He was trying to turn the book right-side up. http://www.snopes.com/photos/bushbook.asp
There are two issues going on. 1) Bush never gave the order to shoot down hijacked planes until well after the attacks, therefore, any military jet that could have reached one of the hijacked planes would have been helpless to stop it. 2) The plane that crashed in Penn took off 30 minutes late and has been assumed to be heading either towards the White House or the Capitol. Had the Pennsylvania plane not crash landed, we could have possibly lost an entire branch of Congress since the military did not have the order to shoot down the plane. So yeah, Zagadka, Bush should have ditched those kids and acted like the damn Commander-in-Chief.
It is remarkable that more people are not outraged by this. I am certain that Clinton would have been impeached if his response to an ongoing attack was to read a story about a billy goat.
I should have written “an entire branch of the Government”
I’m just trying to imagine the reaction of people on this board if, two seconds after hearing something as FLOORINGLY UNBELIEVABLE as “OUR COUNTRY IS UNDER ATTACK”, George Bush simply turned and said “Shoot everything down”, without consulting anyone, without verification, without getting the full facts, without talking to anyone else.
Talk about a loose cannon.
What was YOUR reaction as a human being when you heard of 9/11. Did you have an INFALLIBLE solution to the issue? Not one you came up with today…almost three years later…but THAT MOMENT, when someone said “There are planes crashing into the country at several points”
Keep in mind that when I heard about the second plane I also heard that a plane had:
Hit Sears Tower
Had Crashed into the White House
and was headed for LAX
Guess what? None of that was true. It’s called “taking a minute to collect yourself”.
Sometimes it prevents you from saying really stupid things. :rolleyes:
Nice try (well, not really), but I think there were a “few” more choices than that. Anyone who is determined to make a valid contribution to this debate should certainly acknowledge that.
I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to read your post correctly. What I’m seeing is: “… Bush should have ditched those kids and acted like a damned crazy madman.” Many US citizens were confused, and beginning to act erratic, because we didn’t know what the hell was going on. One of the worst things our President could have done during all of this, IMHO, is start giving out orders to the military to blindly shoot down any and all aircraft in the sky.
LilShieste
Let’s see, even according to the psycho conspiracy theory timeline, word that a plane had crashed into the WTC didn’t hit most of capitol hill until around 9:00… a little late to do very much about it.
Remember in, I think, October, when that plane crashed in New York, and all the news agencies screamed and ran around in circles that it was another terrorist attack? I’m very glad that our government was more sane than that and was able to bother, I dunno, determining the facts before taking action - especially at a time when “taking action” means picking through thousands of aircraft, finding the unknown number that are hijacked or will be hijacked, and deciding which of those to shoot down - all at a time where all you “know” is that a plane crashed into one of the WTC towers. Sorry, but I don’t remember Bush running on a ticket of psychic powers. We trust in our government to do the right thing, not to panic.
Like I said - I dislike the man intensely, but expecting him to do more is absurd.
I’m still waiting for the Jews. I will be profoundly disappointed if the OP does not return to explain how the Jews fit into this.
Maybe the OP is a bot.
Bush isn’t an average citizen, he is the leader of the military. I never said he should have acted like a madman as you seem to be claiming I implied. He should have immediately dropped his public relations stunt when he realized we were under attack. He should have been making calls and figuring out what the hell was going on. Instead, he kept reading a story about a billy goat. That seems mad to me. Rather than acting like Giuliani and taking charge of the situation, he continued to read a story about a billy goat. When he should have given the military guidance, he read a story about a billy goat. That is dereliction of duty.
Isn’t that a rather naive comprehension of the circumstances? That’s what staffs are for. They make phone calls and gather information. He stayed with the children and remained calm rather than alarming them, which was appropriate in my opinion. Meanwhile, I’m sure his staff was working as hard and as fast as they could. A US president cannot just get up and walk out of a place. Haven’t you ever watched West Wing?
Yea, but Bushie could have… um… called people… who didn’t know what was going on… and taken up their time… in figuring out what was going on…
What, you think the man personally investigates every plane crash? His staff told him that a plane had crashed, he expressed his concern to them, they told him to keep doing his thing while they found out what was going on. You wanted him to do what? Get in a car where he is even more out of touch, and go where? Back to the resort he had left?
I’m confused as to what he “should” have done upon hearing news of a plane crash.
Believe it or not, but the President doesn’t make all the little decisions. In many cases, he is mostly the figurehead of his staff, who were doing everything in their power to figure out what was going on. It wasn’t until the second plane hit that anyone knew of the extent of what had happened.
You’re just looking for little points to criticize his performance on. There are plenty of valid points, concentrate on them. You don’t need to make up stuff.
What exactly do you suppose he should or could have done Mombo. You are a bit vague about it. Why don’t you fill us in some, ehe? I mean, he should have ‘taken charge’…and then? Sent out the fighters to attack every plane in the air, just in case? Called out the National Guard and invaded Canada? Strode around with a large bulge in his flight suit while they preped it for him to attack Belgium? Nuked every muslim country in the world? Ordered Alderbaran to be hunted down and swiftly wacked? What could he have done?
You seem to be laboring under the delusion that the president is some kind of super man, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, and knowing everything about whatever is going on. No sparrow drops but that the Commander in Chief hears it??
Bush did EXACTLY what he should have…and frankly exactly what Clinton, Regan, his daddy, even ole Jimmy would have done. He sat there looking calm and collected and ‘presidential’ while his staff tried to figure out what was going on. I’m sure the Secret Service was practically nuts to get him out of there and to some place of safety, but imagine what that would have done to us seeing the president hussled out in a panic. Enough bad shit was happening that day that we didn’t need a panic from the top down on our hands too.
I don’t agree with much Bush has done, but I really can’t fault him for his actions on 9/11…I think that he did exactly the right things, and even after that when he visited the site and talked to those firemen. It gave the country a bit of a lift in a dark time IMO. You are fishing for stuff to blame him on and you know it. Its not like you don’t have ample amunition in the economy, in things like the steel tarrifs fiasco, or in the Iraq war. But its like some of the anti-Bush crowd MUST show that every single thing the man has done is either evil, stupid or for some nefarious hidden reason which probably revolves around some scheme to get rich or give his buddies fat contracts or something.
-XT (Sr)
Some of these are excellent suggestions, but I’m not saying which I think they are. 
Seriously, is this really the best the anti-Bush fanatics can do? Again?
Regards,
Shodan
Hey now, I’m an anti-Bush fanatic. Don’t lump us all together with the psychotic idiots, and we won’t lump you all together with the RR. 
I was on the web when it happened, about twelve miles away from the site but in the city, and everyone thought it was an accident, everyone. Pilots always used the towers as landmarks and the anchors were discussing the 1947 incident when a small fighter accidentally hit the Empire State in the fog. My first sense of confusion started when one witness, a guy in Greenwich Village a little north of the site, insisted it had not been a small plane but a full-size airliner, which seemed impossible. Our local Fox station had a live shot of burning top of the tower at 9:03 when an orange fireball exploded from below, out of the frame, and the anchors (and me) said, “Oh no, the basement exploded!”
Then the camera pulled back, and the world changed.
The President’s too. He turned from being head of a nation blessed enough to have the luxury of thinking that horrible things are accidents first to one where there were people able to kill thousands at a stroke. It’s informed everything he’s done since.
I didn’t see Giuliani climb up the stairs in the WTC…but I bet he was informed by his staff on what was going on…just like Bush. The only difference was that Giuliani didn’t have a public photo-op at the same time that Bush did. Dereliction…my ass. You are grasping.
I thought this thread was in the pit???
Anyway, to restate, the only real issue here is the Secret Service. When they get word of major attacks on American interests, they are supposed to bodily rush the President out of known public locations and into protection. Presidents normally don’t even have the power to countermand this action. They did this Cheny, and they did it in a timely fashion. Bush, however, was kept out in public for far too long after it was known that the planes were, in fact, hijacked attacks.
It’s not wrong to point this out. The Secret Service needs to learn from their mistakes. No one is going to buy a “fog of war” excuse if they lose us a President at a crucial time for national security.
The only arguable criticism of Bush was that he didn’t leave the classroom early enough, when the situation seemed to warrant his attention. The fact that he couldn’t have made a decision in time to shoot down a plane doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have been ready too. Again, this is something that is understandable, and of no particular special fault of Bush’s. But it should definately be examined so that we can better respond to events like this in future.
Though some, I guess, would rather our national security not learn from mistakes if that means admitting any misjudgements on the part of the President or his staff. Clearly, they know which is more important.
I don’t see why everyone is objecting to my sentiments. I am not claiming Bush had foreknowledge of the events or that he was part of a conspiracy. Neither am I saying that he would have stopped the attacks like a superman.
However, when Bush finally finished reading the billy goat story, he authorized the military to shoot down rogue planes. While he was in the classroom, this order was not in effect. Had the Pennsylvania flight taken off on time and not crash-landed, it would have been in DC airspace while Bush was still reading about the billy goat–the authorization would have not been in effect.
Those who asked what Bush could have possibly done, I say he could have given that authorization almost a half hour earlier. It was simple happenchance that kept they Pennsylvania flight from hitting another target in Washington.
What I don’t understand is how anyone could think it is appropriate for a president to continue a photo op during a time of current national emergency. What else is the president for if not to keep us safe? It is true that he couldn’t have personally stopped the planes but neither could the jet pilots unless they had a directive from the president.
Finally, to those who say that Bush was probably confused at the moment as we all were: 1) I was not confused, I knew from the moment I turned on CNN and saw two planes in the WTC that Osama bin Laden/al-Qaida were involved. It is their style of attack and it was obviously not an accident (two planes). I knew about them since 1998. I even told a coworker (less than 20 minutes after I saw CNN) that al-Qaida had attacked us despite CNN not having reported that assumption by then. I don’t see how I was able to come to that conclusion so quickly while Bush could have continued to believe they were accidents. 2) Andrew Card told Bush “we are under attack,” not that there was an accident. 3) It doesn’t matter if he thought it was an accident or an attack, it was a time of national emergency.
I wish they did a split-screen on CNN showing the carnage from the attacks on the left while on the right side is Bush reading a story about a Billy Goat.
It seems from some of your responses that it would have been worse for Bush to hurt the kids’ feelings by leaving abruptly than for him to neglect a national emergency.
This is just too funny. You were not confused, so Bush shouldn’t have been. You pulled an answer out of your ass, read some tea leaves, consulted an on-line psykic or just happened to guess right (without telling us how many times you guessed wrong of course…I’m guessing a lot) and you figure ‘hey…if I can do it so can Bush’ right? Unfortunately you don’t seem to have gotten the fact that your unsubstantiated guess work means nothing even if it WAS right this time. The president isn’t allowed to just guess…he has to know before he starts doing drastic things. And shooting down planes full of civilians over cities is fairly drastic, no?? When the president DOES just guess and/or pull facts out of his ass like you just did, we get…Iraq. Is THAT the kind of thing you REALLY want the president to do??
Again, you are using hindsight to make assumptions on what you think SHOULD have happened. Those guys were basically in the dark being fed contridictory information or no information at all. If its an accident thats a hell of a lot different than if its an attack. And really, aren’t we just talking about 5 min here??
In terms of time the whole thing went down pretty fast. Also, your point about the ‘photo op’ is pretty far off base. Ya, thats why he was there originally, but he STAYED there for other reasons, most of which were that he’s SUPPOSED to be calm and ‘presidential’ in a crisis so as not to panic all the sheep out there in US land. And see, we the people need to SEE him being calm and presidential so that we are assured and don’t go running about in a panic.
Finally Bush as usual is in a catch 22 position with the foaming at the mouth left crowd. If he stays they paint him as you have (either he ‘knew’ all about it or he was more interested in the ‘photo op’)…if he bolts then he most likely would have been painted by the same muzzle foaming crowd as ‘running away’ or ‘trying to save his own skin while the country was at risk’. He basically can’t win no matter what he does…even when he does the right thing (which is unusual for him IMO) he can’t win with you people.
-XT
Happenchance? Like a bird flying into the engine? SOMEONE stopped that plane, whatever you believe. That isn’t “happenchance.”
Wow, you’re some kind of super-genius? Maybe you should go to work for the FBI. Your amazing powers of deductive reasoning would be useful. In Soviet Russia.
It was a plane crash. You want him to authorize shooting down every passenger plane in the sky because of a plane crash? Maybe in Soviet Russia.
Just because your amazing powers of deductive reasoning kicked in when you climbed out of bed at 10:30 and saw CNN showing video of two planes hitting allowed you to instantly know not only what happened but who did it (probably the only terrorist name you happened to know, given your astute study of the subject since 1998, you can look back into time and say that it was warranted, at 9:00, that Bush order military aircraft to shoot down random passenger airlines?