Flood of tributes for Bush
MANY WORLD LEADERS EXPECTED TO ATTEND THE FUNERAL ‘He inspired generations of his fellow Americans to public service’
Flags flew at half-staff across the United States on Saturday as Americans prepared for a week of solemn tributes to George HW Bush, in his home state of Texas and in the US Capitol, a day after the former president died at the age of 94.
Tributes poured in from world leaders in memory of the 41st US president, who guided America through the end of the Cold War and launched the international campaign to drive Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait.
Many of those same leaders are expected to attend Bush’s state funeral next week, alongside President Donald Trump and his wife Melania.
Trump was notably absent from the funerals of the statesman’s late wife Barbara, and of veteran fellow Republican John McCain.
Although the two Republican presidents were in many ways polar opposites, the soft-spoken, patrician Bush reportedly once dismissed the blustering New Yorker as a “blowhard” and even voted for his rival Hillary Clinton,
Trump paid the late leader a gracious tribute, saying he had “inspired generations of his fellow Americans to public service”.
“His accomplishments were great from beginning to end,” Trump tweeted.
Declaring a national day of mourning for Wednesday, when the federal government and New York Stock Exchange will close in Bush’s honour, Trump also signalled his respect by calling off a press conference planned at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.
The days-long national farewell to Bush will begin today with a commemoration in Houston, where the Bushes lived for years and where he died on Friday surrounded by friends and family.
From there, Bush’s casket will travel to Washington on board Trump’s presidential aircraft, in what the US leader called “a special tribute that he deserves very much”.
The former president will lie in state in the US Capitol between today and Wednesday ahead of a state funeral at the towering National Cathedral, expected to draw dozens of dignitaries from around the world.
Bush’s remains will travel back to Texas on Wednesday, where he will lie in repose at St Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston with a funeral service the next day preceding his interment at the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station. He will make his final journey aboard a funeral train.
At the presidential library on Saturday, people came to sign the memorial book in Bush’s honour, or lay flowers at the feet of his statue.
Chris Griffin, a student at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University who helped organise a candlelight vigil Saturday, said: “I think his legacy is really what inspires all of us.”
Bush was a decorated World War II pilot, diplomat and onetime CIA chief who saw his son George follow in his footsteps to the Oval Office, making them only the second father-son duo in American presidential history, after John and John Quincy Adams.
From former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to current heads of state, leaders praised Bush both for his strength and his moderation, as well as the commitment to internationalism typified by his assembling of a global coalition to oust Iraqi invaders from Kuwait in 1991.
Jimmy Carter, now the oldest surviving former US president, said Bush’s administration “was marked by grace, civility and social conscience”.
Britain took the rare step of lowering flags in government buildings.
Gorbachev called him “a true partner” in winding down the Cold War, and French President Emmanuel Macron mourned the loss of a leader who “strongly supported the alliance with Europe”.
Suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Bush had been wheelchair-bound and in failing health.
He is survived by his five living children and 17 grandchildren. – AFP