What Bush Did Wrong On 9-11

By Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director - http://LoveAllPeople.org

HTML page at http://www.loveallpeople.org/whatbushdidwrongon911.html

September 11, 2006

Five years ago today, I was working at my computer, just as I am now,
when I noticed an item on Google News, saying something about an
airplane crashing into the World Trade Center.

What Bush Did Wrong On 9-11

By Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director - http://LoveAllPeople.org

HTML page at http://www.loveallpeople.org/whatbushdidwrongon911.html

September 11, 2006

Five years ago today, I was working at my computer, just as I am now,
when I noticed an item on Google News, saying something about an
airplane crashing into the World Trade Center. Immediately I turned on
the TV, figuring there would be live coverage of this story, if it were
true. There was live coverage in progress, and I started watching it
just in time to see the second airplane crash into the towers. One
airplane could possibly have been an accident, or perhaps the work of
one deranged person. (Remember the Egyptian pilot a few years ago who
deliberately crashed his plane into the ocean, for no apparent reason?)
But two airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center at almost the
same time: This must be a terrorist plot!

And that is exactly what it was: a terrorist plot. By the end of that
day, the whole world knew the broad outline of the situation - a
terrorist organization had planned and executed a co-ordinated series
of attacks on the United States mainland, and had succeeded in
destroying two huge commercial buildings in New York City, damaging the
Pentagon, and killing thousands of Americans.

The first question, of course, was, "How did it happen?" The obvious
answer was, "Somebody did it, and our Government failed to stop it."
Details came later, and they are still trickling in, years after the
official 9-11 Commission Report. Maybe we know the whole story now; and
maybe we do not.

But the second question, which received an immediate answer, was "What
are we going to do about it? And the Bush administration - the very
same people who had failed to prevent the attacks, despite clear and
urgent warnings that attacks were being planned - had a quick answer,
seemingly already planned in advance: these attacks were not mere
terrorism, but "acts of war" against "all freedom-loving people
everywhere in the world," and that the United States "will use all our
resources to conquer this enemy."

This is what the President announced, the very next morning, September
12, 2001 . . .

"I have just completed a meeting with my national security team, and we
have received the latest intelligence updates.

"The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday
against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of
war. This will require our country to unite in steadfast determination
and resolve. Freedom and democracy are under attack.

"The American people need to know that we're facing a different enemy
than we have ever faced. This enemy hides in shadows, and has no regard
for human life. This is an enemy who preys on innocent and unsuspecting
people, then runs for cover. But it won't be able to run for cover
forever. This is an enemy that tries to hide. But it won't be able to
hide forever. This is an enemy that thinks its harbors are safe. But
they won't be safe forever.

"This enemy attacked not just our people, but all freedom-loving people
everywhere in the world. The United States of America will use all our
resources to conquer this enemy. We will rally the world. We will be
patient, we will be focused, and we will be steadfast in our
determination.

"This battle will take time and resolve. But make no mistake about it:
we will win."

Source:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010912-4.html, with a
back-up copy of the text located at
http://www.patriot.net/users/bmcgin/whitehouse20010912-4.txt and with a
voice recording at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010912-4.a.ram
As we can see from this announcement, Bush had already adopted and was
presenting a national policy for responding to the attacks, on the very
next day after the attacks occurred. This tells me that this Bush
policy had been well planned long in advance, and that the Bush
administration had simply been awaiting a suitable terrorist event to
put it into action.

(Some people have even suspected that the real reason the Bush
Administration was so badly unprepared for these attacks was that some
elements within the Administration did not really want all terrorist
acts to be prevented . . .)

And thus the Bush Administration - all by itself - redefined terrorism
from criminality to war, and transformed the criminal Islamist
extremists into Holy Warriors For God. Soon thereafter, Bush foolishly
announced that this battle against Islamic Terrorists was now a
(Christian) "Crusade against terror." My heart sank when I heard him
say that, because this meant that he had lost all contact with reality,
and had jumped completely off the deep end. By thinking of this policy
as a Crusade, Bush had guaranteed that Muslims everywhere would
eventually unite against us. And this is what is now happening.

If moderate mainstream Muslims must choose between capturing and
prosecuting criminal militant Islamists vs. not capturing and
prosecuting them, it is easy for them to support capturing and
prosecuting - the "Law Enforcement" route, as applied by Bill Clinton
and all previous presidents. But if they must choose between Muslim
Holy Warriors For God (Allah) vs. Christian Crusaders in a war, it
becomes very difficult for them to support us.

And that is the mess we are in today, because of George W. Bush's bad
judgment.


You fool. The mess we are in today, is due to Jimmy Carter, throwing