Badmovies.org Forum

I watched this interview tonight on the National Geographic Channel - it was the lead-in for their week of programming commemorating the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

I am an unashamed Bush partisan, as most on this forum know.  I don't agree with everything that he did, but ultimately, I believe he was a fundamentally decent man thrust into a horrendous situation that he never asked for.  Given that, I firmly believe that he did what he thought was the right thing, and rarely looked back.

Which is why this interview is so interesting - now we see him looking back at that day, at the decisions he made, and the repercussions of those decisions.  He was at times pensive, at times still a bit angry, and at times very solemn.  I found it to be fascinating and at times quite moving.

I'm curious - without this turning into a huge political flame war - did anyone else see this?

And if so, what did you think?

My birthday falls on 9/11, so I remember getting seriously angry seeing President Bush, 100% aware that his country was under attack, staying in his seat in the school, blinking like a deer caught in the headlights. Only after seeing excerpts from this documentary did I realize why he did what he did and why he gave his scary "I hear you, the world hears you" speech from Ground Zero later on.

I haven't had a proper birthday since 2000.  :bluesad:

Good luck with that.

As for me, I didn't see it and have no burning itch to. I had no interest in the HBO documentary about Obama either. I get so angry when I think about what a horribly dysfunction, polarized, and paralyzed nation we've become that interviews with Presidents are out of the question for me.

I saw some of this interview last night. I see it's on again tonight so I'm gonna watch it in full.

I'm a bit curious to see all what he says. I was a 17 year old kid in homeroom at high school when those towers fell. Next thing I know, all my friends are in the military overseas, college is outta the question and here I am.

I am not an adherent of BUSH. 

I cannot still easily look at any footage of that terrible day, though I'm getting there. 

I have a hard time talking about it.  I'm dreading the anniversary. 

AHD - I can sympathize.  I was teaching 8th graders that morning, and we listened over the radio as the towers fell.  It was sickening and revolting, and at the same time, I knew that I would never forget those moments as long as I live.

I feel almost as if I have to watch the footage every year, to keep myself focused on what we lost that day, and to never, ever forget the pure evil of the animals who struck at us that day.

I will never, ever forget.

All I will write about that awful day is that it's personal. 

Agreed: it is very personal for me too.  I lost a lot on that day that I will never be able to get back again.  :bluesad:

I didn't see the interview with George Bush, but one thing I always noted about the national reaction that day and just after was how it contrasted with the last time any comparable event happened, the attack on Pearl Harbor. I have spoken about Pearl Harbor to maybe twenty-five people in my life who had direct memories of being alive in December 1941, and universally every last one of them spoke of being filled with rage at this violation of decency and peace, but in September 2011 so many others from my own generation seemed to react with some sort of "hold hands and mourn the tragedy" mentality. And these were people who were not directly marked by a personal loss, I'm speaking of. If an earthquake hits, yes, that's possibly how you respond, but when it's a human-authored event, it is more sane to get mad about it and in the popular media and in society the response seemed one of the most telling contrasts between those of us in the 21st century and those of the generation dubbed "the Greatest."

I think that is a solid observation, ER.

One thing I will point out that may come across as argumentative. I don't know that it's fair to contrast this generation with "the greatest" in terms of the quality of the generations. Generations since WWII have had to deal with things in a totally different manner than that generation, one I will be the first to say was a great one. But the wars and conflicts that have occurred since  WWII have been a very different animal. The clearcut boundaries of right and wrong are a bit more ambiguous. From Korea to Vietnam to our current warfronts to dozens of other smaller operations and conflicts, Americans have just become more cynical, more inclined to question whether or not our elected officials are really acting the best interests of the U.S.

Some would like to blame all of this on cultural Marxism, something that I acknowledge exists, but unfortunately has become the ultimate scapegoat of those who need an easy thing blame the faults of the younger generations on. These are the same people who have a hard time also acknowledging things like the Iran/Contra Affair or government cover-ups of things like the death of Pat Tillman. I'm not a conspiracy nut at all. I'm just saying that all of these things mix into a pretty strong cynicism cocktail, and one can't just blame it all on the boogeyman known as cultural Marxism. I'm not saying that's what you're suggesting, ER. I'm just saying that is a common scapegoat I hear used to bemoan generations since WWII.

I think your observation on the differences in these reactions is pretty damned notable. I just don't know that one can really blame subsequent generations for their cynicism that their forebearers didn't share. The government behaves in a far more clandestine manner than in times past. That can't be overlooked.