World leaders to attend Bush’s funeral service
WASHINGTON: International dignitaries will join US leaders present and past Wednesday in saying their final goodbyes to former president George H W Bush, whose life will be honoured at a funeral service in Washington.
The nation’s 41st president, who died Friday at age 94, has lain in state since late Monday in the US Capitol rotunda.
Tens of thousands of Americans have quietly fi led in to pay their respects to a man who steered the nation through turbulent times including the end of the Cold War — and in a style dramatically different from the bombast and combativeness championed by the current commander-in- chief, Donald Trump.
The country’s five living presidents — Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Bush’s son George W Bush, Barack Obama, and Trump — are scheduled to attend the service at Washington National Cathedral, the Neo- Gothic spiritual centre point of the US capital.
Britain’s Prince Charles will be there, as will German Chancellor Angela Merkel, King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan, and former Polish president Lech Walesa, among others.
Trump’s ascendancy to the head of the Republican Party saw him exchange vitriolic attacks with the Bushes, including mocking Bush senior’s ‘thousand points of light’ phrase and slamming the presidential son’s 2003 invasion of Iraq as ‘one of the worst decisions in the history of our country’.
But he has taken pains to demonstrate unity since Bush’s death, and made a low-key visit to the Capitol late Monday with First Lady Melania Trump to salute Bush’s casket.
And on the eve of the state funeral, the couple met with George W Bush and former fi rst lady Laura Bush at the presidential guest residence Blair House.
Trump’s relations with the Republican establishment have been rocky since his insurgent campaign took him to the party’s nomination and then a shock election win in 2016.
He did not attend the funeral this year of George H W Bush’s wife Barbara Bush, even though other presidents were there.
Trump has declared yesterday a national day of mourning.
Many federal offices will be closed along with Wall Street stock markets.
Congress has also suspended votes — even in the midst of a looming potential shutdown that requires congressional action before midnight Thursday. After the Washington service, Bush’s casket will be flown back to Houston.
The former head of state will lie in repose at St Martin’s Episcopal Church, where the Bushes worshipped for decades, until the funeral.
He will be interred at the George H W Bush Presidential Library Centre in College Station, Texas, next to his wife, who died in April, and their daughter Robin who died of leukemia at age three.