George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview

Release Date: August 28, 2011

Watch Date: May 3, 2023

    You can have, should have, and many do have, any opinion you want on George W. Bush’s presidency. You can think he was a buffoon that did nothing but make mistakes, you can think he was people’s pawn, you can think he orchestrated multiple terrorists attacks – or at least ignored knowledge of them – in order to start wars in the Middle East, or you can think he was one of the greatest presidents to ever walk the White House halls. I encourage you to have your own opinions on world leader’s and to express them, because freedom of speech gives you that right and without having opinions on our leaders we become slaves to a government we do not choose. It is our right to criticize and praise.

    What it is hard to argue with, though, is that unless the orchestration opinion is right, no one will ever be in the situation that George W. Bush was in on September 11, 2001. He, and only he, will ever be in that exact same position, with those exact same choices before him. He, and only he, will ever know what it was like to have to make those decisions, those speeches, knowing that he was changing not only the lives of himself, his family, his nation, but the lives of people around the globe.

    Maybe you would have done things differently. Everyone probably has their own version of events, their own choices they would have made, looking back and putting themselves in his shoes. His actions that day, the months leading up to it, and the months afterwards, have been analyzed, and reanalyzed, to the point where we know every report, every meeting, every movement, of the man – at least all that has been released. But we will never have been him, we will never be tested in that way. Thank heavens for that.

    I may not like George W. Bush as a man, and I may not mostly like him as a president, but I respect the hell out of him. He had an unimaginable crisis, and he handled it better than I could have. I am grateful I will never have to be in a similar position than he was. Bob, who has much more of a right to an opinion about any president than I have, and especially one who is so intertwined with terrible events that occurred to his home town, is of the same mindset.

    Having a record, a point of view, of that terrible day from George W. Bush, with his own words, is a priceless record, and an important one. Whether or not you voted for him, or agreed with him, he was the leader of his country before, during, and after a traumatic terrorist attack and his historical relevance and importance, the long lasting ripples from the decisions he made that day, will last for generations.