Bush failed to reach out to nations around globe - A Quintessentially Imperial America Speech - 9/11

Fri, 2 Jul 2021 23:22:34 GMT

IT WAS a quintessentially American speech, wholly American in its style and rhythms from the hug your children, as advice on how ordinary people should now behave, to the unselfconscious rah-rah of I will not yield. I will not rest. I will not relent. There was also the extravagant, overarching ambition so reminiscent of the commitment the U.S. once made to wage and win the Cold War and, before that, World War II. This war's purpose was not simply to punish those responsible for the Sept. 11 slaughter. It was to defeat global terrorism, itself. The terrorists would be harassed and attacked and chased from their hiding places, said President George W. Bush, until they ended up in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies. And he was tough, as if born to the manner of a commander-in-chief. Afghanistan's Taliban had to hand over not just terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden but also every terrorist in the country and all the infrastructure of their training camps. About this there could be and would be no negotiation and no discussion.