In memoirs, Former US President says he wanted to project calm after attacks
In memoirs, Former US President says he wanted to project calm after attacksThey were the seven minutes that, for some, came to define a presidency.
In denial? George Bush said that the first reaction he felt after he heard
of the 9/11 attacks was anger. File picsOn one side of the TV screen, a New York landmark was in flames after hijacked planes smashed into the World Trade Centre.
On the other, George Bush sat before a group of children looking like a startled rabbit, conveying a sense of paralysis, if not panic, after an aide told him of the attacks.
Angry reaction But Bush says that anyone who thinks he was in shock has got it wrong. He was trying not to create panic. "My first reaction was anger.
How dare they do this to America?" Bush said in an interview to coincide with the release of his memoirs.
"I made the decision not to jump up and create a chaotic scene, because right after...These are quick reflections, anger, duty to protect the country, and then all of a sudden the cellphones are ringing.
Now, the noise [from reporters receiving calls about the attacks]," he said.
Pressed on whether he was paralysed into inaction, Bush was dismissive. "I'm not going to debate the critics as to whether or not I was in shock or not. I wasn't. And they can read the book, and they can draw their own conclusion," he said.
Bush's book, Decision Points, offers insights into his beliefs, including a vigorous defence of the death penalty in an argument over dinner with Cherie Blair.
War on IraqMuch of it is dedicated to justifying what some consider to be indefensible, his invasion of Iraq on a spurious pretext of hunting for weapons of mass destruction.
The former president acknowledges there were dissenters on the question of whether to go to war. He claims he was among them.
"I was a dissenting voice. I didn't want to use force. I mean force is the last option for a president," he said.
"I mean apologising would basically say the decision was a wrong decision. And I don't believe it was the wrong decision," he said.
The memoirs give a glimpse of the paranoia that engulfed his administration in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks.
| Priceless MomentsI |
>>In his memoir Decision Points, Bush mentions that he actually thought of dumping Dick Cheney as his Vice- President.
>>He also adds in his book that he hit an "all-time low" after critics like rapper Kanye West said his handling of the disaster showed that "George Bush doesn't care about black people."
>>There are also some lighter revelations, like when Bush writes of being surly while growing up.
>>"I poured vodka in the fishbowl and killed my little sister Doro's goldfish." |
