U.S. President George W. Bush listens as White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card informs him of a second plane hitting the World Trade Center, while Bush was conducting a reading seminar at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, September 11, 2001. Bush made a brief statement before leaving the school and immediately left Florida.Win McNamee/Reuters
In his new book, Decision Points, George W. Bush explains his silence after the news of 9/11, his approval of waterboarding, and his decisions on Donald Rumsfeld.
His immediate response to the news of the 9/11 attacks:
As his critics saw it: On Sept. 11, 2001, after learning the country was under attack, President George W. Bush sat for almost seven minutes while a school class read from the book My Pet Goat. The footage has haunted him since and reinforced his image as somewhat plodding.
As Bush remembers it: Recalling his initial reaction when Condoleeza Rice told him the World Trade Center had been hit by a commercial jetliner, just before he entered the classroom. "I was stunned. That plane must have had the worst pilot in the world. How could he possibly have flown into a skyscraper on a clear day? Maybe he'd had a heart attack." Once inside, he learned that the second tower had been hit from his chief of staff, Andrew Card. "I knew my reaction would be recorded and beamed throughout the world. The nation would be in shock; the president could not be. If I stormed out hastily, it would scare the children and send ripples of panic throughout the country. ... Press Secretary Ari Fleischer positioned himself between the reporters and me. He held up a sign that read 'Don't say anything yet.' I didn't plan to. I had settled on a plan of action: When the lesson ended, I would leave the classroom calmly, gather the facts, and speak to the nation."
The relief effort after Hurricane Katrina
As critics saw it: Being accused of negligence, mismanagement and even racism in the vast devastation of the 2005 catastrophe, which caused at least $80-billion (U.S.) worth of damage and left more than 1,400 Americans dead.
As Bush remembers it:
The response was not only flawed but, as I said at the time, unacceptable. ... The problem was not that I made the wrong decisions. It was that I took too long to decide." He did not visit New Orleans immediately after the storm, choosing to fly over the city instead, because his arrival would have required emergency responders to take time away from their rescue efforts. But he admits to putting perceptions above expediency when Governor Kathleen Blanco refused to cede her authority to the federal government. "That left me in a tough position. If I invoked the Insurrection Act against her wishes, the world would see a male Republican president usurping the authority of a female Democratic governor by declaring an insurrection in a largely African American city. That would arouse controversy anywhere."
The morality of waterboarding
As critics saw it: Libertarians and legal experts point to many of Bush's war measures as directly responsible for the erosion of civil rights.
As Bush remembers it: When CIA director George Tenet asked if he had permission to use enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, on Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Mr. Bush said he was unequivocal. . "I thought about the 2,973 people stolen from their families by al-Qaeda on 9/11. And I thought about my duty to protect the country from another act of terror. 'Damn right,' I said. He says that information from Sheik Mohammed eventually directed the CIA to three people involved in al-Qaeda's biological weapons program and provided information that led to the capture of Hambali, the architect of the Bali terrorist attack. "The intelligence he provided, which proved vital to saving American lives, almost certainly would not have come to light without the CIA's enhanced interrogation program," he said.
On keeping his secretary of defense after Abu Ghraib
As critics saw it: His browbeating management style and inept prosecution of the Iraq War made Donald Rumsfeld one of the most polarizing figures of the Bush administration, and that's saying something.
As Bush remembers it: As the scandal grew, the defense secretary reiterated an offer to resign, and the president said he would have let him go, if there was anyone else to take the job. "I seriously considered accepting his advice. I knew it would send a powerful signal to replace the leader of the Pentagon after such a grave mistake. But a big factor held me back: There was no obvious replacement for Don, and I couldn't afford to create a vacuum at the top of Defense." He considered firing him again in 2006, but was turned off the idea when a coalition of retired generals called for Rumsfeld's ouster. "There was no way I was going to let a group of retired officers bully me into pushing out the civilian secretary of defense. It would have looked like a military coup and would have set a disastrous precedent." Condoleeza Rice, Joe Lieberman and Jim Baker were all considered for the role, which eventually went to former CIA director Robert Gates. Mr. Bush accepted Mr. Rumsfeld's resignation after the 2006 midterm elections, when the Republicans lost control of the House and the Senate. Although he stands by his decision to keep Mr. Rumsfeld around, Mr. Bush does protect him entirely, revealing that he once cried in the Oval Office when talking about his drug-addicted son.
The decision not to pardon Scooter Libby
As critics saw it: Vice-president Dick Cheney pushed for the pardon of Scooter Libby, who had been convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the course of investigating an intelligence leak that identified CIA operative Valerie Plame. President Bush asked two trusted lawyers to review the case. They concluded that there was "no justification for overturning the jury's verdict" and so he opted to commute Libby's jail sentence instead. The decision was fodder for the president's critics, who accused him of undermining the judicial process and protecting those who had broken the law.
As Bush remembers it: ""One of the biggest surprises of my presidency was the flood of pardon requests at the end. I could not believe the number of people who pulled me aside to suggest that a friend or former colleague deserved a pardon. At first I was frustrated. Then I was disgusted."
On posing in front of a Mission Accomplished banner
As critics saw it: In May, 2003, the U.S. commander-in-chief donned a flight suit and posed in front of an banner on a U.S. warship, a signature moment of the Bush administration's hubris and naiveté during the Iraq war.
As Bush remembers it: "I hadn't noticed the large banner my staff had placed on the bridge of the ship, positioned for TV," he wrote. "It was intended as a tribute to the folks aboard the Lincoln, which had just completed the longest deployment for an aircraft carrier of its class. Instead, it looked like I was doing the victory dance I had warned against. "Mission Accomplished" became shorthand criticism for all that subsequently went wrong in Iraq. My speech made clear that our work was far from done. But all the explaining in the world could not reverse the perception. Our stagecraft had gone awry. It was a big mistake."
On language
"I struggled most in English. For one of my first assignments, I wrote about the sadness of losing my sister Robin. I decided I should come up with a better word than tears. After all, I was on the East Coast and should try to be sophisticated. So I pulled out the Roget's Thesaurus Mother had slipped into my luggage and wrote, 'Lacerates were flowing down my cheeks.' When the paper came back, it had a huge zero on the front. I was stunned and humiliated."
On his course load at Yale
"Astronomy, city planning, prehistoric archaeology, masterpieces of Spanish literature, and, still one of my favourites, Japanese haiku."
On the unborn
"As I pulled out of the driveway, she told me to drive steadily and avoid bumps. Then she said she had just had a miscarriage. I was taken aback. This was a subject I never expected to be discussing with Mother. I also never expected to see the remains of the fetus, which she had saved in a jar to bring to the hospital. I remember thinking: There was a human life, a little brother or sister.
On having a shoe thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi in 2008
"I wish I had caught the damn thing. The guy had a pretty live arm."
On why he didn't raise his DUI record during the 2000 presidential campaign
"I decided not to raise the DUI for one reason: my girls. Barbara and Jenna would start driving soon. I worried that disclosing my DUI would undermine the stern lectures I had been giving them about drinking and driving. I didn't want them to say, 'Daddy did it and he turned out okay, so we can, too.'"
Barbara Bush after Bush asked Bill Clinton and Bush Sr. to work together in New Orleans.
"I see you've reunited your father and your stepbrother."
How he thought about showing the world that Cheney was not in charge. By doing exactly what Cheney said.
"While Dick helped with important parts of our base, he had become a lightning rod for criticism from the media and the left. He was seen as dark and heartless - the Darth Vader of the administration. Dick didn't care much about his image - which I liked - but that allowed the caricatures to stick. One myth was that Dick was actually running the White House. Everyone inside the building, including the vice-president, knew that was not true. But the impression was out there. Accepting Dick's offer [to resign]would be one way to demonstrate that I was in charge."
On a gift he received from the soldiers who captured Iraqi president Saddam Hussein
"Saddam had three weapons with him, including a pistol that the men presented to me in a glass box. I told them I would display the gift in a the private study off the Oval Office and one day in my presidential library. The pistol always reminded me that a brutal dictator, responsible for so much death and suffering, had surrendered to our troops while cowering in a hole.
On congratulating his running mate for their 2004 election victory
"I walked down the hallway to Dick's office, where I gave him a hearty handshake. Dick isn't really the hugging type."
Funniest jab at his mother, Barbara Bush, who attended his father's baseball games at Yale while she was pregnant with him.
"Fortunately for her, the stadium included a double-wide seat behind home plate designed for former law professor William Howard Taft."
Best way to get yourself a DUI
"[Australian tennis star John Newcombe]introduced me to the Aussie tradition of drinking beer with no hands. You put your teeth on the edge of the mug and tilt your head back, and the beer goes down your throat. We had a great old time, until the drive home.
Most politically expedient explanation for avoiding a job on Wall Street
"While I knew decent and admirable people who had worked on Wall Street, including my grandfather Prescott Bush, I was suspicious of the financial industry. I used to tell friends that Wall Street is the kind of place where they will buy you or sell you, but they don't really give a hoot about you so long as they can make money off you."