Frequent radio guest Four Arrows weighs in on Bush’s attempt to wriggle out of his self-incriminating “pet goat moment.” -KB
“Still Clueless”: Reflections on George Bush’s Comments Regarding His Response on 9/11
By Four Arrows
In May of this year, Time Magazine interviewed the children present the day Bush was told on 9/11 about America being “under attack.” http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2069582,00.html
According to interviews, most of the children knew something terrible had happened by the change in the president’s composition and complexion. “But I’ll always remember watching his face turn red. He got really serious all of a sudden. But I was clueless. I was just 7.” Nonetheless, in his recent interview with National Geographic, Bush claims he remained with the children because he wanted to “project calm.”
Unfortunately, the now older students, like many unthinking members of the American public, agree with the principle of the school Bush visited. She “insisted:” “I don’t think anyone could have handled it better. What would it have served if [Bush] had jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room?”
It is also unfortunate that the school principal felt that there were only two options for a president of the United States upon learning that his country was under invastion; Either to sit still for ten minutes, unable to hide his shock to even to six and seven year olds, or to “jump out of his chair and run out of the room.” That a school principal and the teenagers with such a personal interest in the events of 9/11 can maintain such beliefs, what does this say about education in our country? Such thinking reveals an inability to discern reality that does not bode well for our future. It is evidence of the high degree of cultural and educational hegemony that continues to allow those in control of the U.S. To literally “get away with murder.”
Bush said, “My first reaction was anger. Who the hell would want to do that to the U.S. So I made the decision not to jump up immediately and leave the classroom. I didn’t want to rattle the kids. I wanted to project a sense of calm.” The seven-year olds knew at the time that Bush was shaken, but ten years later they accept that he projected a sense of calm and “did the right thing?” We may never know if he is telling the truth with these words because of his level of intelligence; or if he is lying and had been briefed to “do nothing” in advance by his puppet master(s, his chagrin perhaps being the shock of understanding the gravity of what was actually coming down the pike; or that maybe he is not as dumb as he acts and he knew all along but could not hide his emotions upon realizing the plan was operational. In any case, something is rotten in the proverbial Denmark. If the only response from even even the producer of the National Geographic special, Peter Schnall, is, “Listening to him (Bush) describe how he grappled with a sense of anger and frustration coupled with his personal mandate to lead our country through this devastating attack was incredibly powerful,” those of us who care about truth had better ramp up our counter-hegemonic efforts.
In the Time Magazine article another student who was in the class with Bush that fateful day, now 16 years of age, says she is happy Bush regained his composure and stayed with the students “until The Pet Goat book was finished.” (She does not mention that he kept the book upside down.) She is quoted as saying, “I think the President was trying to keep us from finding out,” says Guerrero, “so we all wouldn’t freak out.”
Well, there it is. Ten years later, as the 9/11 truth movement struggles with an effort to present overwhelming evidence that what we are told happened on that day is a fraud, this teenager unintentionally gets it right. They are still trying to keep us from finding out, so we all don’t freak out!
– Four Arrows
Reuters reports on the five minutes of the interview the network aired during a session for the Television Critics Association:
“My first reaction was anger. Who the hell would do that to America? Then I immediately focused on the children, and the contrast between the attack and the innocence of children,” Bush says in an excerpt of the interview shown to television writers on Thursday.
Bush said he could see the news media at the back of the classroom getting the news on their own cellphones “and it was like watching a silent movie.”
Bush said he quickly realized that a lot of people beyond the classroom would be watching for his reaction.
“So I made the decision not to jump up immediately and leave the classroom. I didn’t want to rattle the kids. I wanted to project a sense of calm,” he said of his decision to remain seated and silent.
“I had been in enough crises to know that the first thing a leader has to do is to project calm,” he added.