The attack on 9/11 was pretty much unpreventable by 2001.
The last chance was in the airports that morning. Other than that, things were too far along by January 2001.
3 words Tredrick:
My - Pet - Goat
Question: If he went charging out of that classroom and to teh nearest telephone what could he have done? Would this have miraculously stopped the plan from hitting the Pentagon? Would he have issued orders that were not already being given? Would thh terrorists have seen Bush was serious and all turned themselves in?
What wonder of wonders would Bush charging out of that room have done?
He is the commander in chief. The 9/11 commission report shows that had he acted within 1 minute of being told the united states was under attack the planes could have been stopped. Instead he spent 7 reading to children. I don't know about you, but I would abandon the kids and defend my country.
He had a sixty second window? Sorry, but if he had gotten up and left immediately then he would have to be briefed and brought up to speed and he would have given the same order that was given later and what he did when he stayed in the classroom: He would have left it up to the experts to decide what to do.
There is a chain of command. With the President out of communications leadership fell to other people, who the 9-11 commision shows acted about as well as could be expected. The President would have deferred to the people who were trained to deal with the situation.
He had been briefed before-hand. I don't even believe he gave the order after that 7 minutes, that is when he left the classroom. And what did our commander in chief do that day. He ran!!! He flew around the country on Air Force one hiding rather than leading this nation.
What should he have done? FLown next to the plane that wa sheading to DC and went down in PA, jumped on board it and defeated the terrorists in hand to hand combat? WOuld make a great movie, but has no basis in anything close to reality.
He had not been briefed on what was happening. All he knew was that 2 planes had flown into the WTC. That is what he was told.
Again, what should he have done? Gone back to the white house? He can lead as well if not better from AF1 than he can from Marine 1 and inside the WH itself.
Seriously, what could he have done? All he knew coming out of the room was that 2 planes had hit the TWC. What action could he take? Groundstop? Already happening. Try to contact all planes in the air? Happening.
What could the President have done that was not already being done?
Regardless of what happened before the day, I agree It's petty to have a go at Bush for how he acted a few minutes when he heard the news, he is only human - just imagine how you'd react (or how you did react) if you hear such information. Such cirmcumstances are shocking and confusing and it takes a while for it to hit in - maybe a bit too long in his case but still there wouldn't have been anything he could've done that others couldn't have or weren't already doing. There weren't any secret servie running in to get him. He just had to sit there and awkwardly wait to know what the hell was going on.
I don't think some of you dems would've treated Gore with the same standards and I'm not going to treat Bush with such standards. Gore wouldn't have been much different, and he would've retaliated and gone after Bin Laden, not just because of the fact that he'd be forced to by public pressure but becasue he would believe it to be the right thing to do. Don't forget that there was a huge wave of international sympathy and support for the US - they could do anything they want without question. What amazes me is how quickly Bush lost that consenus - that seems to me a real diplomatic failure.
