I am not a fan of George W Bush. In fact, I pretty much held him in contempt for about … oh, 8 years, I’d reckon. I think he is a spoiled rotten, third rate politician who rode daddy’s coattails to get pretty much anything he ever wanted, including the presidency.
But this? This deserves a thread? Or even a thought? All the myriad ways he took what happened that day and produced a giant picnic basket of turd-sandwiches … and how he reacted in the first 5 minutes is what we’re going to hold his feet to the fire over?
I don’t think that cite really counts. Der Trihs specifically said BEFORE 9-11, whereas that quote is talking about the first moments AFTER 9-11. I think it’s reasonable to argue that Bush had a pre-existing animus toward Iraq, and I am inclined to agree with that. However, I don’t think it necessitates that they had already planned the attack and were waiting for an excuse to follow through, as Der Trihs implies. I think it’s probably more likely that he had that existing animus and so his confirmation bias let him see the tenuous evidence of his connection to it and ignore the evidence against that connection. That is, I think his thinking process was more like “Bad Muslims attacked us, Saddam Hussein is a bad Muslim, therefore he’s responsible, let’s take him out.” I do think he was indulging it, but I still think it was in reaction to 9-11 rather than excused by it.
This has always been my thought too. He’s [the president] is to be a leader, to inspire confidence. Sitting there for such a long time didn’t do that for me.
Saying, in a vague and roundabout way, that something has come up is perfectly fine, especially in a 9/11 situation–it’s not like people wouldn’t know what happened soon enough anyway.
I’m hardly a fan of Bush43, but I expect it was a little more nuanced than that. Somewhere along the way was probably also the prospect of eliminating a regime the Saudis perceived as a threat.
This issue is a massive pet peeve of mine. Not because I think it’s a very big deal, on the global scale. It’s certainly not. If I were to start listing failures of the Bush Presidency, it would be an awfully long time before I got all the way down to this, and in general the way Bush behaved in the first days and weeks immediately post-9/11 is one of the things I do not generally really object to. But because it strikes me as so utterly completely bafflingly clear that Bush’s actions here were not the actions of a strong decisive leader, and in fact completely (to me) indefensible… so this issue symbolized for me the extreme partisan unbudgingness that so defined our discourse recently. I so rarely if ever heard someone say “I’m a Republican, I generally supported Bush because I agreed with policies x, y, and z, but boy you’re sure right that it didn’t reflect well on him that he sat there for 7 minutes”. Again, I’m not saying that he should be impeached for it or anything, but if your two choices are (a) sitting there for seven minutes reflects well on Bush, or (b) sitting there for seven minutes reflects poorly on Bush; I am as certain as I’ve ever been about anything that (b) is clearly the correct choice.
Was he also considering if said children would taste better with sautéed mushrooms?
He’s pure evil, but he still has got to eat. Maybe a Sunni boy steak and a Shi’a girl ribs combo all seasoned with their parents’ tears for that salty taste.
I think Bush was a tool, stupid, and ignorant for thinking of not upsetting a few poor wittle tykes, over responding immediately to what was essentially open war by Muslim terrorists on the US. But it’s unfortunate when people want to flame Bush so much they can’t get straight one of the most basic facts about the topic at hand in the OP.
Good point! And those people who complain that he was wearing a blue tie! The pictures clearly show that it was a dark grey tie! I mean, if you can’t get straight on these crucial sartorial issues…
Do you really miss him so much that you need another Pit thread like this a decade after the event? Several years after he is out of office? So you all can run in circles and harumph, harumph, harumph?
Hate Bush is like a drug addiction you just can’t kick.
Well, not wanting to upset them is what he claims now. Personally, I think it more likely that at the time, he just sat in indecision, waiting for more information and guidance from his advisors, but that doesn’t sound as good. Of course, we only have his word for it and the observations of the witnesses.
You know, if he just copped to it, I wouldn’t have any problem at all. If he said to me “Ya know, 'luc, for about two minutes there my brain totally siezed up, I had no fucking idea what the hell to do”… Well, OK, I can relate. Wasn’t likely to be anything he could do in the ensuing two or three minutes anyway, the next step would have to be gather information and, of course, Don’t Panic.
I see it more of a “making sure we don’t forget history and repeat it” kind of thing. People dumb enough to elect W might be dumb enough to elect Palin or Bachmann.
I love me a good Bush bashing but this is ridiculous. Some of you act as if you know exactly what to do in any situation that comes up ever in life. It’s completely delusional.
Hindsight is 20/20. Unless you were in that man’s shoes, you don’t know WTF you would have done.
And shame on you guys for making me defend this asshole.
Love him, hate him, hate him a lot, hate him 'til your eyes bleed, whatever - we do not know what information was in the hands of the President or his people in those first few minutes.
I always thought there were more people than just the President in the government, and likely a few of them might be assigned gathering credible, verified information for the president to make decisions with. I might be willing to bet it takes a few more minutes than people realize to do this (regardless of what shows on tv make you think.)
Seven minutes is nothing.
And if I were a betting man the radio receiver they planted in his head so Dick Cheney can speak directly to him might have been on the fritz. That’ll use up some time right there.
Oh goodie. Another thread that will only further divide us. Yippee!
I think that Bush was one of the least qualified people to be elected President. And, yet, I have no complaints re his on-the-job performance on 9/11/11, as well as subsequent days. He didn’t knee jerk a reaction, he remained assertive yet calm, he called for help from our allies, and he spoke as eloquently as he was capable to settle the nation.
I sincerely hope that President Obama won’t ever be tested to the degree that President Bush was. Whether I personally voted for him or not, each was MY President, and I wish him nothing but overwhelming success. Until the majority of people in this nation share the same sentiment, we are doomed.
I’d simply like to make the point that at the time of the second WTC hit, none of us knew the nation was under attack. That didn’t become clear until later. I’m not sure what Bush could have fucked up in the missing seven minutes that he didn’t adequately fuck up later.