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Posted on 08/11/2004 1:28:05 PM PDT by wagglebee
It was a beautiful Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C. The sky was blue, the air was crisp, and millions of Americans were making their way to their jobs just as they did on any other day.
But this was no ordinary day. In fact, it was a day that would change not only my life but also the course of American history.
On this day, September 11, 2001, I rode with the top down in my friend's convertible along the highway toward the Pentagon. As I listened in disbelief to the radio reports of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, I was snapped back into reality by the roar of jet engines only a couple hundred feet above my head. Flight 77 then crashed in front of my eyes in a fiery explosion into the Pentagon.
I sat stunned in the car as we pulled to the side of the freeway. I looked around only to see more stunned looks – some eyes wide with shock, others streaming with tears.
Earlier, when President Bush received word of the second World Trade Center attack, he sat for seven minutes taking in what had just happened and fulfilling his obligation to the Florida students to whom he was reading. I sat in shock, and the president calmly sat and contemplated his next move. We now know, however, that had John Kerry been president, he would have acted – and he would have done so immediately.
Speaking at the Unity Conference, a quadrennial gathering of the four largest minority journalism associations, Sen. Kerry told the audience, "First of all, had I been reading to children, and had my top aide whispered in my ear, 'America is under attack,' I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the president of the United States had business that he needed to attend to, and I would have attended to it."
Although plenty has been said regarding President Bush and his efforts in the war on terror, until Kerry's comment no political figure, neither Republican nor Democrat, has criticized President Bush's actions on that terrible day. Now, with either the benefit of divine hindsight or a complete lack of understanding of the fog of the day, Kerry claims he could have done things better. He would have "attended to business."
Just what would Kerry have done upon hearing the news? How could things have run more smoothly under President Kerry from the time he was whispered the information until the time he left the classroom? In those seven minutes could we have saved an additional life? Could we have gotten a jump start on attacking al-Qaida?
In Kerry's zeal for the White House, he has shown in one sentence that playing politics with the memory of 9/11 is not beyond his limits of decency. It is impossible to say what we would have or could have done during 9/11. It is only possible to say what each one of us did do as the events unfolded on that fateful day.
I sat stunned until the realization hit us that we needed to call loved ones to let them know what was happening. President Bush was charting a course of action while remaining calm in a classroom of children. Despite what Kerry says he would have done on 9/11, upon hearing the news of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center, Kerry told CNN's Larry King that he and fellow senators "watched the second plane come in to the building."
"And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think," Kerry continued to King.
Kerry said he was shaken out of his non-thinking state by seeing the "cloud of explosion at the Pentagon." Between the time of the second World Trade Center attack and the attack on the Pentagon, 40 minutes elapsed. That's 40 minutes of the Democrats' presidential nominee being unable to think.
Yet, despite the fact that as senator Kerry was unable to think for 40 minutes, the American public is supposed to believe that President Bush was wrong to continue reading for seven minutes and that as president, Kerry would have acted immediately.
This notion would be ridiculous if it weren't so tragic. No one – except Kerry, it seems – can honestly say how they would have acted had they been in a different role on September 11, 2001.
If you were a firefighter with a wife and children at home and you were standing at the doors of one of the World Trade Center towers, would you have rushed in?
If the situation arose, and as a fighter pilot you were ordered to kill innocent American civilians on a passenger airliner, could you have done it?
These are unknown questions and will always remain unknown. Tragedies such as 9/11 make heroes out of normal people and turn novice officeholders into leaders. Kerry, to his shame, claims a course of action that can never be known.
This campaign for president of the United States will surely have its share of attack ads, accusations and counter-accusations. As it unfolds, I can only hope that Sen. Kerry will remember 9/11 for what it was – a terrible day for America, a day that ended the lives of some and changed the lives of all.
In the meantime, if given the choice between a man who sat calmly for seven minutes in order to process unspeakable terrorist attacks and a man who sat for 40 minutes unable to think, I'll take the former any day of the week.
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Excellent post.....Thank you!
I suspect that John Kerry has spent a considerable portion of his life sitting at a table, surrounded by fellow Democrats, all of whom are likewise "unable to think". He's the most singularly vapid idiot to come along in years.
I don't know which is scarier, that he actually expects people to believe him, or that there are people in this country who do. I can actually almost understand those who follow him out of hatred for America (not that I agree w/them, I completely loathe them). They are so wrapped in hatred of America and conservatism that simply choose to follow (or manipulate) him for their own twisted idealogies. It's the "ovine masses" who are drug along by liberal lunacy, and should know better, who make me crazy.
A proveable lie. No way could he have seen that from the Senate office building.
True...but I think Bush had a whole lot on his mind besides the children. I think he was composing his thoughts for an upcoming statement while his people arranged the podium etc.
Sometimes sitting in front of a group of people is actually a good place to do some thinking.
He could not have left if he wanted to. The Secret Service would have held him back until they reviewed the scene, and had confirmed safe passage.
Yes, he was:
"I was in the Capitol. We'd just had a meeting - we'd just come into a leadership meeting in Tom Daschle's office, looking out at the Capitol. And as I came in, Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon. And then word came from the White House, they were evacuating, and we were to evacuate, and so we immediately began the evacuation."
Guess what John Edwards did:
KING: How did you hear about it?
E. EDWARDS: The word started passing because we were in Washington. Word started passing around the sale. People were getting cell phone calls about it, and of course there were a lot of people at that sale who had family members at the Pentagon.
So there was a tremendous amount of panic. And people were -- you know, were leaving, quickly dropping what they had in their hands and going immediately home. And there was -- I was actually lucky to get back into Washington, because they started closing the bridges.
KING: Senator, did you go to the -- to the Senate?
J. EDWARDS: What happened with me, Larry, is I dropped Emma Claire, my now 6-year-old daughter, off at school. I was on my way to -- in fact, I was just beside the Capitol on my way to the Senate office building when I received a call on my -- on my cell phone telling me what had happened in New York.
I went on in to the -- to my Senate office building. Then we saw the second plane hit, and, of course, the strike on the Pentagon. I left the Capitol, because I was worried about my family. I left the Capitol, went home. I was there for a period of time.
And, actually, after I was there for a fairly short period of time, the Capitol Police came to my home, knocked on the door, and said that they were gathering up senators to take us to a -- to a safe or secure location. And I said, "Well, what about my wife and my kids?" And they said, "Well, they'll stay here."
And I said, "Well, if they're staying here, I'm saying here." So...
KING: You didn't go.
J. EDWARDS: I did not go. .
I believe you are right.
C'mon.
Kerry is such a courageous Vietnam hero he would have instinctively grabbed the nearest gun off a Secret Service agent, and he would have dashed into the school parking lot while single-handedly firing vollies of bullets into the air.
Then he would have taken out those 19 hi-jackers all by himself.
How can people doubt? Sheezh.
Of course.
The 20/20 notation means that a person can see at 20 feet, what a person of perfect eyesight can see at 20 feet. 80/80 would reflect similar. In real use, the first digit is always 20. A blind person might be 20/1000, a person with exceptionally good eyesight is 20/15 or 20/10.
How Visual Acuity Is Measured <-- Link
I knew what you meant, obviously. I just like to dig into the "correct" forms of expression.
For the record, it took Bush FIVE minutes to read and go.
Even though the Dems are criticizing Bush for taking five whole minutes to take action, he took action the RIGHT way.
He continued to read to children despite the horror that had occured; that was a sign of strength...the strength to remain strong and calm in the face of adversity.
Can Kerry claim that? No.
We all know what Clinton would have done those first five minutes.
Help Monica brush off her knees.
No, Nixon had sent him to Cambodia again, although Tricky Dick still denies this!
Thanks Dio for the audio. I never heard that particular version before. Enya was fitting.
Makes me madder than mad.
NEVER FORGET
Bump for a later listen
I don't know how long it took Bush to get his thoughts together. I don't know what he was told. I do know Kerry is a liar and opportunist, a miscreant.
I do know that Bush has a very able staff. VP Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice and Aides....
I do know that Kerry has Edwards and Heinz. I do know that Kerry had Berger on his team. Now he's got this Rice woman.
If you know a man by the company he keeps, then we keep Bush. But America is a sick nation. If 48% like a socialist s.o.b., a congential liar (at home in his party), then we become like Canada, France and Germany. EOM.
Kerry admitted he was stunned for over 40 seconds.
While reading to children, the President was told another plane had hit WTC which meant we were under attack.
While his staff was prepared his departure, the Secret Service secured an alternate route for the Presidential motorcade and Air Force One. While continuing to be calm in front of the children, school staff, and parents, President Bush made the executive decision to ground all aircraft, and during those minutes to make the decision to issue orders to shoot down any aircraft that failed to comply.
Time frame - 5-7 minutes.
Within those "seven minutes" and another 33 minutes, a seasoned senator admittingly sat frozen unable to move. Now, 3 years claims he would have run to the WTC.
Who would you rather have lead our country?
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