Posted on 12/05/2001 5:47:00 PM PST by My Favorite Headache
So...Let's start this evening with a host of what we expect to see tonight on ABC and the White House Christmas Tour with Barbara Walters.
Bushes Talk About Wartime, Christmas and a Changed America
Dec. 5 — There's an 18-foot Christmas tree at the White House, and 800 pounds of fake snow, but this year the public will not get to see the elaborate decorations. The mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. will be closed for security reasons.
"We urged the Secret Service to be more open-minded, but they convinced us that the security risk is such that we cannot jeopardize the lives of others," said President Bush, whose first holiday season in office is being overshadowed by the events of Sept. 11 and the U.S. war on terrorism.
As they prepare for the holiday season, the president and first lady Laura Bush sat down with 20/20's Barbara Walters to discuss life inside a White House at war. It was the president's first television interview since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
A Fateful Day
On the morning of Sept. 11, Bush was attending a school event in Florida when his chief of staff leaned over to whisper in his ear. "He said, 'A second airplane has hit the World Trade Center. America is under attack,'" Bush recalled.
He learned more about the attacks after boarding Air Force One. "When I learned that the crash was not an accident but looked like a planned attack, I knew we were entering into a whole new era in American history, that we were at war," Bush said.
The president also spoke of making the difficult decision to order the military to shoot down any civilian airliners that might be in the hands of terrorists, like the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field.
"That's a tough decision to make, but you've got to understand that I was the commander in chief and the president of a nation that had just been attacked by four aircraft, and we didn't know if other aircraft were coming or not," he said.
When the planes hit, Laura Bush was on Capitol Hill, preparing to testify at a hearing on education. She was immediately taken to a secure location. Like other Americans, she said, she feared for the people in the World Trade Center, and her own family — including her husband, whose job it was to lead the nation through its time of crisis.
"I was worried about him," she said, adding that she and the president spoke several times throughout the day.
When the president met with the National Security Council to plan a response to the attacks, there was little disagreement, he said.
"It was incredibly somber," he recalled. "We were resolute in our determination to get specs and put a plan in place to prevent future attacks on America. We were at war. Every person down there realized that we were facing a new kind of war."
A Gift for War?
When asked if his performance since Sept. 11 suggested that he had a "gift for war," Bush demurred. "I don't long for war. I hope I've got a gift for peace," he said. "I hope the legacy of the Bush administration is a lasting peace, so that our children's grandchildren can grow up in a civilized world, a world that won't face the terror that exists today."
Bush agreed that in a war against terrorism, there would be no single, defined Victory Day. "I think there's going to be moments of victory, which indicate to potential terrorists that there's going to be a severe and significant price to pay if they harm America and/or our allies," he said.
On the domestic front, Bush explained why his administration had again placed the country on "general alert" this week while providing no details of specific threats. He said U.S. intelligence had intercepted threats associated with Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that ends in mid-December. "They're not saying, 'We'll meet you at X spot within a certain city.' They're basically saying, 'We're going to get them again,'" he said of the threats.
He defended the Justice Department's plan to interview more than 5,000 foreigners visiting the United States from countries where Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization is known to be active.
"It seems logical to me and right to me to say that if you come and enjoy the benefits of America, then you ought to help America on a voluntary basis to determine whether or not we can find potential terrorists embedded into our country," Bush said.
Regarding the possible use of secret military tribunals to try foreign accused terrorists, Bush said, "In times of war the president ought to have at his disposal extraordinary means to deal with extraordinary circumstances."
He said he would rather see accused terrorists tried in open court, but that closed tribunals might sometimes be necessary in order to protect sources of information. He said the tribunals would not be used widely.
Bush said it was too early to say how the government would treat John Phillip Walker Lindh, the 20-year-old American who was captured fighting the Taliban.
"We're just trying to learn the facts about this poor fellow. Obviously he has been misled, it appears to me. He thought he was going to fight for a great cause and in fact he was going to support a government that was one of the most repressive governments in the history of mankind," Bush said.
Asked whether the United States might attack Iraq as part of its war on terrorism, Bush repeated his warning to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to let weapons inspectors back into Iraq to determine whether the country was developing weapons of mass destruction. He did not say what would happen if Saddam did not let inspectors in. <> Unrest in the Middle East
Regarding the recent wave of suicide bombings in Israel, Bush declined to explicitly support Israel's retaliatory attacks against Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, but said he was "sympathetic" to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was in Washington when the bombings occurred.
"When he's standing in my office, obviously agonizing over the loss of innocent life, … this is a man who is the only democratically elected official in the region who has got the responsibility to defend his people, and he will do so," Bush said.
Bush said it was time for Arafat "to prove whether or not he is for peace."
He had strong words for Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that has claimed responsibility for the bombings. "Hamas doesn't want peace. They will do everything they can to destroy a peace process. … There is no way that Israel can negotiate a peace process so long as its country is being terrorized," Bush said. Looking Forward to a Happier Christmas Both the president and the first lady said they were disappointed that the public would not be able to see the White House decorations, which include scale models of 18 presidential homes and a 130-pound gingerbread version of the White House as it was in 1800.
But Bush was optimistic that the American-led anti-terrorism effort would make next year a different story: "You know, I hope next year, when we do the job that people want us to do, that tours will be back and more and more Americans can come and see it."
So good to have a real lady as first lady
Wow, this is great, in a time when we all are more aware and appreciative of the little elements that make us feel at home, Laura perfectly fits the tone of the times, quiet reassuring calm that quickly makes everything seem normal in troublesome time.
It's GREAT!
Not yet, LOL.
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