How Bush’s Life Changed After 9/11

Posted by on . 2 comments.

Watching George Bush‘s farewell speech, my predominant reaction: the man is the walking, talking past tense of “an accident waiting to happen”.

I can’t believe he really said his life changed after 9/11 because he had an intelligence briefing every morning:

As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11. But I never did. Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our nation. I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe.

Were most Americans, when they heard these words, reminded of another Presidential Daily Briefing. From before 9/11? From the days when Bush still received a briefing on the threats to our Nation every morning, he just didn’t take them seriously. Because back then he hadn’t yet vowed to do everything in his power to keep us safe?

Comments

  1. kiel says:
    January 16, 2009 at 7:22 am

    Spot on. I recall reading in the New York Review of Books that at one of the pre-9/11 briefings, someone brought up bin Laden, and W snapped something like, OK. You’ve covered your ass. Now shut up about him. I don’t want to hear anything else about it.

    I’m paraphrasing here, except for the “covered your ass” part. Maybe the pathetic simpleton really does feel he protected ‘Merica after 9/11, just by virtue of having paid attention at the briefings after that date. Sort of like how some people believe tossing salt over their shoulder after a spill will prevent bad luck.

  2. sarabeth says:
    January 16, 2009 at 7:42 am

    Yes, that’s precisely the briefing I was referring to. It was the opening anecdote in Ron Suskind‘s book, The One Percent Doctrine:

    The book’s opening anecdote tells of an unnamed CIA briefer who flew to Bush’s Texas ranch during the scary summer of 2001, amid a flurry of reports of a pending (sic) al-Qaeda attack, to call the president’s attention personally to the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.” Bush reportedly heard the briefer out and replied: “All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.”