Former President George W. Bush says his apparent lack of reaction to the first news of the September 11 2001 attacks was a conscious decision to project an aura of calm in a crisis.
In a rare interview with the National Geographic Channel, Bush reflects on what was going through his mind at the most dramatic moment of his presidency when he was informed that a second passenger jet had hit New York's World Trade Center.
Bush was visiting a Florida classroom and the incident, which was caught on TV film, and has often been used by critics to ridicule his apparently blank face.
"My first reaction was anger. Who the hell would do that to America? Then I immediately focused on the children, and the contrast between the attack and the innocence of children," Bush says in an excerpt of the interview shown to television writers on Thursday.
Bush said he could see the news media at the back of the classroom getting the news on their own cellphones "and it was like watching a silent movie."
Bush said he quickly realized that a lot of people beyond the classroom would be watching for his reaction.
"So I made the decision not to jump up immediately and leave the classroom. I didn't want to rattle the kids. I wanted to project a sense of calm," he said of his decision to remain seated and silent.
"I had been in enough crises to know that the first thing a leader has to do is to project calm," he added.
The National Geographic Channel will broadcast the hour-long interview on August 28 as part of a week of programs on the cable network called "Remembering 9/11" that mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
The interview was recorded over two days in May, without any questions being submitted in advance, the channel said.
National Geographic said Bush gives "intimate details" of his thoughts and feelings in a way never seen before. Most of the interview is about the first minutes and hours of the day that Islamic militants hijacked four planes and crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Executive producer and director Peter Schnall said Bush, who has adopted a low public profile since leaving office in January 2009, brought no notes to the interview.
"What you hear is the personal story of a man who also happened to be our president.
Listening to him describe how he grappled with a sense of anger and frustration coupled with his personal mandate to lead our country through this devastating attack was incredibly powerful," Schnall said.
U.S. television networks are planning a slew of specials to mark the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 attacks. Those on National Geographic also include a documentary on the continuing U.S. war on terror, and stories of ordinary people on Sept, 11 2001 called "Where Were You?"
Source: Reuters
Comment: Unlike Schnall, we don't read anything "powerful" in Bush's sharing of his "feelings". Why? Not only because his personality traits can be found in
Hare's psychopathy checklist, but also because for all the years of his presidency - and all his life - his actions and words showed a being deplete of real human feelings:
from
waging illegal wars in sovereign countries and sending Americans to their deaths, to
sanctioning torture, to
poisoning Americans through tap water, to backing Big Pharma in
drugging children with mind-altering drugs, to intentionally
spreading terror in the hearts of the American populace, to
mocking those who feel self-pity, to putting African women's lives
in danger, to funding the
genital mutilation of African men, to being an
accomplice in the greatest terror attack in the country he was elected to protect. He might try to "sound" humane and hide behind a mask of sanity, but his actions will always speak of themselves to reveal his true nature.
Read also,
"A Legacy of Greatness": the Morality of a Psychopath
Textbook descriptions of George Bush reveal psychopathy, and much worse
Bush is a Psychopath
Project, as an intentional, Depraved ACT!