the classes taken or other factors that might impinge on a college record.

Popularity

Following the September 11 attacks, President Bush enjoyed the highest
approval ratings in history. High approval ratings are historically common
for war time Presidents, but Bush was able to maintain his high approval
ratings a year later, and as of November, 2002, had the highest approval
rating of any President during a mid-term election, since Dwight Eisenhower.
However, one poll showed that only a minority of the electorate would vote
to reelect him, thus suggesting that the support may be more for his office
as commander-in-chief than for him as a leader. That same poll showed that
"nearly half either say they'll likely back a Democrat, or that their choice
'depends' on Bush's rival." Democratic and Republican pollsters believe that
his campaign for reelection could be as competitive as the 2000 race was.
Some polls, on the other hand, show Bush winning easily against likely
Democratic rivals such as senator John Kerry, and other prominent Democrats
such as former first lady Hillary Clinton, and his 2000 opponent, former
Vice President Al Gore. Both Clinton and Gore have announced that they do
not intend to run for President in 2004.

Some also suggested that Republican Party's historic victory in the 2002
mid-term elections were due to Bush's presumed popularity. Historically, the
party in the White House loses seats. But in 2002, during what was expected
to be an extremely tight election, the Republicans ended up gaining seats in
both houses, and retaking control of the Senate in the process. The party in
control of the White House had not gained seats in both the Senate and the
House of Representatives in a mid-term election for 100 years. However,
others have argued that the Democrats lost the election because of their
timidity in criticizing Bush as a "wartime" President. A New York Times poll
taken a month after the midterm elections showed 37% of voters pleased with
the outcome, as opposed to nearly 50% who had been pleased with the outcome
1994 midterm election. The poll also found that voters disagreed with Bush's
positions on a number of important issues, including the environment.

A graphical summary of the trend of Bush's poll numbers can be seen at.

Platform

Bush's original platform, before the 2001 economic downturn, the September
11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, and the War on Terrorism (though domestic policy
has not changed significantly):

   * Separation of church and state: The slogan "Compassionate Conservatism"
     was endlessly used, abused, debated, and interpreted during the
     Presidential campaign of 2000. "Compassionate Conservatism" is the
     title of a book by Marvin Olasky, with a Foreword by George W. Bush.
     Bush is often listed as co-author. Olasky and Bush have supported
     providing public funding to religious based charitable organizations
     claiming that these organizations are more experienced, and more
     efficient, at providing services to the poor. Critics of this concept
     claim that the Bush policy is aimed more at supporting, and therefore
     establishing, religious institutions than supporting the disadvantaged.

   * Economy: His slogan was,                    Income Group
     "Whoever pays taxes gets a tax (thousands of dollars) Average Savings
     break". The rich pay the most                (dollars)
     taxes, and the current system
     weighs the income tax against  0-105
     the upper income brackets;     10-2063
     Bush's proposed tax plan
     reduces the taxes on the top   20-30204
     income brackets by a greater   30-40351
     percentage than middle-income  40-50500
     brackets, which is similar to
     the top income brackets having 50-75820
     to pay a greater percentage of 75-1001,776
     taxes than do the              100-2002,710
     middle-income brackets. Bush
     also supported raising the     200-5005,527
     Earned Income Tax Credit,      500-1,00017,605
     which would primarily benefit
     the lower brackets of          1,000+88,873
     income-tax-affected citizens.

     His 2003 tax proposal offers a sweeping package of tax cuts and
     incentives that would eliminate all federal taxes on stock dividends,
     quick tax relief for married couples and a $400-per-child increase in
     the tax credit for families with children. Economists are divided on
     the effectiveness of Bush's proposals for helping the economy. John
     Leonard, the chief of North American equities for UBS Global Asset
     Management, said eliminating the dividends tax would spur the economy
     by sending more money into the economy; on the other hand, other
     economists, including Allen Sinai of Decision Economics and Andrew F.
     Brimmer, a former Federal Reserve Board member who heads a consulting
     firm, argued that the dividends tax cut would be largely ineffective.
     The administration's proposal would also lower taxes for small
     business owners by expanding the amount of equipment purchases they can
     write off as deductions from the current $25,000 to $75,000. Opponents
     argue that this tax proposal would primarily benefit the rich.
     According to a New York Times analysis published on January 21, 2003,
     $364 billion out of the $674 billion "economic stimulus" plan is
     devoted towards eliminating the tax on dividends; however, the poorest
     fifth of Americans have an average of $25 in dividend income, while the
     richest fifth have $1,188. The Urban Institute-Brookings Institution
     Tax Policy Center produced the following table describing the impact of
     Bush's plan on average taxpayers:

          Debate : Will Bush's stimulus proposal work? - News Hour with Jim
          Lehrer (PBS)

   * Education: policy named No Child Left Behind, includes mandatory
     national testing and some support for school vouchers. It also makes
     high school academic records available to military recruiters.

   * Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and other
     domestic fields is claimed to decrease dependence on oil imports,
     particularly from the Middle East. However, many environmentalists hold
     that it will produce such small amounts of petroleum as to be
     effectively useless and will certainly do far greater harm to
     irreplaceable and finite resources of the planet than good.

     Opponents of such drilling recommend alternate courses of action such
     as to complete research on and implement as a matter of urgency
     alternative, safe and renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind
     and tidal power - but not nuclear. Although perhaps requiring greater
     initial investment, in the long run these are now accepted by many
     informed environmentalists and scientists as being the most viable
     alternative to what they see as the vigorously anti-environmental
     approaches of the Bush administration.

     Supporters of drilling in ANWR argue that the Administration has agreed
     to a number of measures to minimize the impact of drilling on the
     Arctic environment. For example, roadways would be constructed of ice
     that would melt in the spring, when activity on the roads would cease.
     Also, supporters say that the total surface disturbance due to drilling
     would be limited to not more than 2,000 acres. This is in a total area
     for ANWR of 19,600,000 acres.

     Critics argue that, of the 19,600,000 acres, however, the oil industry
     is specifically interested in drilling in the coastal plain, a crucial
     biological habitat, which constitutes 1,500,000 acres, approximately
     the size of Delaware. Critics point out that the referenced 2,000 acres
     are not isolated to a single, contiguous block of land, but in fact
     will stretch out in a vast web across a large expanse of land and will
     affect much more of the ecosystem than in just those 2,000 acres.
     Additionally, the full length of the oil pipeline is not included as
     part of that 2,000 acres, and the roads that are used to support the
     drilling activity may also be excluded from that total. Despite the
     proclaimed restriction to 2,000 acres, much of the decision as to how
     much of the 1,500,000 acres will actually be drilled are ultimately up
     to the Interior Department.

Because of the Bush Administration's close connections with numerous energy
companies, many of Bush's Cabinet members have come under immense scrutiny
from environmental groups, in particular Steven Griles, the deputy secretary
of the Department of the Interior. National Environmental Strategies (NES),
the oil and gas lobbying firm Griles worked for, is currently paying him
$284,000 a year as part of a $1.1 million payout for his client base. As
deputy secretary of the Interior, Griles is charged with overseeing and
revamping environmental regulations that affect the profits of his former
clients and NES's current clients.

   * Redesign of military with emphasis on supermodern hardware, flexible
     tactics, speed, less international deployment, fewer troops. This
     includes developing a system to defend against ballistic missile
     attacks, despite strong objections both domestically and
     internationally. Many commentators were critical of Bush when, in his
     very first policy statement after the September 11, 2001, terrorist
     attacks, Bush reiterated his intent to place missile attack
     intervention highest on his list of priorities (despite the fact that
     no such system could have prevented the type of sneak attack the
     country had really, not theoretically, experienced). However, other
     commentators have endorsed Bush's position, noting, for example, the
     continuing development of long-range missile technology by North Korea,
     along with that country's threats to resume its nuclear weapons
     program.

Foreign policy

Bush's most significant foreign policy platform before coming to office
involved support of a stronger economic and political relationship with
Latin America, in particular Mexico, and a reduction in involvement in
"nation-building" and other small-scale military engagements.

Bush's decision to impose a tariff on imported steel, and to withdraw from
global initiatives such as the Kyoto Protocol, ABM Treaty, an international
land mine treaty and other multinational efforts, have convinced many that
he (and his administration) has a policy of acting unilaterally, thus
evading international responsibilities. Bush has justified these policies by
arguing that these actions are in America's best interest. He has asserted,
for example, that the Kyoto Protocol is "unfair and ineffective" because it
would exempt 80 percent of the world and "cause serious harm to the U.S.
economy."

Many governments have expressed their concern and dismay at what they see as
a failure to ratify what they consider to be a key international
environmental treaty and many nations (including the composite national
grouping, the EU) are actively considering imposing sanctions against the
US. However, blaming Bush for a failure to ratify may be rather off the
mark. In 1997, the US Senate voted 95-0 that the United States should not
become a party to the Kyoto Protocol unless developing nations are subject
to scheduled limits or reductions of greenhouse gases. The Kyoto Protocol
does not meet those criteria.

A change of focus immediately followed the September 11, 2001 Terrorist
Attack. His foreign (and domestic, to a lesser degree) policy was
subsequently defined, above all, by the "War on Terrorism". This was first
described in a special "Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the
American People" on September 20, 2001 in which Bush announced that America
was fighting a war on terrorism.

In July, 2002, Bush cut off $34 million in funding for the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA). This funding had been allocated by Congress the
previous December. Bush claimed that the UNFPA supported forced abortions
and sterilizations in mainland China. His justification came from a
bipartisan group of antiabortion members of Congress and an antiabortion
organization called The Population Research Institute, which claimed to have
obtained first-hand video taped evidence from victims of forced abortion and
forced sterilization in county where the UNFPA operates in the PRC. The
decision was praised by many in pro-life movement, including the United
States' largest public policy women's organization, Concerned Women For
America.

Abortion-rights supporters criticized the decision and point out that the
PRI refused to release information that would allow the team to locate the
women, and thus no independent verification of PRI's claims was possible.
Nor was it possible to confirm that UNFPA funding was actually behind the
abortion and forced sterilizations alleged in the video. However, he sent a
fact finding team to the PRC to investigate the situation there, and the
team reported that UNFPA funding did not go towards forced abortions or
sterilizations. Bush thus disregarded the findings of his own investigatory
mission on this matter.

The Bush presidency has also been marked by diplomatic tensions with the
People's Republic of China and North Korea, the latter of which admitted in
2003 to possessing nuclear weapons and threatened to use them if provoked by
the US.

Bush has also maintained a desire to resume the peace process in Israel, and
openly proclaimed his desire for a Palestinian state to be created before
2005. He outlined a "roadmap for peace" that featuring compromises that had
to be made by both sides before Palestinian statehood could become a
reality. One particular proposal was his instance for new Palestinian
leadership; a stance that saw the appointment of the first ever Palestinian
Prime Minister on April 29, 2003.

Military Campaigns

Once the source of the September 11 terrorist attacks was traced to Osama
Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network operating out of Taliban-ruled
Afghanistan, Bush launched a military campaign against the country. Though
the original intent of the strikes was to destroy terrorist infrastructures
and training camps, it soon became clear that Afghanistan's Taliban
government was deeply connected to Bin Laden's terrorist organization. On
November 13, 2001 American troops seized control of the capital city of
Kabul, and overthrew the Taliban government. Exiled President Burhanuddin
Rabbani was returned to office, and was soon followed by a special interim
government headed by former Afghani territorial governor Hamid Karzai.
Diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and the United States resumed, and
Karzai became a close ally of Washington in the continued fight against
terrorism.

The Bush Administration has been criticized for holding several hundred
individuals accused of connections to Al-Qaeda or the Taliban at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba without trial. Under the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war
cannot be held after the war has ended. The Bush Administration and its
supporters, however, have countered that the war against America by Al-Qaeda
is ongoing, that it is unconventional, and that the "battlefield" extends
into America itself. George W. Bush is unapologetic about the detentions,
labeling the detainees as "enemy combatants" and insisting that their
detention is necessary.

The experiences encountered in dealing with the Taliban government inspired
a new attitude in Bush Administration's attitude towards foreign policy.
Bush believed that in America's continuing war against terror, the United
States should not differentiate between terrorist groups, and the
governments that support them. This view was highlighted in Bush's second
State of the Union Address, in which he specifically singled out the nations
of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as particularly distressing examples of
states that sponsor terrorism, dubbing them an Axis of Evil.

By early 2002 Bush began actively pressing for regime change in the nation
of Iraq, indicating that his government had reason to believe that Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein had ties to terrorist groups and was developing
weapons of mass destruction. This proposal was controversial with much of
the world, and significant portions of the American public. Upon the advice
of Secretary of State Colin Powell Bush agreed to pursue the "UN route" to
disarming Iraq. On November 8, 2002 a US-proposed United Nations Security
Council was unanimously passed, condemning the Iraqi regime and re-instating
a team of UN weapons inspectors. The inspectors did not make any significant
finds, but the Bush administration claimed they were being manipulated and
deceived by the Iraqi regime. Powell made an appeal to the Security Council,
showing photographs and conversations which the administration believed
presented proof that Iraq's government was engaging in widespread deception.
As the Security Council did not react in favour of a military action against
Iraq, Bush declared that the Council rendered itself "obsolete".

On March 20, 2003 Bush gave the go ahead for a full-scale military invasion
of Iraq to overthrow the Iraqi regime. He did so using powers that had been
granted to him by congress on October 16 of the previous year. After a few
weeks of fighting, the Iraqi government was successfully overthrown on April
9, 2003 and US forces occupied the Iraqi capital. The military effort has
now switched to an effort of maintaining Iraqi security, strengthening the
nation's infrastructure, and preparing to hand over power to a
democratically elected government. As this process shows to be more
difficult and expensive than previously predicted the US government turns
again toward the UN, asking for financial and military support in Iraq.

Throughout the course of the Iraqi war Bush was often the target of harsh
criticism. Both in America and in the rest of the world there were numerous
anti-war protests. On February 15, 2003 there were over 10 million people in
the streets all over the world. Many of the protesters were vehemently
critical of Bush, calling him a "warmonger," an oil-hungry "imperialist," a
"fascist." Bush dismissed the protesters as being merely "a focus group".
European leaders were also critical of the President, especially French
President Jacques Chirac who soon became the leading international voice of
opposition to the Bush plan of Iraqi regime change. German Justice Minister,
Herta Däubler-Gmelin compared the methods of Bush to those of Hitler. These
remarks drew strong condemnation from both the United States and Europe; the
minister resigned.

There were also in the United States rallies that supported the President's
actions in Iraq and also supporting the US and coalition forces. The people
who participated in these rallies praised Bush's leadership and courage in
confronting Iraq. In stark contrast, however, these rallies were much less
attended, in some cases amounting to only a few dozen.

Before the war, polls of Americans themselves tended to indicate a 50/50
split on invading Iraq, with the lowest rankings tending to come from polls
that broke the question down into three options -- opposition to the war
with or without United Nations weapons inspections, support only if the
United Nations agrees and has had adequate time to search for weapons of
mass destruction, and unconditional support of the war. After the war began,
however, a solid majority of the American people and their representatives
in Congress, in striking contrast to international opinion, backed Bush's
decision to invade Iraq, with poll numbers ranging from 62% to as high as
70% in favor of the war. The inability of the U.S. to find weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq, however, has led to greater domestic criticism of the
administration's Iraq policy.

Domestic Security

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks the Bush administration asked
Congress to approve a series of laws that it stated were necessary to
prosecute the War on Terror. These included a wide variety of surveillance
programs, some of which came under heavy fire from civil libertarians who
criticized the Bush administration of scaling back civil liberties.

Bush Security Initiatives

   * Through an act of Congress, the creation of a Department of Homeland
     Security (DHS), a cabinet-level agency designed to streamline and
     co-ordinate the various agents of federal government bureaucracy
     charged with protecting the American homeland from foreign attacks.

   * A Total Information Awareness (TIA) program was proposed by the Defense
     Department. The TIA program did not receive funding from Congress,
     however, and is not currently operating.

   * The USA PATRIOT Act which expands the government's powers of
     surveillance and arrest. The USA PATRIOT act passed soon after
     September 11, 2001.

   * Creation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review which
     will review government acts of domestic spying.

   * "Project Lookout", which distributes "watch lists" of people alleged to
     be suspicious, or have ties to terrorist groups to a variety of
     different organizations and institutions. These included specific
     "No-fly" lists of American residents who should not be allowed to board
     any airport into or out of the United States.

   * "Operation TIPS", which would have created a vast network of amateur
     spies, in which Americans would spy on one another. This proposal was
     rejected after an initial outcry.

As mentioned, many of these actions were very controversial. Some accused
the Bush administration of using the threat of terrorism as an excuse to
clamp down on political dissent; indeed, many of Bush's critics were quick
to allege that they were being unfairly targeted by the new security
measures. Others accused the administration of over-reacting to the threat
of terrorism, and participating in Big Brother style tactics with little
justification.

Currently, a major controversy in the United States Congress is the debate
over whether or not to expand the Patriot Act into a new Act known as
Patriot Act II. This proposal would increase government surveillance on
people in the United States suspected of terrorist activities and reduce
judicial oversight over surveillance; authorize secret trials; and give the
Justice Department the authority to revoke the American citizenship of
anyone who belonged to an organization that the government deemed
subversive.

These laws are undoubtedly controversial. But many argue that in a world
where well-funded, international conspiracies exist with the goal of, for
instance, setting off a nuclear weapon in a major American city, the balance
between security and liberty must shift somewhat. Supporters of the new law
enforcement powers, such as Attorney General John Ashcroft have pointed out
that against earlier predictions, nearly two years have passed without a
single terrorist atrocity in the United States.

In any event, the debate over the proper role of government in people's
lives will continue. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court and lower Federal
courts will rule on the constitutionality of the new laws.

Cabinet

   * Secretary of State - Colin Powell
   * Secretary of Defense - Donald Rumsfeld
   * Secretary of the Treasury - Paul O'Neill (2001-2003), John William Snow
     (2003-)
   * Attorney General - John Ashcroft
   * Secretary of Homeland Security - Tom Ridge (2003-)
   * Secretary of the Interior - Gale Norton
   * Secretary of Agriculture - Ann Veneman
   * Secretary of Commerce - Donald Evans
   * Secretary of Labor - Elaine Chao
   * Secretary of Health and Human Services - Tommy Thompson
   * Secretary of Housing and Urban Development - Mel Martinez
   * Secretary of Transportation - Norman Mineta
   * Secretary of Energy - Spencer Abraham
   * Secretary of Education - Roderick Paige
   * Secretary of Veterans Affairs - Anthony J. Principi

Legislation signed

Partial list:

   * June 7, 2001: Economic Recovery and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of
     2001
   * September 18, 2001: Authorization for Use of Military Force
   * September 28, 2001: United States-Jordan Free Trade Area Implementation
     Act
   * October 26, 2001: USA PATRIOT Act
   * November 28, 2001: Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act
   * January 8, 2002: No Child Left Behind Act
   * March 9, 2002: Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002
   * March 27, 2002: Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002
   * May 13, 2002: Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002
   * July 30, 2002: Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
   * October 16, 2002: Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq
     Resolution of 2002
   * November 25, 2002: Homeland Security Act of 2002
   * March 11, 2003: Do-Not-Call Implementation Act
   * April 30, 2003: PROTECT Act of 2003
   * May 27, 2003: United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis
     and Malaria Act of 2003
   * May 28, 2003: Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003
   * September 3, 2003: United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement
     Implementation Act
   * September 3, 2003: United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
     Implementation Act

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