BUSH'S HISTORICAL APPROVAL RATING
Well the inauguration of our 44th President did not get off to a real confidence building, awe inspiring start. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the next President of the United States--both of whom are supposed to be considerably versed in the Constitution and its requirements--flubbed the oath like a nervous bride and groom exchanging wedding vows.
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http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/01/obamas_oath_faithfully_misspok.html
And President Barack Obama, a constitutional lawyer in his time, apparently stood ready to repeat them. Because when Chief Justice John Roberts, administering the oath for his first time, misspoke the order of a few words, Obama took notice.
Obama paused, not taking the miscue at first.
So Roberts repeated the phrase correctly, inserting "faithfully" in the right order: "faithfully execute the office of president of the United States."
Yet Obama then repeated Roberts' original misstatement - "the office of president of the United States faithfully."
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You just can't make some of this stuff up folks. This I can forgive as being a function of nerves on the part of both. But OMG.
One of the highlights for me, aside from Pastor Warren, was this quote from President Obama's speech:
11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. I Corinthians 13:11-12
This is good advice, the pursuit of spiritual perfection. It's sad, almost insulting, to see it bastardized for personal gain from one who lacks even the most rudimentary understanding of what the verse is actually referring to.
But it did cause me to ask myself, "How much better off would our country have been had we given President Bush the same benefit that now his critics are asking we give to them?" I guess Pastor Warren should have taught the Golden Rule to the Dem Leadership of the last eight years.
Remember, after 9/11, as shown above, Bush's popularity was extremely high. Then after he took the fight to the terrorists in ways that Democrats eventually did not agree with, we started to hear the sniping. BUSH LIED, BUSH LIED!!!! When the reality may be, that in a moment where the safety and security of the country and ALL it's citizens, he erred on the side of caution. I thank him for that.
There are two major things we can credit President Bush with, one of which most pundits and experts would have never thought possible.
Remember the theme of the stories in the media from September 12th forward? We are going to have to get used to hearing stories like this...we can't protect our borders, our planes, our subways, our water....We are doomed to this becoming the norm instead of an aberration....And yet, in the seven years afterward, no repeated terrorist events. Thank you for that as well President Bush.
Yes, there was an anthrax mail scare. As it turns out, more a case of domestic terrorism than anything else. Further, these "attacks" were directed at the national government as I recall, just as the plane that was downed in Pennsylvania on 9/11 was believed to be. As much as I would like to see many of these rascals removed from office wholesale, I would prefer term limits or the ballot over the bullet.
And so the big lie was perpetrated. To go along with the other two big lies that prevented any progress on important issues. That Bush stole the 2000 election in 2000 from Gore and again in 2004 from Kerry.
Who from the opposition side was championing putting aside childish things back then? None as I recall. But they ask for the same courtesy that they do not grant to their colleagues. Sounds relatively childish to me.
The other Big Lie? That Bush just told people to go shopping after the attacks. Sorry that is not the instructions I recall hearing. I recall him using "Let's roll", the quote from the heroes from Flight 93 who took down one of the planes destined for mayhem on 9/11.
The other was that we should get back to our normal daily lives and activities once the grieving process was over. If you recall the phrase du juor was "If we don't get back to our normal daily activities, then the terrorists have won." I seem to recall a nation paralyzed, paralyzed by FEAR, GRIEF AND CONFUSION. And Bush led us through that. History will very likely show that we owe him a great deal of gratitude for this. Thanks again President Bush.
And one can disagree on a certain policy or another that Bush-Cheney employed, but history will now show that there was not a 9/11 sequel on Bush's watch. Obama had better hope that if he is blessed enough to serve two terms, that he can say the same thing.
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THE BIG LIE BASICS:
The phrase was also used in a report prepared during the war by the United States Office of Strategic Services in describing Hitler's psychological profile:[3]
His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.[4] ^ Hitler as His Associates Know Him (OSS report, p.51)
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This does sound like the policy the Democratic leadership employed to sully Bush after the perfunctory grieving period post-9/11 was observed. I don't blame Obama for this, he was not in Democratic leadership position at the time. I am still to this day amazed that Bush didn't do a stronger job defending his reputation. Like ObamA said about former President Bill Clinton after the Nevada primary:
"This has become a habit, and one of the things that we're going to have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he's making statements that are not factually accurate."
But ask yourself if these idiots had been working together on issues instead of engaging in some of this childish, playground tom-foolery, might they have had more time and a better, more cooperative environment to perhaps fix Social Security and Medicare? Would the housing and credit crisis developed if there was legitimate concern about handling the peoples affairs from 2000-2008 by BOTH Repubs and Dems?
It is hard to prove the counter factual, but I have to believe some of these problems would have been averted if we didn't have the LEAST PRODUCTIVE Congress
acting in "childish ways" during the period. The waters have been poisoned for the past eight years.
My point is: Are we going to see a President and Congress working together productively as President Clinton was able to do with a Republican Congress, like Reagan was able to get things done with Democrats in majority?
Or in four years will we hear a quote from the Inauguration employed as a return volley to the "shopping" quote, something along the lines of:
"We faced the one of the greatest economic crisis in our history and all Obama could say to inspire confidence was a line from the 1936 movie "Swing Time" starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
I pick myself up, dust myself off, start all over again.
If only it could be that easy. That is great advice to those homeowners who are now upside down in their mortgages, with more "drownings" on the way if some who predict another 10-15% slide in home prices materializes. At that point there is going to be as many angry homeowners as appeared at the mall today. I HOPE THEY LEARN HOW TO MARCH. You see they can't just pick themselves up, dust themselves off and they don't want to start all over again from zero or negative equity.
If those American who have 401K's continue to see the erosion of their retirement nest egg, well just add that many more Americans to the party. Maybe then we'll get the kind of fundamental CHANGE we need in the country. MAYBE THESE FOLKS CAN JOIN THE MARCH AS WELL. Again you see, this financial and market crisis was not of "the peoples" doing. It was a creation of leadership, many of whom will never feel the relative pain that "the people" do.
By the way, the reason I refer to the 'go shopping" quote as "The Big Lie" that it appears to be is that I cannot for the life of me find a quote FROM BUSH that remotely resembles the context the Dems framed it in the immediate aftermath on 9/11.
I did, however, find some of these references:
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On September 27, 2001, at the Chicago O'Hare International Airport,
President Bush said:
"Get on board. Do your business around the country. Fly and enjoy
America's great destination spots. Get down to Disney World in
Florida. Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be
enjoyed.?"
"When they struck, they wanted to create an atmosphere of fear. And
one of the great goals of this nation's war is to restore public
confidence in the airline industry. It's to tell the traveling
public: Get on board. Do your business around the country. Fly and
enjoy America's great destination spots. Get down to Disney World in
Florida. Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be
enjoyed.?"
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This article from November 4th 2001, credits "others": pundits or economists with injecting the shopping lingo.
http://communitylink.gopbi.com/servlet/groups_ProcServ/dbpage=page&GID=00026000001016743266826663&PG=00035000001019269118815742
Ironically, as we begin to accept the fact that the world has changed, we also are told that we should carry on as if nothing had happened, most especially when it comes to our normal, often excessive habits of spending money. President Bush urged listeners in Chicago to “get down to Disney World in Florida”--I can’t imagine why he chose Florida. One source notes: “If some economists and business leaders are to be believed, the terrorists will have won if Americans don’t go shopping.” We are advised to show our patriotism, to help defeat terrorism, by going out and spending money as we Americans have always done.
At the same time that we are being told that life will never be the same, we are told to return to normal. No wonder so many people are anxious and fearful. Our realities and expectations don’t mesh. It turns out that the reality of the world is not what we thought it was, and now we aren’t quite sure what it is--or how best to live in it.
This is a time of crisis. It is a time for reflection and reevaluation, decision, and, in many cases, of concrete change. It is a time to reframe our understanding of the world, welcoming and incorporating information that we have not had or that we have not been ready to hear before. It is a time to affirm and promote “the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”
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I guess he should have let peoples fear of a possible 9/11 sequel take down the airline industry as some predicted would happen in the aftermath. Bush either displayed unbelievable leadership and confidence or reckless chutzpah, but history shows he was correct.
This article from Time magazine, hardly a conservative Republican outlet, gives Bush an unusual amount of credit but also forms the basis for how the lie was conceived.
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http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,175757,00.html
George W. Bush, President of the United States at the darkest hour almost any of its citizens can remember, pronounces the word terror "terra." He's helpless with Latin. And he still needs work on waiting out his applause. But Thursday night, in front of the U.S. Congress and the nation, eight months to the day after he took office following an election that was pretty dark itself, Bush delivered the finest, strongest, clearest, several-times-chill-giving speech of his life. Here's how he did it:
"After all that has just passed, all the lives taken and all the possibilities and hopes that died with them, it is natural to wonder if America's future is one of fear Americans are asking, 'What is expected of us?'"
He then answered his own rhetorical question with a line Americans wanted to hear.
"I ask you to live your lives and hug your children."
He could have stopped there — a gem of a line, a Hallmark-card-sized summation of the littlest and best things we can do — but when American shores are smoldering still, Bush must have realized that more couldn't hurt. Be calm, not scared; be tolerant, not blind; be generous, not selfish; be patient, patient, patient, at airports and skyscrapers and landmarks and hotels and traffic stops and bus stops and train stations and anywhere else it is possible to imagine a public vulnerability, which of course is everywhere.
And for God's sake keep shopping — "I ask your continued participation and confidence in the American economy" — and keep praying:
"And finally, please continue praying for the victims of terror and their families, for those in uniform and for our great country. Prayer has comforted us in sorrow and will help strengthen us for the journey ahead."
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Note how the phrase And for God's sake keep shopping is not in quotes as the rest of the quotes properly appear to be. There's only one reason for this folks. This is the Time write editorializing, not Bush speaking.
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In this speech given November 11, 2001 in Atlanta, shopping finally appears in this context:
http://www.september11news.com/PresidentBushAtlanta.htm
In the face of this great tragedy, Americans are refusing to give terrorists the power.
Our people have responded with courage and compassion, calm and reason, resolve and fierce
determination. We have refused to live in a state of panic or a state of denial. There is a
difference between being alert and being intimidated, and this great nation will never be
intimidated.
People are going about their daily lives, working and shopping and playing, worshipping at
churches and synagogues and mosques, going to movies and to baseball games.
Life in America is going forward, and as the fourth grader who wrote me knew, that is the
ultimate repudiation of terrorism.
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President Bush did say this, about shopping:
"I've been told that some fear to leave; some don't want to go
shopping for their families; some don't want to go about their
ordinary daily routines because, by wearing cover, they're afraid
they'll be intimidated. That should not and that will not stand in
America."
From a transcript of President Bush's comments at a Washington mosque:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/17/gen.bush.muslim.trans/
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Truth be told, and I do believe that truth is in short supply in Washington and always loses to spin, it appears as if Guiliani was the public figure who was promoting shopping early and often, and that makes sense. New York City's economy was at risk.
I do remember the quote from Giuliani from a September 12 news
conference. It was played with a similar message from Bush on TV.
http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock091401.shtml
"Show your confidence," Giuliani said. "Show you're not afraid. Go to
restaurants. Go shopping," he urged citizens.
Also in:
http://www.boston.com/news/packages/underattack/globe_stories/0914/In_crisis_Giuliani_s_image_transformed+.shtml
He has acknowledged that thousands probably had died, but added, ''Now
we've got to focus on how many we can save.'' He's urged people, ''Go
to restaurants, go shopping, do things, show that you're not afraid.''
He promised, ''We are going to rebuild; we're going to come out of
this stronger than we were before.''
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So my fellow Americans, it is important to not only "Never Forget", but maybe even more important to get our facts right and stop misleading people, stop acting in childish ways.
We heard an awful lot of rhetoric about one candidate or another ability to reach across the aisle and work with the opposition to get things done. I was always amazed that Bush continued to do that, often to his detriment, in spite of a climate that he "cheated" and "stole" two election from them, was an "illegitimate" President and "lied" to the country about Iraq. Kind of hard to work with folks who think that way about you, don't you think.
I saw a funny little flair on Facebook along the lines of "Let's cooperate with the current administration the same way they cooperated with Bush". Of course, we really can't afford that kind of gridlock for eight more years. But I wouldn't blame them if they did.
The Washington euphoria unfortunately did not transfer to Wall Street as the Dow plunged on Tuesday, a possible signal that The Street doesn’t think Obama can fix the economic mess that we find ourselves in.
THE BLAME BUSH CROWD - I'M GOING TO MISS THEM
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For the next Inauguration speech maybe Barack could choose from one of these Biblical quotes to frame and improve the climate in Washington:
ROMANS 16:17-18
17 And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. 18 Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people.
PROVERBS 17:7
7 Eloquent words are not fitting for a fool;
even less are lies fitting for a ruler.
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I truly wish the incoming President good luck in the task. He will need it. I fear that now that he has lost his favorite security blanket--the ability to blame Bush for everything that goes wrong--he may crack under the pressure of unrealistic expectations.
YOU'RE THE MAN NOW - TIME TO ACTUALLY MAKE DECISIONS - OH YEAH, GIVE ME THE DAMN BLANKET
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NEVER FORGET:
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HERE IS THE TEXT OF THAT SPEECH BUSH GAVE TO CONGRESS ON 9/21/2001:
I HAVE POSTED THE ENTIRE TEXT (LONG) SO YOU CAN READ IT IN ITS CONTEXT, BETTER YET YOU CAN PROBABLY FIND THE SPEECH ON YOU TUBE.
http://www.september11news.com/PresidentBushSpeech.htm
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President Pro Tempore, members of Congress, and fellow Americans, in the
normal course of events, presidents come to this chamber to report on the state of the union.
Tonight, no such report is needed; it has already been delivered by the American people.
We have seen it in the courage of passengers who rushed terrorists to save others on the
ground. Passengers like an exceptional man named Todd Beamer. And would you please help
me welcome his wife, Lisa Beamer, here tonight?
We have seen the state of our union in the endurance of rescuers working past exhaustion.
We've seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying
of prayers in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people who have made the grief of
strangers their own.
My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of
our union, and it is strong.
Tonight, we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has
turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring
justice to our enemies, justice will be done.
I thank the Congress for its leadership at such an important time.
All of America was touched on the evening of the tragedy to see Republicans and Democrats
joined together on the steps of this Capitol singing "God Bless America."
And you did more than sing. You acted, by delivering $40 billion to rebuild our communities
and meet the needs of our military. Speaker [Dennis] Hastert, Minority Leader [Richard]
Gephardt, Majority Leader [Thomas] Daschle and Senator [Trent] Lott, I thank you for your
friendship, for your leadership and for your service to our country.
And on behalf of the American people, I thank the world for its outpouring of support.
America will never forget the sounds of our national anthem playing at Buckingham Palace,
on the streets of Paris and at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
We will not forget South Korean children gathering to pray outside our embassy in Seoul,
or the prayers of sympathy offered at a mosque in Cairo.
We will not forget moments of silence and days of mourning in Australia and Africa and Latin
America.
Nor will we forget the citizens of 80 other nations who died with our own. Dozens of
Pakistanis, more than 130 Israelis, more than 250 citizens of India, men and women from
El Salvador, Iran, Mexico and Japan, and hundreds of British citizens.
America has no truer friend than Great Britain.
Once again, we are joined together in a great cause.
I'm so honored the British prime minister had crossed an ocean to show his unity with America.
Thank you for coming, friend.
On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country.
Americans have known wars, but for the past 136 years they have been wars on foreign soil,
except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war, but not at the
center of a great city on a peaceful morning.
Americans have known surprise attacks, but never before on thousands of civilians.
All of this was brought upon us in a single day, and night fell on a different world, a world
where freedom itself is under attack.
Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking, "Who attacked our country?"
The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist
organizations known as al Qaeda. They are some of the murderers indicted for bombing
American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and responsible for bombing the USS Cole.
Al Qaeda is to terror what the Mafia is to crime. But its goal is not making money, its goal is
remaking the world and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere.
The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim
scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics, a fringe movement that perverts the
peaceful teachings of Islam.
The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans and
make no distinctions among military and civilians, including women and children.
This group and its leader, a person named Osama bin Laden, are linked to many other
organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad [and] the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan.
There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries.
They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places
like Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of terror. They are sent back to their
homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction.
The leadership of al Qaeda has great influence in Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime
in controlling most of that country. In Afghanistan we see al Qaeda's vision for the world.
Afghanistan's people have been brutalized, many are starving and many have fled.
Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be jailed for owning a television. Religion
can be practiced only as their leaders dictate. A man can be jailed in Afghanistan if his beard
is not long enough.
The United States respects the people of Afghanistan -- after all, we are currently its largest
source of humanitarian aid -- but we condemn the Taliban regime.
It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring
and sheltering and supplying terrorists.
By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder. And tonight the
United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban:
Deliver to United States authorities all of the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land.
Release all foreign nationals, including American citizens, you have unjustly imprisoned.
Protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers in your country. Close immediately
and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. And hand over every terrorist
and every person and their support structure to appropriate authorities.
Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are
no longer operating.
These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act and act
immediately. They will hand over the terrorists or they will share in their fate.
I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith.
It's practiced freely by many millions of Americans and by millions more in countries that
America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil
in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah.
The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself.
The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends. It is not our many Arab friends. Our
enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.
Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there.
It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.
Americans are asking, "Why do they hate us?"
They hate what they see right here in this chamber: a democratically elected government.
Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our
freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.
They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi
Arabia and Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive
Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa.
These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With
every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and
forsaking our friends. They stand against us because we stand in their way.
We're not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They're the
heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve
their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the
path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way to
where it ends in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies.
Americans are asking, "How will we fight and win this war?"
We will direct every resource at our command -- every means of diplomacy, every tool of
intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every
necessary weapon of war -- to the destruction and to the defeat of the global terror network.
Now, this war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of
territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago,
where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat.
Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should
not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen. It may
include dramatic strikes visible on TV and covert operations secret even in success.
We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place
to place until there is no refuge or no rest.
And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every
region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.
From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be
regarded by the United States as a hostile regime. Our nation has been put on notice.
We're not immune from attack. We will take defensive measures against terrorism to
protect Americans.
Today, dozens of federal departments and agencies, as well as state and local governments,
have responsibilities affecting homeland security.
These efforts must be coordinated at the highest level. So tonight, I announce the creation
of a Cabinet-level position reporting directly to me, the Office of Homeland Security.
And tonight, I also announce a distinguished American to lead this effort, to strengthen
American security: a military veteran, an effective governor, a true patriot, a trusted
friend, Pennsylvania's Tom Ridge.
He will lead, oversee and coordinate a comprehensive national strategy to safeguard our
country against terrorism and respond to any attacks that may come.
These measures are essential. The only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life
is to stop it, eliminate it and destroy it where it grows.
Many will be involved in this effort, from FBI agents, to intelligence operatives, to the
reservists we have called to active duty. All deserve our thanks, and all have our prayers.
And tonight a few miles from the damaged Pentagon, I have a message for our military:
Be ready. I have called the armed forces to alert, and there is a reason.
The hour is coming when America will act, and you will make us proud.
This is not, however, just America's fight. And what is at stake is not just America's freedom.
This is the world's fight. This is civilization's fight. This is the fight of all who believe in progress
and pluralism, tolerance and freedom.
We ask every nation to join us.
We will ask and we will need the help of police forces, intelligence services and banking
systems around the world. The United States is grateful that many nations and many
international organizations have already responded with sympathy and with support
-- nations from Latin America to Asia to Africa to Europe to the Islamic world.
Perhaps the NATO charter reflects best the attitude of the world: An attack on one is an
attack on all. The civilized world is rallying to America's side.
They understand that if this terror goes unpunished, their own cities, their own citizens
may be next. Terror unanswered can not only bring down buildings, it can threaten the stability
of legitimate governments.
And you know what? We're not going to allow it.
Americans are asking, "What is expected of us?"
I ask you to live your lives and hug your children.
I know many citizens have fears tonight, and I ask you to be calm and resolute, even in the
face of a continuing threat.
I ask you to uphold the values of America and remember why so many have come here.
We're in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them. No one should
be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or
religious faith.
I ask you to continue to support the victims of this tragedy with your contributions. Those
who want to give can go to a central source of information, libertyunites.org, to find the
names of groups providing direct help in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The thousands of FBI agents who are now at work in this investigation may need your
cooperation, and I ask you to give it. I ask for your patience with the delays and
inconveniences that may accompany tighter security and for your patience in what will be
a long struggle.
I ask [for] your continued participation and confidence in the American economy. Terrorists
attacked a symbol of American prosperity; they did not touch its source.
America is successful because of the hard work and creativity and enterprise of our people.
These were the true strengths of our economy before September 11th, and they are our
strengths today.
And finally, please continue praying for the victims of terror and their families, for those in
uniform and for our great country. Prayer has comforted us in sorrow and will help strengthen
us for the journey ahead.
Tonight I thank my fellow Americans for what you have already done and for what you will do.
And, ladies and gentlemen of the Congress, I thank you, their representatives, for what you
have already done and for what we will do together.
Tonight we face new and sudden national challenges.
We will come together to improve air safety, to dramatically expand the number of air marshals
on domestic flights and take new measures to prevent hijacking.
We will come together to promote stability and keep our airlines flying with direct assistance
during this emergency.
We will come together to give law enforcement the additional tools it needs to track down
terror here at home.
We will come together to strengthen our intelligence capabilities to know the plans of
terrorists before they act and to find them before they strike.
We will come together to take active steps that strengthen America's economy and put our
people back to work.
Tonight, we welcome two leaders who embody the extraordinary spirit of all New Yorkers,
Governor George Pataki and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. As a symbol of America's resolve, my
administration will work with Congress and these two leaders to show the world that we will
rebuild New York City.
After all that has just passed, all the lives taken and all the possibilities and hopes that died
with them, it is natural to wonder if America's future is one of fear.
Some speak of an age of terror. I know there are struggles ahead and dangers to face. But
this country will define our times, not be defined by them.
As long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of
terror. This will be an age of liberty here and across the world.
Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we
have found our mission and our moment.
Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our
time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us.
Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future.
We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will
not falter and we will not fail.
It is my hope that in the months and years ahead life will return almost to normal. We'll go
back to our lives and routines, and that is good.
Even grief recedes with time and grace.
But our resolve must not pass. Each of us will remember what happened that day and to
whom it happened. We will remember the moment the news came, where we were and what
we were doing.
Some will remember an image of a fire or story or rescue. Some will carry memories of a face
and a voice gone forever.
And I will carry this: It is the police shield of a man named George Howard who died at the
World Trade Center trying to save others.
It was given to me by his mom, Arlene, as a proud memorial to her son. It is my reminder of
lives that ended and a task that does not end.
I will not forget the wound to our country and those who inflicted it. I will not yield, I will not
rest, I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.
The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice
and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.
Fellow citizens, we'll meet violence with patient justice, assured of the rightness of our cause
and confident of the victories to come.
In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom and may He watch over the United States
of America.
Thank you.
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