Bush Becomes a Wartime President

W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 8, 2001 -- After nearly four weeks of preparing the nation and the world for war, President Bush leaned back in his chair in the White House Situation Room and told his national security advisers, "We're ready to go."

The wave of airstrikes launched Sunday against terrorist and military targets in Afghanistan was the first overt military action taken in what the commander in chief today vowed would be a "long" and "relentless" war against international terrorism.

According to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Bush decided to pull the trigger on "Operation Enduring Freedom" last Tuesday.

"He decided that it was about time to go," Rice explained.

The Pentagon was then told to prepare for the assault, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was dispatched to the Middle East to shore up support and White House counselor Karen Hughes was told to begin work on the speech Bush would deliver to the nation five days later as the bombs and cruise missiles fell on Afghanistan.

"He called me to the Oval Office and told me that he waspreparing to launch a military operation and asked me to start thinking about an address to the nation," said Hughes. "He was very aware that he would need to define the goals of the operation."

"The Bush administration will enforce its doctrine," the president told his trusted aide, asking her to include in his remarks a reference to a letter written to him by the fourth-grade daughter of a reservist called to active duty in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

On Friday, according to Rice, Bush turned to Gen. Richard Myers, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and asked if the general who would lead the operation was ready for war.

"Dick, is Tommy Franks ready to go?" Bush asked, referring to the commander of the U.S. Central Command.

"Yes sir," Myers answered.

"Alright then," the president said. "We're ready to go."

Giving the Final Go-Ahead

The only thing that would be able to preempt the airstrikes would be an eleventh-hour objection by one of the "front-line states" in the region. But after returning from a four-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman and Uzbekistan on Monday morning, Rumsfeld reported no such last-minute snags.

After one last check with Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and George Tenet, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, at what would be the final NSC meeting before the air assaults, Bush gave permission to begin the operation.

"He said it was all right for bombers to leave their bases," said Rice.

Also that morning, the president's weekly radio address was broadcast. In it, the president warned the ruling Taliban regime in Afghanistan that "time is running out" for it to turn over Osama bin Laden.

That afternoon, at the Camp David presidential retreat, a college football game — the University of Oklahoma vs. the University of Texas — provided some distraction for the president and his guests, including his brother Marvin. But Hughes described the mood as "somber" and "serious."

"There was a sense of the weighty decision the president was in the process of making," said Hughes.

That evening, Bush phoned congressional leaders to inform them the air strikes were imminent.

On the morning of the attacks, the president got a poignant reinforcement of resolve at the National Firefighters Memorial.

More than 300 firefighters lost their lives when terrorists piloted jetliners into the World Trade Center towers. The president and first lady Laura Bush praised the courage of these and other fallen firefighters, laying a wreath at the memorial. He then rushed back to the Oval Office a half hour ahead of schedule for meetings with his national security advisers.

As he readied for another critical turning point in his young presidency, Bush strolled across the White House lawn with his dogs and knocked in a few balls on a new putting green.

‘What Do We Do Now?’

The president then alerted the nation that Operation Enduring Freedom was under way over the skies of Afghanistan.

"On my orders, the United States militaryhas begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime," he said in a televised address from the White House Treaty Room.

In an attempt to blunt efforts by bin Laden and other Islamic extremists to paint the strikes as a war against Muslims, Bush emphasized that food, medicine and supplies were being sent to "the starving and suffering men and women and children of Afghanistan."

"The United States of America is a friend to the Afghan people,and we are the friends of almost a billion worldwide who practice theIslamic faith," he said.

Bush concluded his remarks by repeating a line he first used on Sept. 20 as he outline his administration's response to the Sept. 11 attacks in an address to a joint session of Congress.

"We will not waver, we will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail," he vowed.

Later, the president ate a lunch of sandwiches with his top aides in the Roosevelt Room.

"What do we do now?" Hughes asked, prompting laughter from the group.

"Now we wait," answered Rice.