Posted on 07/29/2011 2:21:29 AM PDT by markomalley
George W Bush says his blank reaction to the first news of the Sept 11 attacks while US president was a conscious decision to project an aura of calm in a crisis.
In a rare interview with the National Geographic Channel, Mr Bush reflected on what was going through his mind when he was informed that a second passenger jet had hit New York's World Trade Center.
Mr Bush was visiting a Florida classroom at the time, and the incident - which was caught by television cameras - has often been used by critics to ridicule his apparently dazed response to the attack
"My first reaction was anger. Who the hell would do that to America? Then I immediately focused on the children, and the contrast between the attack and the innocence of children," Mr Bush said.
Mr Bush said he could see journalists at the back of the classroom getting the news on their own cellphones "and it was like watching a silent movie."
Mr Bush said he quickly realised that a lot of people beyond the room would be watching for his reaction.
"So I made the decision not to jump up immediately and leave the classroom. I didn't want to rattle the kids. I wanted to project a sense of calm," he said of his decision to remain seated and silent.
"I had been in enough crises to know that the first thing a leader has to do is to project calm," he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
9:06: The FAA bans takeoffs of all flights bound to or through the airspace of New York Center from airports in that Center and the three adjacent Centers — Boston, Cleveland, and Washington. This is referred to as a First Tier groundstop and covers the Northeast from North Carolina north and as far west as eastern Michigan.
9:08: The FAA bans all takeoffs nationwide for flights going to or through New York Center airspace. ABC reports later that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that runs the New York-area airports, asked the FAA for permission to close down the New York Center airspace.
9:11: The last PATH train leaves the World Trade Center. The station is vacant when the towers collapse.
9:13: The F-15 fighters from Otis Air National Guard Base leave military airspace near Long Island, bound for Manhattan.
9:14: President Bush returned to a holding room commandeered by the Secret Service shortly before 9:15. The holding room contains a telephone, a television showing the news coverage, and several senior staff members. The president speaks to Vice President Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, New York Governor George Pataki, and FBI Director Robert Mueller, and prepares brief remarks.[11]
If one reads the timeline it is clear that as CIC Bush did nothing out of the ordinary. Those who make a big deal about this might as well be on DU ....its where they belong
GW Bush arrived as they finished setting it up.
There was enough (understandable) panic in the country as it was without the President making it worse.
I saw a look of concern being kept in check so as not to scare the kids - and the rest of us.
Can only imagine how President Bush felt at that moment.
Thanks for the info — it is bizarre (or worse) that there are people willing to pretend that there is something of national consequence (besides remaining calm and not causing panic) President Bush should have been doing in those first few minutes — communications had to be set up and staffers were scrambling just to find out basic facts as they were unfolding in multiple locations.
Further, I don’t recall “those 7 minutes” in the classroom ever being an issue before the Michael Moore-on film of June 2004.
I believe I followed news and commentary regarding 9/11 more closely than at least 99.9% of the population, and I along with millions had no awareness that there could be an issue about “Bush in the classroom” until Moore’s propaganda film made it one.
In any case, no matter how or when this topic came up, my reasons for regarding it as a spurious issue have been detailed on the thread.
bump for later
I don’t really care about a few minutes. He had cameras on him and took a few minutes to think things through...so what. His actions after that were dead on correct. I am amazed so many want to discuss Bush when Obama has made a HUGE mess of the debt ceiling/budget issues. We have bigger fish to fry.
compare this reaction to the hysteria of Mayor Nagin during Katrina.
Ok - compare this reaction to the hysteria of MOST liberals when faced with a crisis.
You are taking my comments further than is justified. Saying that Bush ought to have acted better than he did is not equivalent to siding with the opposition.
A President in the White House is far safer and better protected than anyone else in the capital or elsewhere in the country. Yet symbolism matters. Having a nation’s leaders sharing in at least some measure in the risks endured by the populace at war communicates solidarity and courage. Leaders can be replaced, but leaders thought cowardly lose the support of their people. And that is why Bush was right to return to DC on the night of 9/11.
The photograph of that moment is etched for posterity. President George W Bush’s hands are folded formally in his lap, his head turned to hear the words of Andy Card, his chief of staff. His face has a distant, sober look, almost frozen, edging on bewilderment.
It is the moment when, after Bush read to children at the Emma E Booker elementary school in Sarasota, Florida, Card whispered in his right ear: “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.”
He remembers thinking, “They had declared war on us . . . I made up my mind at that moment that we were going to war.”
PRESIDENT BUSH WAS reading to second graders at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, when Rove brought him the news that a plane had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. At first, it seemed it might be an accident, pilot error or maybe, Bush thought, the pilot had had a heart attack.
He was sitting on a stool in the classroom in a dark suit, blue shirt and bright red tie. A small blackboard behind him said, “Reading makes a country great!”
Andrew H. Card Jr., 55, Bush’s chief of staff and a former White House aide to Reagan and Bush senior, soon interrupted the president and whispered directly in his right ear, “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.”
A photo of that moment is etched for history. The president’s hands are folded formally in his lap, his head turned to hear Card’s words. His face has a distant sober look, almost frozen, edging on bewilderment. Bush remembers exactly what he was thinking: “They had declared war on us, and I made up my mind at that moment that we were going to war.”
Bush did return to Washington on 9/11 — action that is much to his credit.
Presidential communication facilities are considerably more advanced than borrowing use of a TV set in a spare classroom.
I hope you aren’t in the military, knowing that when you start commando/terrorist operations when the president is away at a location that you already know (or don’t), and that the President will always be sent straight to a certain urban address that you already know, is sure an asset, if you want to take him out.
You seem to want to beat some childish point of view against Bush and you sound like a child while doing it.
As soon as possible, the Secret Service and military got Bush to Air Force 1 and into the air. And, once again, I make the point that Bush made the correct call in ending 9/11 back in Washington. You seem to differ on that.
No, they removed him from Sarasota, after that you want policy to be that he fly directly back to Washington and then they take him directly to the White House, always.
What is your point with all this childish nonsense?
My main point -- again -- is that after learning the country was under attack, Bush ought to have politely broken off the PR session with the kiddies and tended to his duties as commander in chief. Not doing so was a mistake. He may have thought he was projecting calm, but to many, he seemed detached and bewildered.
I can’t believe that you are so fixated on this.
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