By RICH Pascal

Friday January 21, 2005 (Release - 06:00)

Washington of our correspondent

A president pyromaniac? "By our efforts, we lit a fire, a fire in the spirit of the men. It heats those which feel its heat, it burns those which fight its progression, and, one day, this untamed fire of freedom will gain the darkest corners of our world ", launched George W Bush, at the time of its speech of nomination, yesterday at midday, in front of Capitole, just after its service of oath.

A very offensive speech, largely devoted to this "fire" of freedom, only means according to him of overcoming terrorism. "the survival of freedom in our fatherland depends more and more on the success of freedom in other fatherlands. The best hope of peace for our world, it is to extend freedom everywhere ", it declared in front of the tenors of the American political community. The continuation of the freedom of all the men, because they are "with the image of the Creator" , fact part of the historical "mission " of the Americans, estimates Bush. It also answers a "urgent requirement for the safety of the nation" . Never, however, it did not pronounce the word "Iraq".

The President also devoted a long passage to the "company of property" which it hopes to substitute, in its country, with the Welfare state: "We will widen the property of our houses and our companies, of our saving reprocesses and our insurance health, to prepare our people with the challenges of the life in a free company." However, it is especially its promise ­ ignited ­ to help all the combatants of the freedom which marked the spirits. When it declares: Fortunately "for oppressed, the influence of America is considerable, and will use we it with confidence to advance the cause of freedom" , George W Bush launches a clear warning to the countries of what it called, three years ago, the "axe evil ".

It there has three days, its new Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, had delivered a new list of these countries, qualified "outposts of tyranny" : Cuba, Burma, North Korea, Iran, Bielorussia and Zimbabwe.

The same day, Bush had promised to the soldiers that it "would be asked to them much more in the months and the years which come" ... As many remarks which raise interrogations. The military experts doubt that Bush, ensablé in Iraq, can engage of new scale campaigns broad. Though Bush seems to prepare with all. In an article published this week in New Yorker , the journalist Seymour Hersh thus revealed that the White House had ordered "secret missions of recognition in Iran, at least for this summer", with an aim of collecting information necessary to a possible striking against the military and nuclear installations of the country. A former "high person in charge for the information" explained to Hersh that the "countryside of Iran" would be the next stage: "We declared the war and the malicious ones, where that they are, are the enemy... We are four years old and we want to leave from there while being able to say that we gained the war against terrorism." The White House described the article like "truffé of inaccuracies" , but refuses to exclude the assumption from a military intervention in Iran.

It is on a cloud that George W Bush crossed these three days of ceremonies, official receptions, dinners with the candles and balls. Rose of pleasure, blinking eyes of emotion, her face was omnipresent on televisions. The fireworks celebrated it. The badauds acclaimed it. Sixty million dollars left in festive smoke. Texan, which generally likes to be presented in the form of a modest guy, yielded to the pleasure majesty. The Americans however do not seem to have shared its pleasure. Admittedly, they always adored the ceremony of nomination, which symbolizes their reconciliation after the electoral battle. This time, according to a survey of Washington Post , two thirds of the Americans would have preferred a more modest nomination. The war in Iraq is not popular and Bush does not start its second mandate under the best conditions. It has certainly a republican Congress, but its support in the opinion is fragile, compared with that whose Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan at dawn enjoyed their second term.