When I spoke to the nation on October 8th, we were beginning our response to the attacks of 9-11. At that time we began a coordinated effort of our ground, naval, and air forces to destroy the terrorist elements that had waged war on us, and the Afghan government which had sponsored them. As I told you that night, and as we have reported since, that effort was extremely successful. The warlords in Kabul and the terrorists they supported have faced the severest retribution and punishment, and a more moderate government is now beginning to form and coalesce in that stricken nation.”
This was true, sort of, I thought as I waited out the inevitable applause. Most of the Taliban and Al Qaeda were dead. Nobody knew if bin Laden had died. Some videos had surfaced, but the CIA had determined that they were old, pre-October 8, just now being broadcast. As for the new moderate government, that was a bit of a stretch. Afghanistan simply had new warlords in place, and hopefully these ones would focus on killing their own people and not ours.
“The price of freedom is never cheap, and is paid for with a currency which is in ever short supply. It requires the sacrifice of our best and bravest, and the combined sacrifices of their loved ones. Tonight, here in the gallery, are some of those who have made such sacrifices. Mrs. Pauline Deveraux and her children Pamela and Charles are here tonight, representing her husband, Co-Pilot Justin Deveraux, and the families of the B-52 bomber Rusty Bucket, lost during the initial attacks. Also present are Robert and Maureen Wilson, the parents of Staff Sergeant Patrick Wilson of the U.S. Army Special Forces, who fell outside of Kabul, and Mrs. Janice Cornwith, the wife of Chief Bosun’s Mate Carl Cornwith, a Navy SEAL, who fell near Mahmud-e Raqi. These men were among those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the nation they loved, and we honor their families and the families of all those other heroes.”
More applause and another standing ovation.
“Seated with those families, are others, men who served in Operation Enduring Freedom. There are more people involved than could fit in this room, so we can only honor a small sample, but I commend them to you along with their brethren.”
At that point I read a half-dozen names, Army, Navy, and Air Force, as the cameras panned across some uniformed and bemedaled faces in the gallery. Again, we had more applause and another standing ovation. I had met all of the guests earlier in the day, at a lunch. It was a humbling experience.
“Part of the price paid was paid here at home. Whether it be a firefighter who rushed into the North Tower to rescue lives but never made it out himself, a corpsman in the Pentagon who suffered third degree burns while saving others, or a passenger on Flight 93, whose final thoughts were to prevent the carnage he had already heard of and decided that ‘Let’s roll!’ was a good idea, the list of heroes here was also too long to mention. We have some representatives of this group as well.”
More applause and a standing ovation. The servicemen had been very embarrassed by the support given them by the survivors of those who had died on 9-11.
“Now it is up to us to prevent this from happening again. We in this room, each and every one of us, have sworn a solemn oath, a vow to defend our nation and our people. What occurred on that awful day must not be allowed to reoccur. We must be vigilant, more so than at any time in the past.
I wish at this time to introduce three guests, Executive Assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Collins Barnwell, Assistant Director of the Secret Service Ralph Basham, and Deputy Director of Analysis of the Central Intelligence Agency Winston Creedmore. Within hours of the attacks, I ordered the three of them to determine what had happened and to report to me everything they could. Since that day I have met with them twenty-three times, and they will be finalizing their report to me this week. I urge you to consider their conclusions carefully. Their report to me was a sobering one, and showed that we, as leaders of our nation, can do better.
On September 11th we entered a new era. For much of the last century our focus — militarily, diplomatically, and intelligence wise — was on the totalitarian regimes we faced around the world. America faced those challenges with courage, and we rose to lead the world to new freedoms. That was the world we focused on right through September 10th. Now we face a new challenge, and we must change our focus and methods to meet it. I say to you now that this is a challenge we shall also rise up and meet!”
There was another roar of approval and another standing ovation. I waited for it to die down before continuing.
“We suffered a failure of our intelligence system on 9-11. It was a system that focused on the threats of the past, and not those of the future. Foremost among the recommendations for the future will be a national clearinghouse for terrorism related intelligence. Within a matter of weeks we will be putting forth legislation to create a National Counterterrorism Center, to be on a par with our other intelligence departments. This will be a joint system, so that if one department learns something action can be taken throughout the system. Sadly, this has been lacking in the past, and we have seen the price to be paid for this. No more! We can do better and we must do better!
My advisers and I will be preparing a budget to reflect these new realities. In so doing, we must consider that one of the costs of the attack on us was an economic cost. Our national economy is slowing, and some pain will be felt by all of us. This is also a cost that must be borne to build a stronger future. We cannot hope to have a strong defense without a strong economy to base it upon. Therefore we must make investments in our future, investments that will build upon the strengths that make America great, and that will make us greater still.”
I got some more applause, but no ovation at this. Nobody likes to hear about costs that might actually involve some dollars. More than ever it was time to trot out George Bush and tell them that these were his ideas. For the next ten minutes I spoke about how infrastructure and innovation would make lasting contributions, about the jobs they would create, and the dollars they would funnel to hard working Americans. I spoke about how previous challenges had prompted us to build railroads and highways that crossed the country, and how the investments in aerospace and technology had changed every American’s life for the better. Needless to say, these were all ideas George Bush had discussed with me frequently, and I was simply passing along one of our greatest President’s dying requests. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room when I was done.
Then I got to immigration reform. This actually was one of George’s better ideas, and I was going to demand his DREAM Act be passed. On my first trip through, he had taken his eye off the ball, and by the time he got around to it, his brand was so damaged that he couldn’t sell water in the desert. Meanwhile, over the next few years, under his less than inspirational leadership, the Republican Party and Congress ossified so much that the only strategy they could come up with was an unrelenting denial of anything the Democrats wanted to do — like immigration reform. Right now, though, I had a golden opportunity to ram something through, and almost anything would be an improvement on the convoluted mess we had now. Even better, I could tie border security in with the fight on foreign terrorists. We would increase border security, but the price would be a demand to fix the rest of the system and do something about the zillion illegals we already had here.
Above all else, it was necessary to create some good sound bites and a syncopation, a rhythm that would get the crowd rocking. It might be dry and boring, but if we could gloss over the details and focus on the wonderful things that would come from all of this, it would go a long way in moving the plan forward. Most importantly, I had to be able to flood Congress with some bills within the next thirty days. By the end of February, I had to dump some of this stuff in their laps. If I expected Congress to do the job for me, it wouldn’t work. Congress is like a pack of sled dogs, aimlessly barking and running around, playing in the snow. The only way to get them moving was to harness them and crack a whip. Back at the White House I had assigned each major task to a specific staff member, with Carter overseeing them, and was going to push them to work the problem. I would beat Carter like a rented mule as he oversaw things.