MB Civic

President Bush arrives at the White House, after exiting Air Force One at 6:42 p.m. and flying across Washington in a helicopter. [Salon, 9/11/2001; CNN, 9/12/2001; Daily Telegraph, 12/16/2001; Associated Press, 8/21/2002; ABC News, 9/11/2002; Washington Times, 10/8/2002]
Entity Tags: George W. Bush

All Day of 9/11 Events, George Bush, Key Day of 9/11 Events
8:30 p.m. September 11, 2001: President Bush Gives Third Speech, Declares Bush Doctrine
Bush addresses the nation from the White House. [Source: White House]From the White House Oval Office, President Bush gives a seven-minute address to the nation on live television. [CNN, 9/11/2001; CNN, 9/12/2001; Woodward, 2002, ] He says, “I’ve directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice.” In what will later be called the Bush Doctrine, he states, “We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.” [US President, 9/17/2001; Washington Post, 1/27/2002] Washington Post reporter Dan Balz will later comment that this “those who harbor them” statement “set the tone for where the administration was going both with Afghanistan and, I think, with Iraq.” Bush’s speechwriter at the time, David Frum, will later say: “When he laid down those principles, I don’t know whether he foresaw all of their implications, how far they would take him. I don’t know if he understood fully and foresaw fully the true radicalism of what he had just said.” Neoconservatives see hope that the words could lead to an invasion of Iraq. Author and former National Security Council staffer Kenneth Pollack will comment, “It does seem very clear that after September 11th, this group seized upon the events of September 11th to resurrect their policy of trying to go after Saddam Hussein and a regime change in Iraq.” [PBS Frontline, 2/20/2003] Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived back from Peru too late to influence the content of this pivotal speech (see (Between 7:40 p.m. and 8:40 p.m.) September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Dan Balz, Colin Powell, Kenneth Pollack, David Frum, George W. Bush
Timeline Tags: Events Leading to Iraq Invasion, 9/11 Timeline
Category Tags: Key Day of 9/11 Events, All Day of 9/11 Events, George Bush, Alleged Iraq-Al-Qaeda Links, Counterterrorism Policy/Politics

Of course conspiracy theorists have become a joke.
Conspiracies have also become laughable
For some reason we have become embarrassed by the notion that there are, indeed, conspiracies and conspirators among us.
For some reason we have decided that it is easier to trust in those who tell us what we should believe as being the truth After all, these are the same sorts of people who gave us Vietnam and all of the truths they sold us, or the single assassin theory of the JFK murder.
Trust authority!
That a conspiracy about 9/11 is just too ridiculous to take seriously.
Conspiracy theories have become as iconic as the boogie man
But as we put our heads on the pillow each nite confident that we are being told the truth, that our authoritarians know what’s best for us….

Remember once again….

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled
Was to convince the world

That he did not exist