Fasttrack to America's Past
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Page 242


Page 243

 		 Page 242 & 243 -
George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism

The reading selection

   These condensed excerpts are from President George W. Bush's official State of the Union speech in 2002.  In it, the president laid out the arguments for strong action against terrorist groups and nations that supported terrorism.

   Just four months earlier, the al Qaeda terrorist group had hit the United States, destroying the World Trade Center towers in New York City and severely damaging a section of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.  Another part of the attack the terrorists began that day was stopped by passengers on a hijacked airliner who fought back, sacrificing their own lives in the process.  Almost 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks, and thousands more were injured.

   President Bush points out that Americans were united in their determination to stop terrorist groups active in a number of countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran.  He called such nations an "axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world."

   During the speech, he declared America's commitment to its values: "the rule of law; limits on the power of the state; respect for women; private property; free speech; equal justice; and religious tolerance."  His listeners knew this list made a sharp contrast to the values declared by extremist Islamic terrorist groups like al Qaeda.  The president made a point, however, of not blaming the religion of Islam itself for the attacks.
 
   President Bush promised that in the end, "we will see freedom's victory."  As events turned out, finding victory proved more difficult than most people imagined at the time.
The pictures

1.  Firefighters were among the first responders who went into the burning towers of the World Trade Center to rescue people after the 9/11 attacks.  Many were killed as the towers collapsed.

2.  President George W. Bush, who took office less than a year before the 9/11 attacks. 
 

Group discussion questions, page 243

   President Bush declares that the American goals are:

  • Shut down terrorist training camps, disrupt terrorist plans, and bring the terrorists to justice.
  • Prevent governments that sponsor and support terrorists from threatening America with weapons of mass destruction [such as germ warfare or atomic bombs].

   The president says that doing nothing about the threat of terrorism "would be catastrophic."

   President Bush says that certain basic principles will unite people all over the world in the fight against terrorism.  He says no one wants to be oppressed, or live in servitude, or "await the midnight knock of the secret police."  He adds that "America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere." 
   Based on events in the years after this speech, however, it appeared that dedication to the ideas of liberty and justice, at least as Americans defined those terms, was not as universal around the world as the president thought.







Copyright Notice

   Copyright 2018 by David Burns.  All rights reserved.  Illustrations and reading selections appearing in this work are taken from sources in the public domain and from private collections used by permission.  Sources include: the Dover Pictorial Archive, the Library of Congress, The National Archives, The Hart Publishing Co., Corel Corporation and its licensors, Nova Development Corporation and its licensors, and others.  Maps were created or adapted by the author using reference maps from the United States Geological Survey and Cartesia Software.  Please see the home page for this title for more information.