On September 12, 2001, the world was with us. Even Iran and Qaddafi were extending offers of assistance. Our long-time friends, like France, were ready to follow us into Hell if that would help. The Bush Administration's ham-handed manipulation and cement-headed diplomacy quickly turned most of the world from our blood compatriots into, at best, disgusted neutrals, and at worst, active antagonists. Whether through ineptitude, stupidity, or malice, the Bush Administration failed to address the real causes of the terrorist attacks five years ago. Instead, these frat-boys with too-powerful toys scratched their balls, beat their chests, and declared freedom the enemy of the terrorists. Dutifully, they set to work to dismantle that freedom, presumably to reduce the target.
But, let's go back twenty-four hours.
President Bush has just spent the night at an exclusive resort in Florida. Surface-to-air missiles are on the roof of the resort. Shortly after 6 am, a van with four men said to be of Middle Eastern descent arrives at the resort, claiming to have arranged an interview with Bush. They are turned away.
According to the 9-11 Commission Report, at 8:32, a flight attendant uses an Airphone to contact American Airlines and report that Flight 11 has been hijacked. The conversation lasts for 12 minutes. Among the details she provides are that the hijackers appear to be of Middle East descent, have stormed the cockpit and that it appears that the pilots are no longer flying the plane. She says that they have a bomb, have stabbed two other attendants and killed one passenger.
At 8:35 am, Bush leaves the resort for a twenty minute ride to an elementary school for a Photo Op. Two minutes later, according to the Commission Report, NORAD is notified that Flight 11 has been hijacked and has turned towards NYC; the FAA requests that fighter jets be scrambled.
At 8:46 Flight 11 hits WTC Tower 1. Accounts are conflicting over when Bush was finally told. Some have him being told while on his limo ride, others immediately upon his arrival at the school at 8:55. He has said (several times) that he saw the video of the first plan hitting the tower on a TV right before he entered the classroom. This is untrue as the first video was not aired until late that evening. In any event, everyone agrees that Bush was told that the plane had struck the tower before he went into the classroom. What else Bush was told is the subject of varying reports.
At about 9:01, Cheney turned on the television to watch the coverage of the first plane strike when, at 9:03 he witnessed the second strike. At 9:05, Andrew Card told the President “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.” (Most of this narrative is taken from the Commission Report, which you can search here.) What happened next deserves to be seen in it's painful entirety.
Very soon after the first attack, I had received a call from a friend who told me to put on CNN. I did and called the rest of the office into the conference room -- many of us had long contacts with NYC and knew people in the Towers and the area. We all witnessed the second plane hit. Before the President picked up "My Pet Goat" we were on the phone to friends and relatives in the area and had a discussion about the likely sources of the attack. By the time that the President was talking to the students at a podium in the school, we had closed the office for the day, cancelled appointments, and sent everyone home to be with their families and in touch with loved ones and friends in New York. Unbeknownst to me at the time, a cousin's son was at that moment climbing the stairs in Tower 1, a NYC firefighter off that day, he reported to the scene without being called. He was never seen again.
All the while, my President stood stock still at 9 am. Then he scurried around the country, hiding and occasionally peeking out from under his covers.
Five years later, our long-standing alliances are shaken and bent, the potential for new alliances is broken, our vulnerability to terrorist attack is unchanged, the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission (itself resisted by Bush) are all but ignored, and our civil liberties under attack by our own Government.
Imagine where we could be today had we had a real leader, a person of vision and history, leading an executive branch of talent and expertise. Over the course of our history, we have been fortunate to have such people at the fore exactly when we needed them -- Franklin, Adams, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln. Our luck has run out.
But, let's go back twenty-four hours.
President Bush has just spent the night at an exclusive resort in Florida. Surface-to-air missiles are on the roof of the resort. Shortly after 6 am, a van with four men said to be of Middle Eastern descent arrives at the resort, claiming to have arranged an interview with Bush. They are turned away.
According to the 9-11 Commission Report, at 8:32, a flight attendant uses an Airphone to contact American Airlines and report that Flight 11 has been hijacked. The conversation lasts for 12 minutes. Among the details she provides are that the hijackers appear to be of Middle East descent, have stormed the cockpit and that it appears that the pilots are no longer flying the plane. She says that they have a bomb, have stabbed two other attendants and killed one passenger.
At 8:35 am, Bush leaves the resort for a twenty minute ride to an elementary school for a Photo Op. Two minutes later, according to the Commission Report, NORAD is notified that Flight 11 has been hijacked and has turned towards NYC; the FAA requests that fighter jets be scrambled.
At 8:46 Flight 11 hits WTC Tower 1. Accounts are conflicting over when Bush was finally told. Some have him being told while on his limo ride, others immediately upon his arrival at the school at 8:55. He has said (several times) that he saw the video of the first plan hitting the tower on a TV right before he entered the classroom. This is untrue as the first video was not aired until late that evening. In any event, everyone agrees that Bush was told that the plane had struck the tower before he went into the classroom. What else Bush was told is the subject of varying reports.
At about 9:01, Cheney turned on the television to watch the coverage of the first plane strike when, at 9:03 he witnessed the second strike. At 9:05, Andrew Card told the President “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.” (Most of this narrative is taken from the Commission Report, which you can search here.) What happened next deserves to be seen in it's painful entirety.Very soon after the first attack, I had received a call from a friend who told me to put on CNN. I did and called the rest of the office into the conference room -- many of us had long contacts with NYC and knew people in the Towers and the area. We all witnessed the second plane hit. Before the President picked up "My Pet Goat" we were on the phone to friends and relatives in the area and had a discussion about the likely sources of the attack. By the time that the President was talking to the students at a podium in the school, we had closed the office for the day, cancelled appointments, and sent everyone home to be with their families and in touch with loved ones and friends in New York. Unbeknownst to me at the time, a cousin's son was at that moment climbing the stairs in Tower 1, a NYC firefighter off that day, he reported to the scene without being called. He was never seen again.
All the while, my President stood stock still at 9 am. Then he scurried around the country, hiding and occasionally peeking out from under his covers.
Five years later, our long-standing alliances are shaken and bent, the potential for new alliances is broken, our vulnerability to terrorist attack is unchanged, the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission (itself resisted by Bush) are all but ignored, and our civil liberties under attack by our own Government.
Imagine where we could be today had we had a real leader, a person of vision and history, leading an executive branch of talent and expertise. Over the course of our history, we have been fortunate to have such people at the fore exactly when we needed them -- Franklin, Adams, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln. Our luck has run out.
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