ABSTRACT
The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001 and George W. Bush’s declaration of a global ‘war on terror’ signalled not only new directions in US foreign and domestic policy but, almost at a stroke, transformed his presidency and his relations with the Congress. Bush and his advisors did what any successful American president would have done in the circumstances: interpreting the public and congressional mood well in a series of effectively choreographed public conversations with ordinary Americans and the Congress, Bush provided the symbolic leadership that is so important in the American political system. Whereas another president might have responded incrementally, Bush acted boldly and aggressively, but nevertheless in ways designed to garner strong public and congressional support. Refusing to interpret the attacks as criminal acts and the remedy law enforcement, the administration soon launched a ‘war on terror’ that was multidimensional and seen as limitless in scope, time and geography. ‘Once you go into a wartime situation and it’s a strategic threat’, Vice President Dick Cheney later explained,
then you use all of your assets to go after the enemy. You go after the state sponsors of terror, places where they’ve got sanctuary. You use your intelligence resources, your military resources, your financial resources – everything you can – in order to shut down that terrorist threat against you … When you go back to the law enforcement mode [you] are very much giving up that center of attention and focus that’s required, and that concept of military threat that is essential if you’re going to successfully defend the nation against further attacks.
