Presidency will look different to us in 20 years and different again 20 years after that. George w. Bushs presidency must be defined by that events of september 11, 2001, when the United States of america was vicious he attacked by an enemy whose leader, Osama Bin Laden skated as far back as 1983 that the United States stated as far back as 1983 that the United States was the mortal enemy of islam and must be destroyed. On 9 11 he declared that he would do whatever was necessary to protect our country, to keep it safe, and to keep it free. This became the mantra of the g. W. Bush presidency. President reagan had his mantra to bring down the soviet union and end the cold war. President lincoln had his, slavery. So did president bush. His golden war on terror kept us safe, and kept us safe. So lets start with that. President bush told the type of leader he would be at his except speech in august 2000 acceptance speech at the Republican Convention speech. I remember it well because i was
Israelis come to the white house and say we think you should bomb a nuclear site. And in 2002, he asked them their pb. They all more or less said yes, you should go or youre ready to go. Even general powell in the end said im suiting up at that point despite his misgiving that he had expressed up until that point. And then president kicks them all out of the room and its just him and cheney at this point. Its the two of them that make the fateful decision. Fast forward to twrevpb and the same people are in front of him and the Vice President is asked to give his opinion and the Vice President said he should go ahead and bomb. You have laid down a red ryan on the issue of proliferation and you should follow through on that. The president asked if anybody agreed with the Vice President and nobodys hand goes up. The path from that point until 2003 to 2007 shows how much iraq and afghanistan has gun to weigh on president bush. He did not take military action against syria despite the urgin
Im going to try to look at or hope i have time to look at three similar episodes in what was my life after 9 11. Once the very chilling effects of that attack had sunk in and we had realized at the state department, i think its safe to say throughout the government that the profunded di of what had happened to us and what kind of action we were going to present to the world. We sat down on the policy planning staff as did some other people in the state and we thought about it. One of the things that impressed us majorly was the phone calls, the letters if you will that were coming in, the tv scenes. It was a moment of incredible Global Solidarity. My god we even got a condolence message from fidel castro. The most influential paper in paris ran a headline, were all americans. It was a moment of incredible solidarity and my boss and his boss decided that one of the things we should try to do, remember were the diplomats former soldiers but were diplomats now was to captain lice on that
Until the Supreme Court decided in the Supreme Court case in 2008 that the handgun ban is unconstitutional because the Second Amendment according to scalias majority opinion surely a ballot elevates above all other interests so you think it would have been straightforward but it wasnt. Tell us what happened when you check for steps to get a gun. Guest wrote the book that of the reaction of what happened as the fierce bet one dash spread through the country with the horrific tragedy with obama with mayor bloomberg with the laws repeal the country i had gotten it done myself and i saw hall guncontrol affected lawabiding people. But i cannot legally take out of my home so you have crime rising in d. C. And in 20 to solve the crimes are going up and yet people are having trouble getting it done so it will not do anything to make america safer. Host described how it came out in practice you go into great links but jealous of the absurdities that you faced. Guest i was overwhelmed and i went
Day, and movies that depict the struggle of a young man or young woman coming out of prison for the challenges they face or heroic efforts to survive on the outside, that tells a different story than the one we have been fed for so long about criminals and what ought to be done with them. In the meantime we have to take responsibility for educating ourselves in our own communities using the means we have at our disposal. We begin a special look with a look at the library of one of the nations most famous. It is to d the boys, my friends so long. My regret of the war is that i was not with them for the companionship. The two years of death and misery is a spouse that tolerates no divorce. Companionship is part of ones soul and not obliterated. The experience was about youth. He wanted to have that story and tell a well and honestly so that you could connect with people you had never seen. His early career, before he started as a war correspondent, he was a journalist, wound up as the ma