As far as I can see, the fuss over Bush on 9/11 was not over the book he was reading, which was perfectly appropriate for the young kids he was visiting, but over the fact that he was so unable to figure out for himself what he should do. Instead he looked like a deer in the headlights.
Now I understand that he would not have wanted to cause a panic among small children by saying that terrorists had just killed a bunch of people. But he could easily have told them something along the lines of: “I’m sorry folks, but something important just came up and I have to go back to work. But it’s been a real treat for me to visit you here and I promise I’ll come back and finish the story with you soon.”
The fact that he didn’t have the presence of mind to do that is IMHO what people were scandalized about.
Yes, you have a point, he certainly didn’t react how we think a president should react but then again his shock and surprise was all too human and understandable. Politicians are only people after all.
At the very least you would think the conspiracy theorists would take that on board, if he planned it surely he wouldn’t have been so taken aback by it?
I agree with you about the conspiracy theorists. If there had been a conspiracy, even if he wasn’t directly in the loop, surely his handlers would have been ready. But then, rational thought is not generally one of the hallmarks of conspiracy theorists.
Very true, I think I’ve been on the SD forums for too long because whenever I run into a conspiracy theorist in real life I’m always taken aback that people actually believe this stuff.
heh I actually did a google search to see if ‘Operation United American’ was actually a thing
This reminds me of something I’ve occasionally wondered, how the US President (or General Secretary of the USSR I suppose) would have actually reacted in the event of a nuclear strike on their nations, we like to think they’d coolly and calmly leap into action making the appropriate decisions in a timely manner. However I suspect it would be more like the scenario in the novel Warday by Whitley Streiber where the President suffers a fatal heart-attack under the strain of events.
I don’t know how true it is but I have read that during the 1995 ‘Norwegian Rocket Incident’ President Yeltsin had their equivalent of the nuclear briefcase opened and that he is described as sweating and groaning with the pressure of trying to make a decision.
Its really an inhumanly difficult thing to ask anyone, to make a decision in a matter of minutes that whichever way you cut it is going to result in the deaths of millions if not billions of people.
While I don’t subscribe to a 911 conspiracy theory, I do know that the US knew an attack was imminent. That’s always been the headscratcher to me…if there is a Presidential Daily Briefing entitled “Bid Laden Determined to Attack In U.S.”, don’t you think that, at some point in the meeting, they’d discuss the actual logistics of any attack? I have always wondered if Bush’s deer in the headlights look was him trying to remember what Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, and Rove had all laid out for him.
Here’s the point, as was explained to me by a FBI agent investigating the attacks. (I had a little bit to do with those investigations, the FBI delivered many boxes of documents for me to check over to look for Money movement, etc.)
The way you’re looking at is is like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s a landscape with a hou,e barn, etc. It’s about 1/3 completed. But you can look at the box and see the picture (i.e. you have hindsight) so of course that piece is a cloud and that one a bush, etc.
Now, let’s look at what they had to think about before the attack. Same 1/3 completed. But now take away the box lid. Take out 1/3 of the pieces from your puzzle, and add back a bunch of pieces from other puzzles. Throw in a few totally blank pieces.
Now, take a Piece. Is that fuzzy white thing still a cloud? (you can also do this with the Pearl Harbor attack, for example)
So yeah with 20/20 hindsight it seems obvious. The method of attack wasnt mentioned and it was completely new.
Well, in a sense. But an attack on the WTC wasn’t unprecedented, and the hijacking of a plane isn’t novel, even if flying it into a building was.
But I am more thinking along general lines of what do you do, where do you go.
“Mr. President, if such an attack does occur, the first thing you’ll need to do is get to a secure location. If you are in the White House, it’s the situation room. If you are on the road, though, we’ll want to get you onto Air Force 1 and in the air ASAP. So, even if you are in the middle of a speech, if Andrew Card gives word that we are under attack, you should immediately say “An issue has arisen, and I need to go” and get to your limo. Once there, if Dick and I are able, we’ll patch in. Otherwise, plan on our first conference call once you are above 30,000 feet.”
It’s sort of like a fire drill - you don’t necessarily need to know what starts the fire, or where it is strongest, to be able to come up with a plan about meeting up a safe distance away.
I’m not suggesting anything nefarious. I’m just wondering if any sort of previous discussion was running through Bush’s head when Andrew Card whispered in his ear.
To be fair, Ashcroft flew commercial a few times during that period for personal travel. Other Cabinet members also flew commercial for official business as well, though typically State and Defense fly with added security.
And the Pearl Harbor reference doesn’t work either, since the government knew that attack was imminent and attempted to get word to Admiral Kimmel.
Apparently, New York governor Andrew Cuomo questioned the assumption that America is so great, at a fundraiser. Some see it as a mild gaffe, but I don’t — if there’s something that DOES make Americans “great,” it’s our willingness (some of us, anyway) to admit that we AREN’T so great — that this is a work in progress, that we can do better.
