My topic is George W. Bush: Presidency during 9/11
This time for Bush was said to be "what war was like in the 21st century." With the horrible happenings of that fateful event, with all of the lives lost and a good chunk of the city destroyed, happiness was something of a foreign feeling that day.
Bush says (these are not his exact words) that when he was inaugurated, he was hoping to be a president that would focus on domestic issues. Instead, he ended up turning into a wartime president that was always worried about affairs overseas. He said that it was not something that he was expecting, or anything that he every wanted to be. Having to deal with a Middle Eastern terrorist group wasn't even on the list of the things that he "wanted" to do.
Bush was at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota. He was in a reading session with some kids when the Chief of Staff, Andrew Card, came in and whispered into Bush's ear. Card later explained that before he went in to tell Bush the news about the second plane hitting the south WTC building, he decided that he needed to make his statement into the president's ear as short and simple as possible, so as not to arouse any questions out of Bush. He said, "a second plane has hit the south tower...America is under attack". I would think that's about as short and to the point as you could ever get it! O.o
When they heard of the news of what had happened to the south WTC building on 9/11, Bush and his Secret Service agents were rushed onto Air Force One for safety. The first decision that was made by President Bush on Air Force One was to order every commerical airplane in America to touch down at the nearest airfield, and any plane that didn't respond to the order was to be shot down by the US Air Force. It was a gruesome option, but it was really the only and the best one that could be thought of in quick action.
When Bush and his team saw the footage of Flight 93 and where and how it had crashed, he could only assume the worst...that it had to be taken down by the Air Force. But he later learned of the amazing actions of the passengers on the plane, and the amount of damage thatcouldhave been caused with it. Up to that point, 2 of the three major areas of "power" for the US had been damaged or completely destroyed. Both of the WTC buildings for the Financial area of our power, and the Pentagon for the military area. There was only one area of power left to think of....the political area. It was very possible that Flight 93 could have been used to destroy the White House, the Capitol building, or any other major political architectures that would deem worthy of being destroyed by terrorists. It was a very scary thought of what could have happened, but a very warming thought of what did. The passengers on Flight 93 most likely saved many lives that day.
Bush was finally allowed to be let out of the airplane. They flew over the damaged area in New York. Bush quotes that, "From the air, [the damaged area] looked like a giant scar, but when we actually got to the site, it was like walking into hell." You could only imagine all of the rubble, and possibly the bodies that hadn't quite been picked up yet must've looked like. As he stood on the top of a mound of rubble, he made a speech that was well known from then on across the globe. Here is a part of that speech:
"Our enemies have made the mistake that America’s enemies always make. They saw liberty and thought they saw weakness. And now, they see defeat." --George W. Bush, President of the United States.
I wasn't quite old enough at the time to realize what Bush had done on that day and how well he acted as a president. There might not have been a lot of supporters for him throughout the rest of his presidency, but he acted correctly on that day, and I think a lot of people owe him a great deal of respect for that.
Here are some pics of both George W. Bush and 9/11:
http://www.911-remember.com/quotes1.html
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