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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (295886)	9/11/2002 5:40:53 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

George W. Bush’s Year Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002 newsmax.com He was sitting in a Florida classroom, reading to youngsters, when he got the news. It has been said that nothing will ever again be the same for America and Americans after that dreadful day, but for President Bush the change 9/11 wrought was more than profound – it was earthshaking. In a few minutes, he went from being a peacetime president worrying about the economy, taxes and other domestic concerns to being a wartime commander in chief responsible for making momentous decisions that would affect the lives of every American and people all around the world. Before 9/11 surly Democrats, still unable to grasp the fact that they had lost the presidency in 2000, carped about Bush's legitimacy as the nation's chief executive, and questioned his intellect and his ability to lead the nation. Even in the hours after those planes crashed into the Twin Towers and plunged the nation into a war, some of them, joined by their allies in the elitist liberal media, criticized the president for allowing the secret service and the military to keep him away from the nation's capital until his safety could be assured. And then, in one stunning, unforgettable speech before a joint session of Congress, his critics and the nation saw exactly what this man is made of. They saw the steel that lay behind that friendly, aw shucks exterior. They saw the Texan, tall in the saddle. They saw the Westerner telling America's enemies what George M. Cohan's great war anthem told our World War I foes: "The Yanks are coming, and we won't be back 'til it's over, over there." A minute-by-minute account of the days beginning with 9/11 and its immediate aftermath published in, of all places, the Washington Post revealed the true character of the man – careful, deliberate, firm – a man who knew what had to be done and how to go about doing it. He took charge, gave the needed orders and made sure they were carried out. Pacing himself, he went about the job of putting the pieces scattered by the surprise attack back together. Incredibly, critics, mainly in the media and in the corrupt groves of academia began almost immediately to complain about the pace of the war being launched in Afghanistan, blithely ignoring the complicated logistics of assembling an army left in near disarray by his predecessor and moving it thousands of miles into the strange and forbidding landscape of a nation that has for centuries been the graveyard for foreign troops rash enough to fight there. The president, these malcontents proclaimed, had led America into a quagmire where America would be bogged down for years to come. The Taliban, they said, was a fierce and resourceful foe capable of running circles around everyone who dares to oppose them, from the British to the Soviets, both of whom had been humiliated and sent packing. It would, they predicted, be a long and costly adventure that would kill large numbers of American troops over an extended period of warfare. And then, in just a matter of a few weeks, those fierce Taliban warriors were routed. And American troops were barely scratched. In this past year, George W. Bush has already made a place for himself in the pantheon of great American presidents. A target of unremitting attacks from his political foes, often stymied by obstructionists in a Senate controlled by Democrats, thanks to the craven desertion of Sen. Jeffords, George Bush has retained the confidence and admiration of a great majority of his fellow citizens. He's earned it.