9/11 Inside the President's War Room

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Great programme, gripping.

I know he seemed like a hold on rationality when T was president, but my main feeling watching this is how inadequate George W Bush really was as President.

I think any US president would have responded with the attack on Afghanistan, the pressure to do so was overwhelming.

But, I think if Al Gore had won that Supreme Court decision and become president, he would not have gone on to invade Iraq, and the past 20 years would be very different indeed.

People might find it interesting to read the 9/11 Commission Report -- it's a government report but written in a very gripping way, it was a bestseller in the US at one point. It explains the leadup and response to the attack. It's very long but you can just skim the more interesting chapters:

www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf

I was living in DC at that time and I remember how a lot of men in DC people who just seemed like ordinary, rational men really became quite unhinged and aggressive after 9/11. Started ranting about terrorism and foreigners etc. It was like, for the first time in their life, these privileged white men had known fear really existential fear and they could not deal with it. The only thing they could do was lash out.

One bit I did like was Bush's story about his mum telling him they were in Milwaukee and he said 'what are you doing there?' And she said 'you grounded our plane'

I have been to the Ground Zero museum, but the firehouse at Ground Zero also give tours where a fire fighter, an emergency responder or survivor take you round the site and share their story of the day. A white rose is next to a few people's names on the memorial. The fire fighter, who did our tour, said the museum staff place these roses each morning on the names of victims whose birthday it is that day, to show they are remembered.

The firefighter said he was off duty that day (but he was usually in charge of the mid town firehouse). By the time he reached the fire house the first tower had fallen and he lost 43 firefighters that day. He is also a piper and he said (this was in 2013) he had piped at 70 NYC firefighters' funerals since who had died due to cancer/respiratory complications due to the dust/debris.

We have also toured the Pentagon where there is a memorial that looks like lots of diving boards with the victims names inscribed on the end. There were many families amongst the victims and some children travelling without parents (one girl was on the plane with her teacher as she had won a science competition and was going to collect her prize).

In the Pentagon there is a room dedicated to the events of 9/11. Our military guide told us the Pentagon is one of the biggest office buildings in the world that holds 5,000 per side, so 25,000 staff. At the time of 9/11 the Pentagon was undergoing renovation to reinforce the walls in case of such attack, so the people in that area were mainly workmen. The plane should have gone through all 5 walls, so to have only 184 victims was near miraculous. The plane also hit an antennae on a nearby hotel as it neared the Pentagon so was slowed down before impact.

A security expert, Professor Paul Rogers, argues Bush should never have gone to war in Afghanistan. He said "an alternative approach that the response to 9/11 should not have been a war on terror since that was just what the extreme movements wanted. Instead, the attacks should have been seen as appalling acts of transnational criminal activity. The response should have been to bring those behind the attacks to justice. It might have taken a decade or more but would have had far more world-wide public support and cooperation than wars that followed. Even more important would have been to undercut the development of the extreme movements by learning why they got so much support in the first place and how to undermine and countering that support."

Thank you for the recommendation. I will definitely give it a watch.

I haven't been in the museum, but did go to the memorial a few years ago which I thought was excellent. I was surprised at how emotional I felt.

I’m about to start watching this. DH and I were on a plane on our way to NY when Bin Laden was captured.

It was a strange week, uplifting, sad and a bit tense amid talks of revenge attacks.

I also really recommend ‘The only plane in the sky’. It’s an excellent read.

I thought it was a very interesting programme. Observing his behaviour in hindsight it's easy to criticise, but on the day of the attacks it really felt like the world as we knew it was ending and people were terrified. I was working in the City on a high floor of an office block and the fear that London would be next was palpable. It was unlike anything anyone had ever experienced.

I actually thought Bush came across quite well, better than I expected.

Didn’t see all of it but I’m going to go back and catch up. DH and I never had much time for Bush but now he looks like an intellectual titan post-Trump.

However, the shots of him disembarking from the helicopter and coming back into the White House were stark. He looked shell-shocked and utterly terrified, no wonder given the weight of expectations on his shoulders.

It was one of the most brilliant documentaries I've seen in a long time. I was no fan of GWB but seeing this makes me realise what a horrific job being POTUS would have been on that day so I have a new-found respect for him in that sense. It's impossible to know how any of us would have behaved or what decisions we would have made under those circumstances. I also had no idea that they thought AF1 was going to be attacked. So many things fell into place.

I loved the photos of everyone on the day and how they just let everyone speak for themselves with no gimmicks.

I was working in central London when it happened and seeing the film of the towers collapsing brought it back like yesterday. I would also recommend the Surviving 9/11 documentary that was on the previous evening - very moving listening to the people involved that day.

It was excellent tv

It was really good. Very tense!
Would highly recommend the looming tower if not watched, goes into the years leading up to the attacks.

Looming Tower is excellent. Another documentary -Inside 9/11 is also excellent if you can get hold of it. (the whole thing was on National Geographic a while back). A shortened version sometimes airs on National Geographic. I bought the DVD but it isn't compatible with UK players - d'oh.

Is Inside 9/11 the one with the French brothers who were filming a doc about a NYC firehouse and got caught up in everything? I remember it being absolutely heartbreaking

Does a photographer follow POTUS everywhere? I am amazed that so much of that day was documented in still pictures, both on AF1 and in the White House bunker.

I also thought that this was an excellent programme and certainly made me see GWB in a different light and not the complete idiot I thought he was, definitely glad he was in charge then and not Trump.

The two parts that stood out was him comforting a member of staff and the only light moment when recounting his mother telling him, when asked why they were in Milwaukee that he had ordered the grounding of the planes.

Thanks also thought that surviving 9/11 was excellent but really wanted to know what happened to Lucy, I do hope that she was one of the lucky ones.

I also wanted to know what happened to Lucy! I thought it was weird they didn't say.

Yes a photographer follows the US president around quite a lot, not 24/7 but they are around a lot

Have just watched this and, feel strange to say, but enjoyed it so much. What gripping tv and fascinating insight.

I’d highly recommend Only Plane and Looming Tower books but also the dramatised version of Looming Tower, think on Amazon. Truly great.

Has anyone started Turning Point on Netflix? Seems to be a whole series on 9/11 and the lead up.

I wonder if our sense of shock will ever diminish?

We went to the 9/11 Museum when we visited NYC. It was somewhere that we felt very drawn to, and standing by the pools listening to the water roaring was a moment where the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The entire museum is a beautiful and well thought out tribute to all who lost their lives that day. The human cost of that day is still incomprehensible.

@RubyFakeLips

Just started watching Turning Point.

@Odisia

I thought it was a very interesting programme. Observing his behaviour in hindsight it's easy to criticise, but on the day of the attacks it really felt like the world as we knew it was ending and people were terrified. I was working in the City on a high floor of an office block and the fear that London would be next was palpable. It was unlike anything anyone had ever experienced.

I actually thought Bush came across quite well, better than I expected.

It was an excellent documentary. I can remember DP ringing me from work I was working from home, telling me to put the news on. People in his office were going back from their 1pm - 2pm lunch breaks (UK time) absolutely terrified. They had watched the news in the pub at lunchtime. We watched the whole thing unfolding on the news in a state of shock. It was absolutely horrific and unbelievable.

I don't think GWB had any choice but to give a short speech at the school then get the hell out of there. The details of the attacks were being broadcast around the world while he was there.

Inside 9/11 is on YouTube, it is the kind of programme you don't want to blink while watching, it is gripping but so sad, to hear the bodies of the people who jumped landing while the firefighters were waiting in the foyer before going up to rescue. Hearing on Remembering 9/11 about the firefighter who was killed by a falling body & the British family who only have parts of bone from the body of their son, it was so sad & such a waste of so many lives & beautiful iconic buildings.

@Oldowl thank you for posting that description of your visit .Very moving .Especially these 2 comments .

A white rose is next to a few people's names on the memorial. The fire fighter, who did our tour, said the museum staff place these roses each morning on the names of victims whose birthday it is that day, to show they are remembered.

He is also a piper and he said (this was in 2013) he had piped at 70 NYC firefighters' funerals since who had died due to cancer/respiratory complications due to the dust/debris.

I thought his immediate leap to 'revenge' was a bit disturbing and clearly it was a mentality that lead to millions of lives being pointlessly lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. So bloodthirsty, wrongheaded, and shallow given the huge myriad of possibilities open to them, but they used it as an excuse to invade countries they had no right or reason to.

It made me really sad the other day when Joe Biden came out all 'we will not forgive or forget, we will hunt you down' etc. He's not really that guy, but he obviously felt it was expected.

America needs to move on from acting as the world's enforcer. It isn't capable any more, but politicians don't know how to stop feeding a public whose self image is, in large part, built on the response to 9/11.

@Oldowl

Does a photographer follow POTUS everywhere? I am amazed that so much of that day was documented in still pictures, both on AF1 and in the White House bunker.

Depends on the President. Trump only invited a photographer in for set pieces. Obama had Pete Souza, who I think think also served one of the Bush presidents. He has a documentary out now called something like The World As I See It.

It's really interesting. I mean, what a job!!