Remembering the day that changed the world
9/11: Inside the President’s War Room
BBC1, 8.30pm
Even the most ardent armchair politician or critic knows there are few easy decisions the higher up the greasy pole we climb, and they become even thinner on the ground if you reach the elevated office of President of the United States.
As anyone who watched every series of The West Wing will tell you, alongside the glamour, pizzazz and attempts to change things (for the better or worse always depends on which side you’re on) comes a weight of responsibility the majority of people can barely even begin to fathom. Quite apart from the internal squabbles between blue and red parties, there’s the economy and healthcare, important decisions about where the lines are drawn between state and local government, military deployment, foreign policy, not to mention the incredibly litigious culture.
It’s less the land of the free and home of the brave and more a series of bear traps, waiting to ensnare the unwary.
History lovers will know the US has had its fair share of heroes and villains occupying the White House, but few were as vilified as George W Bush. The son of George Bush Sr, who was the 41st president from 1989 to 1993, he was viewed as everything from a buffoon to a puppet, dangled in front of the media and public while the real power moves went on behind the scenes.
It was an image that was magnified on September 11, 2001.
This feature-length documentary tells the definitive story of the Presidency through 12 hours of that momentous day, as it changed
Bush, America, and the world, and told with direct testimony from those in power at the time, including the president himself, VP Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other senior White House staff.
It begins with blue-sky innocence, as a relatively new Commander in Chief orientates himself towards a domestic agenda and it ends as the machinery of government flexes and responds to the threat and begins to contemplate the possibility of war.
As the clock ticks the presidency is forced to make a series of critical decisions, while still struggling to make sense of what is unfolding.
How should a government deal with a large-scale terrorist attack where four commercial aircraft are being used as missiles? How would they cope with losing their friends? And how should they respond?
Should they order fighter jets to shoot on American civilians? Should the seminal presidential speech declare war or calm a nation? How would the leadership of the most powerful nation on Earth grapple with the national and international implications?
The events of that day led to two decades of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan – the latter, of course, recently brought to an end by current White House incumbent Joe Biden.
He too, faced harsh recriminations and criticism from all sides, both domestic and international, for finally bringing the curtain down on a “forever” war that has cost billions of dollars and innumerable lives, and which was started with an unthinkable tragedy that struck out of nowhere in New York’s blue skies.