George W. Bush's first term as President of the United States
Encyclopedia
George W. Bush's second term as President of the United States
George W. Bush's second term as President of the United States began at noon on January 20, 2005 and expired with the swearing-in of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, at noon, Washington, D.C...
commenced on January 20, 2005. By far the most memorable event of this first term in office was the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
in New York and the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
in Arlington, Virginia.
Bush was instrumental in pushing forward legislation in education and national security, in bringing about tax-reduction and allocating funds for global emergency AIDS relief. He withdrew the United States from participation in the 1998 Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
on world climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
and from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was a treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile systems used in defending areas against missile-delivered nuclear weapons....
, as well as withdrawing U.S. support for the International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
, but his legacy was defined by his response to the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Shortly after the terrorist attack, a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
resulted in the overthrow of the Taliban government in Kabul, a regime which had allowed terrorist training camps, directed at western targets, to operate in Afghanistan. This approach was symptomatic of a change in the perception of the world and of the international threats to the United States, one expounded in Bush's 2002 State of the Union Address and known subsequently as the Bush Doctrine
Bush Doctrine
The Bush Doctrine is a phrase used to describe various related foreign policy principles of former United States president George W. Bush. The phrase was first used by Charles Krauthammer in June 2001 to describe the Bush Administration's unilateral withdrawals from the ABM treaty and the Kyoto...
. The United States gave itself the right to pursue its enemies wherever they could be found. In 2003, a U.S.-led military force invaded Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
.
Election controversy
In President Bush's first few months in office, the administration's focus was largely on matters concerning the economy, relations with North KoreaNorth Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and their nuclear efforts, stem cell research, and the job of uniting a nation still bitter over the controversy that surrounded the 2000 presidential election
United States presidential election, 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President....
. In that election, Bush had lost the nationwide popular vote to Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
, yet narrowly defeated Gore in the Electoral College by the narrow margin of 271–266. A five-week-long battle over extremely close results in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
ended when the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
abruptly terminated the state's month-long recounts on December 13, 2000. As a result of this, Bush won the state by 537 votes, the result of a November 27 recount that had been certified by Florida's Secretary of State, Katharine Harris. This judicial resolution was disputed by the Gore campaign and many other Democrats, since even the narrowest win for Gore in Florida would have been enough to make him President. Recounts following the November 27 certification by Harris had narrowed Bush's lead to just 125 votes when the U.S. Supreme Court declared George W Bush the winner in their December 13 ruling.
Bush's first few months were dominated by public disenchantment at this controversial and unusual election outcome, something reflected in his rainy inauguration ceremony in Washington DC, where 10,000 protesters rallied against the president.
Senate
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
. The Vice President, however, is given the constitutional authority as presiding officer in the Senate to break 50-50 ties by casting a deciding vote, so this represented a slim majority for the Republicans. However, this situation changed on May 24, 2001, when the liberal Republican Senator Jim Jeffords
Jim Jeffords
James Merrill "Jim" Jeffords is a former U.S. Senator from Vermont. He served as a Republican until 2001, when he left the party to become an independent. He retired from the Senate in 2006.-Background:...
switched his party affiliation to become the only Independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
senator and announced that he would caucus with the Democrats. This gave the Democrats the hope of out-voting the Republicans on some issues in the Senate.
In the 2002 mid-term elections, Bush campaigned strongly in support of some hand-picked Republican Senatorial candidates in states considered marginal, such as New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
and South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
. According to conservative pundit John Podhoretz
John Podhoretz
John Podhoretz is an American neoconservative columnist for the New York Post, the editor of Commentary magazine, the author of several books on politics, and a former presidential speechwriter.-Life and career:...
, Bush was instrumental in helping to revert Senate control back to the Republicans with a two-seat majority, defying the conventional wisdom that the party in power will lose seats mid-term. Of those marginal states visited by the President, only South Dakota retained its incumbent Democratic Senator. Bush helped to install such reliable conservative stalwarts as Norm Coleman
Norm Coleman
Norman Bertram Coleman, Jr. is an American attorney and politician. He was a United States senator from Minnesota from 2003 to 2009. Coleman was elected in 2002 and served in the 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses. Before becoming a senator, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, from 1994 to 2002...
, Saxby Chambliss
Saxby Chambliss
Clarence Saxby Chambliss, Jr. is the senior United States Senator from Georgia. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a U.S. Representative ....
, John E. Sununu
John E. Sununu
John Edward Sununu is a former Republican United States Senator from New Hampshire, of Lebanese and Palestinian Christian ancestry. Sununu was the youngest member of the Senate for his entire six year term. He is the son of former New Hampshire Governor John H...
and Jim Talent
Jim Talent
James Matthes "Jim" Talent is an American politician and former senator from Missouri. He is a Republican and resided in the St. Louis area while serving in elected office. He identifies with the conservative wing of the Republican party, being particularly outspoken on judicial appointments,...
, defeating, respectively, former Vice-President Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...
, incumbent Max Cleland
Max Cleland
Joseph Maxwell Cleland is an American politician from Georgia. Cleland, a Democrat, is a disabled US Army veteran of the Vietnam War, a recipient of the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for valorous action in combat, and a former U.S. Senator...
, Governor Jeanne Shaheen
Jeanne Shaheen
Jeanne Shaheen is an American politician, a member of the Democratic Party, and the Senior United States Senator from New Hampshire. The first woman in U.S. history to be elected as both a Governor and U.S. Senator, she was the first woman to be elected Governor of New Hampshire, serving from...
and incumbent Jean Carnahan
Jean Carnahan
Jean Anne Carpenter Carnahan is an American politician and writer who served in the United States Senate from 2001 to 2002. A Democrat, she was appointed to the Senate to fill the seat of her posthumously elected husband, becoming the first woman to represent Missouri in the Senate.-Biography:Born...
.
Conservative agenda
Marriage, abortion and faith
On his first day in office, Bush moved to block federal aid to foreign groups that offered counseling or any other assistance to women in obtaining abortions. Days later, he announced his commitment to channeling more federal aid to faith-based service organizations, despite the fears of critics that this would dissolve the traditional separation of church and state in the United StatesSeparation of church and state in the United States
The phrase "separation of church and state" , attributed to Thomas Jefferson and others, and since quoted by the Supreme Court of the United States, expresses an understanding of the intent and function of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States...
. To further this commitment, Bush created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, formerly the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is an office within the White House Office that is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States.-Under George W. Bush:OFBCI was...
to assist faith-based service organizations. In a televised address on August 9, 2001, Bush announced a national policy on stem cell research that authorized funding and research work, with federal restrictions over the use of human embryos.
Bush also successfully pushed for the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 is a United States law prohibiting a form of late-term abortion that the Act calls "partial-birth abortion", often referred to in medical literature as intact dilation and extraction...
, enacted in 2003 with bi-partisan support but criticized by pro-choice
Pro-choice
Support for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
groups as an attack upon legalized abortion rights. Following a national furor over the recognition of same-sex marriages in San Francisco and Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, Bush announced his opposition to same-sex marriages, but supported allowing states to make provision for civil unions. He endorsed the Federal Marriage Amendment
Federal Marriage Amendment
The Federal Marriage Amendment H.J. Res. 56 was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which would have limited marriage in the United States to unions of one man and one woman...
to the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
which defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Euthanasia
Bush was staunchly opposed to euthanasiaEuthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
and supported Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
John Ashcroft
John Ashcroft
John David Ashcroft is a United States politician who served as the 79th United States Attorney General, from 2001 until 2005, appointed by President George W. Bush. Ashcroft previously served as the 50th Governor of Missouri and a U.S...
's decision to file suit against the voter-approved Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which was ultimately decided by the United States Supreme Court in favor of the Oregon law. However, as governor of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, Bush had signed a law which gave hospitals the authority to remove life support
Life support
Life support, in medicine is a broad term that applies to any therapy used to sustain a patient's life while they are critically ill or injured. There are many therapies and techniques that may be used by clinicians to achieve the goal of sustaining life...
from terminally ill patients against the wishes of spouse or parents, if the doctors deemed it to be medically appropriate. This perceived inconsistency in policy became an issue in 2005, when Bush signed controversial legislation forwarded and voted on by only three members of the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
to initiate federal intervention in the court battle of Terri Schiavo
Terri Schiavo
The Terri Schiavo case was a legal battle in the United States between the legal guardians and the parents of Teresa Marie "Terri" Schiavo that lasted from 1998 to 2005...
, a comatose Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
woman who ultimately died.
AIDS
In his State of the UnionState Of The Union
"State Of The Union" is the debut single from British singer-songwriter David Ford. It had previously been featured as a demo on his official website, before appearing as a track on a CD entitled "Apology Demos EP," only on sale at live shows....
message in January 2003, President Bush outlined a five-year strategy for global emergency AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
relief, the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief
President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief
The President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief was a commitment of $15 billion over five years from United States President George W. Bush to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic...
. Bush announced $15 billion for this effort, $3 billion a year for five years, but requested less in annual budgets, though some members of Congress added amendments to increase the requested amounts. The emergency relief effort was led by U.S. Ambassador Randall L. Tobias
Randall L. Tobias
Randall L. Tobias is a former chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company who became the first United States Director of Foreign Assistance, and served concurrently as the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development , with the rank of Ambassador...
, former CEO of Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States...
and Global AIDS Coordinator at the Department of State. $9 billion was allocated for new programs in AIDS relief in the 15 countries most affected by HIV/AIDS. Another $5 billion was to go to continuing support for AIDS relief in 100 countries where the United States already had bilateral programs established. An additional $1 billion was to go to support the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Almost one quarter of the $15 billion went to religious groups that tend to emphasize abstinence over condom use.
This quantity of money set aside by the United States to fight AIDS globally was more than that contributed by all other donor countries combined.
Economic policies
Constant dollars
The term constant dollars refers to a metric for valuing the price of something over time, without that metric changing due to inflation or deflation. The term specifically refers to dollars whose present value is linked to a given year. The term constant dollars refers to a metric for valuing the...
increased under Bush by 26% in his first four and one-half years in office. Significant increases in both military and domestic expenditure, combined with tax cuts and a recession, all contributed to record budget deficits recorded during the Bush administration
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, based on the American Housing Survey
American Housing Survey
The American Housing Survey is a statistical survey funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. It is the largest regular national housing sample survey in the United States and contains information on the number and...
, started at 4.7% in January 2001, peaked at 6.2% in June 2003, and retreated to 4.6% in May 2006; however the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
traded for a record 61 consecutive trading sessions at above 11,000 points during Bush's presidency,
ericans received a check from the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
(IRS) as "reconciliation" for having paid more tax than was necessary.
Facing opposition in Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, Bush held public meetings across the United States to increase nationwide support for his plan for a $1.3 trillion tax cut. He and his economic advisors argued that unspent government funds should be returned to the taxpayers who had provided these funds, and with reports of the threat of recession from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan is an American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private advisor and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC...
, Bush argued that such a tax cut would have the beneficial effect of stimulating the economy and creating jobs. Five Senate Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
crossed party lines to join Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
in approving this $1.35 trillion tax cut program. It was one of the largest in United States history and regarded as a major political victory given Bush's controversial election.
Bush sought and obtained Congressional approval for these major tax cuts spread over three years: 2001, 2002, and 2003. They reduced taxes for almost every taxpayer in the U.S. by altering the lowest tax bracket
Tax bracket
Tax brackets are the divisions at which tax rates change in a progressive tax system . Essentially, they are the cutoff values for taxable income — income past a certain point will be taxed at a higher rate.-Example:Imagine that there are three tax brackets: 10%, 20%, and 30%...
, increasing the child tax credit
Child tax credit
A child tax credit is the name for tax credits issued in some countries that depends on the number of dependent children in a family. The credit may depend on other factors as well: typically it depends on income level. For example, in the United States, only families making less than $110K per...
and eliminating the so-called "marriage penalty
Marriage penalty
The marriage penalty in the United States refers to the higher taxes required from some married couples, where spouses are making approximately the same taxable income, filing one tax return than for the same two people filing two separate tax returns if they were unmarried...
". Arguably, tax cuts were distributed disproportionately to higher income taxpayers through a decrease in the marginal rates at higher income, but the change in rates was greater for those of lower income, resulting in an income tax structure that was more progressive overall. Complexity was increased, however, with new categories of income to be taxed at different rates and with the introduction of new deductions and credits; at the same time, the number of individuals subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax
Alternative Minimum Tax
The Alternative Minimum Tax is an income tax imposed by the United States federal government on individuals, corporations, estates, and trusts. AMT is imposed at a nearly flat rate on an adjusted amount of taxable income above a certain threshold . This exemption is substantially higher than the...
increased, since this remained unchanged.
Trade tariffs
Bush's imposition of a tariff on imported steel and on Canadian softwood lumber was controversial in light of his advocacy of free marketFree market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
policies in other areas This attracted criticism both from his fellow conservatives and from the nations affected. The steel tariff was later rescinded under pressure from the World Trade Organization
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
. A negotiated settlement to the softwood lumber dispute was reached in April 2006, and a seven-year deal was finalized on July 1, 2006.
Education
President Bush's domestic agenda carried forward the theme of increased responsibility for performance that had characterised his days as Texas governor, and he worked hard to lobby for the adoption of the No Child Left Behind ActNo Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...
, with Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
as its chief sponsor. This legislation aimed to close the achievement gap between the most and the least able children, measure student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
performance, provide options to parents with students in low-performing schools and target more federal funding to low-income schools. President Bush also increased funding significantly for the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
and the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
, creating education programs to strengthen the grounding in science and mathematics for American high school students.
Looking back on his first term, on August 1, 2005, in response to a question from the media about the teaching of intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
versus evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
in public schools, Bush answered, "Both sides ought to be properly taught... so people can understand what the debate is about.... I think that a part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought." Bush did not elaborate upon his personal views concerning "intelligent design".
President Bush heavily promoted his No Child Left Behind education program in 2001, visiting schools across the country. This program was endorsed by Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
and during this period of his presidency, Bush's approval ratings rose at times to 63 percent. In terms of overall performance, however, the Associated Press noted that, of Bush's campaign promises for the first 100 days in office, he managed to keep about a quarter of them while shelving all the others. The political climate in Washington, it argued however, had changed since the campaign.
Funding for airtime
United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...
had paid The Graham Williams Group, a company run by the newspaper columnist and commentator Armstrong Williams
Armstrong Williams
Armstrong Williams is an African American political commentator, author of a conservative newspaper column, and host of a daily radio show and a nationally syndicated TV program, called The Right Side with Armstrong Williams. From 2004 to 2007, he co-hosted a daily radio program with Sam...
, $240,000 to mention the No Child Left Behind Act
No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...
regularly in columns and during broadcasts, to create one minute radio features with Education Secretary Rod Paige
Rod Paige
Roderick Raynor "Rod" Paige served as the 7th United States Secretary of Education from 2001 to 2005. Paige, who grew up in Mississippi, built a career on a belief that education equalizes opportunity, moving from classroom teacher to college dean and school superintendent to be the first African...
and not to mention that they were government funded, to create a video promotion for No Child Left Behind that appeared to be a news story and for Armstrong Williams to interview Paige and other department officials for television.
The Education Department, through the Ketchum public relations firm, arranged with Williams to use contacts with America's Black Forum
America's Black Forum
America's Black Forum is an Emmy Award-winning nationally syndicated weekly news broadcast targeted to an African American audience. The show started in 1977, and is one of the longest running U.S...
, a group of black broadcasters and journalists, "to encourage the producers to periodically address" No Child Left Behind. Williams also persuaded Steve Harvey
Steve Harvey
Broderick Steven "Steve" Harvey is an American actor, comedian, entertainer, television and radio personality and best-selling author. He is best known as the star of the WB sitcom The Steve Harvey Show, and as one of the four comedians featured in the Spike Lee film The Original Kings of Comedy...
to have Paige appear twice on his syndicated radio show.
The department paid Ketchum $700,000 (USD) to rate journalists on how positively or negatively they reported on No Child Left Behind. Congress prohibited the use of propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
, but the Education Department stated that the contract was "permissible use of taxpayer funds under legal government contracting procedures" and was an attempt to educate poor and minority communities about the benefits of the law. Williams claims that he felt the contract was a way for him to promote something that he truly believed in, although he afterwards regretted his decision to participate.
Healthcare
Bush promoted the increase of de-regulation and investment options in social services, leading Republican efforts to pass the Medicare Act of 2003Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act
The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act is a federal law of the United States, enacted in 2003. It produced the largest overhaul of Medicare in the public health program's 38-year history.The MMA was signed by President George W...
, which added prescription drug coverage to Medicare and created Health Savings Accounts, which would permit people to set aside a portion of their Medicare tax to build a "nest egg." Kalanz said that the law, estimated to cost US$400 billion over the first 10 years, would give the elderly "better choices and more control over their health care."
Science and technology
In the wake of the Columbia space shuttle disaster on January 14, 2004, Bush announced a major re-direction for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Known as the Vision for Space ExplorationVision for Space Exploration
The Vision for Space Exploration is the United States space policy which was announced on January 14, 2004 by President George W. Bush. It is seen as a response to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the state of human spaceflight at NASA, and a way to regain public enthusiasm for space...
, the policy called for the completion of the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
by 2010 and the retirement of the space shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
, while developing a new spacecraft called the Crew Exploration Vehicle
Crew Exploration Vehicle
The Crew Exploration Vehicle was the conceptual component of the U.S. NASA Vision for Space Exploration that later became known as the Orion spacecraft...
(CEV) under the title Project Constellation
Project Constellation
Constellation Program is a human spaceflight program within NASA, the space agency of the United States. The stated goals of the program were to gain significant experience in operating away from Earth's environment, develop technologies needed for opening the space frontier, and conduct...
. The CEV would be used to return American astronauts to the Moon by 2018.
The Bush administration implemented a major change in United States foreign policy by withdrawing its participation in the 1998 Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
on world climate change. The Bush administration during this period has been accused of censoring or manipulating scientific research to suit various political agendas, most notably in the areas of climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
and the economic development of environmentally sensitive locations. In January 2006, lead NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
climate scientist Dr James E Hansen and several other career scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Goddard Institute for Space Studies
The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies , at Columbia University in New York City, is a component laboratory of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Earth-Sun Exploration Division and a unit of The Earth Institute at Columbia University...
accused appointee George Deutsch
George Deutsch
George Carlton Deutsch III was a press officer of the United States space agency NASA. He was appointed to the position by George W. Bush, having previously worked in the Bush/Cheney 2004 campaign "War Room" and on the 55th Presidential Inaugural Committee....
of forbidding them from publicly discussing research on global warming risks. The Union of Concerned Scientists
Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists is a nonprofit science advocacy group based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. James J...
published a report, Scientific Integrity in Policymaking, in March 2004 that criticized the unprecedented "manipulation, suppression, and misrepresentation of science by the Bush administration."
Much talk had circulated during Bush's first eight months in office over how to handle the stem-cell research debate. On August 8, 2001, in a televised address to the nation from his ranch in Crawford, Texas
Crawford, Texas
Crawford is a town located in western McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is best known as the home of former President of the United States George W. Bush. He currently resides at the Prairie Chapel Ranch, which is located just outside Crawford, Texas....
, Bush announced that the federal government would provide funding, but only for research that used human embryos which had already been destroyed.
Military incidents
On February 9, 2001, a U.S. submarine, the , collided with a Japanese fishing ship and killed 9 people on board the vessel. Bush soon apologized to the Japanese for this incident. In April 2001, a U.S. military spy plane was forced to land at a ChineseChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
military airport. This spy plane incident between the United States and China, or Hainan Island incident, was one of the first major international challenges that the new administration had to face.
September 11, 2001
Eight months after Bush had taken office, however, a single day was to define the first term of his presidency. On September 11, 2001, terrorists
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
hijacked
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
airliners and flew them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, destroying both 110-story skyscrapers, and into the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
in Arlington, Virginia. An aircraft intended to attack the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
was brought down in Pennsylvania, following a struggle between terrorists and the aircraft's passengers. On the evening of the day of these attacks, the President declared a War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. Soon afterwards, President Bush's approval rating, calculated by the Gallup Organization, rose to 90%, the highest approval rating it had recorded for any president. Gallop begun its polls during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Policy response
President Bush's first policy response to 9/11 came on October 8, 2001, when, during a speech to Congress, he announced the creation of the Office of Homeland Security and appointed Tom RidgeTom Ridge
Thomas Joseph "Tom" Ridge is an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives , the 43rd Governor of Pennsylvania , Assistant to the President for Homeland Security , and the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security...
, a former governor of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, as its director. This was the first new executive-level office to be created since 1988, when President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
had appointed a head of the Department of Veterans Affairs
United States Department of Veterans Affairs
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is the United States government’s second largest department, after the United States Department of Defense...
. The stated purpose of the Office of Homeland Security was "to develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy" and "to secure the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from terrorist threats or attacks."
This department's most public accomplishment came on March 12, 2002, when the Homeland Security Advisory System
Homeland Security Advisory System
In the United States, the Homeland Security Advisory System was a color-coded terrorism threat advisory scale. The different levels trigger specific actions by federal agencies and state and local governments, and they affect the level of security at some airports and other public facilities. It...
was unveiled, a system of color-coded alerts designed to warn the population of the United States of the assessed level of threat from terrorist activity, based on the evaluation of credible intelligence reports. The "terror alert" level was posted on a daily basis.
Military response
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. The invasion was supported by many countries, but especially by troops from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. This military invasion was supported also by the Afghan Northern Alliance, a large group of allied Afghan tribes that had been waging a civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
against the Taliban for many years. The invasion was supported by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The stated goal of the mission was to overthrow the Taliban government, an Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic fundamentalist regime thought to be allowing terrorist training camps directed at western targets to operate in Afghanistan and believed to be harboring Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
, the leader of Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
, the terrorist organization that was blamed for the 9/11 attacks, and which later claimed responsibility for them.
On Tuesday, September 24, 2001. President Bush signed a bill authorizing the building of a national memorial to the passengers and crew who died aboard Flight 93
United Airlines Flight 93
United Airlines Flight 93 was United Airlines' scheduled morning transcontinental flight across the United States from Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco International Airport in California. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the Boeing 757–222 aircraft operating the...
when it crashed into Shanksville
Shanksville, Pennsylvania
Shanksville is a borough in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States, with a population of 245, as of the 2000 census. It is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area and is approximately 60 miles southeast from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, during the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Foreign policy
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was a treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile systems used in defending areas against missile-delivered nuclear weapons....
with Russia, in order to pursue a national missile defense
National Missile Defense
National missile defense is a generic term for a type of missile defense intended to shield an entire country against incoming missiles, such as intercontinental ballistic missile or other ballistic missiles. Interception might be by anti-ballistic missiles or directed-energy weapons such as lasers...
strategy of its own. International leaders criticized Bush for withdrawing U.S. support for the International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
soon after he assumed the presidency. The administration had voiced concerns that the court could conceivably over-rule the authority of the United States' judicial system.
Although lauded by Republicans and conservatives, global public opinion was distrustful of any United States policy that reinforced its position as sole arbiter in world affairs. Bush publicly condemned Kim Jong-Il
Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim born 16 February 1941 or 16 February 1942 , is the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...
of North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and his Stalinist regime. Bush also undertook bold action by expressing U.S. support for the defense of Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
following its stand-off in March 2001 with the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
over the crash of a Chinese air force jet and the detention of U.S. personnel. In 2003–04, Bush authorized U.S. military intervention in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
and Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
to restore order and oversee a transition to democracy.
Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and the Palestinians in the wake of rising violence in the region and the failure of the Clinton administration's efforts to negotiate. Bush specifically shunned the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
for not tracking down Palestinian militant groups as per Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
's requirements, but following prompts from European leaders, he became the first American president to embrace a two-state solution in the Middle East, envisaging an independent Palestinian state existing side-by-side with Israel. Bush sponsored dialogue between Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
and Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas , also known by the kunya Abu Mazen , has been the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation since 11 November 2004 and became President of the Palestinian National Authority on 15 January 2005 on the Fatah ticket.Elected to serve until 9 January 2009, he unilaterally...
, but continued his administration's boycott of Arafat. Bush also later supported Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and lauded the democratic elections held in the Palestinian National Authority
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip...
following Arafat's death.
North Korea
During President Bush's first few months in office, the administration's focus was clearly on relations with North KoreaNorth Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and its nuclear efforts.
Bush doctrine
In 2002, during his State of the Union AddressState of the Union Address
The State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President of the United States to the United States Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and his national priorities.The practice arises...
, Bush set forth what has become known as the Bush Doctrine
Bush Doctrine
The Bush Doctrine is a phrase used to describe various related foreign policy principles of former United States president George W. Bush. The phrase was first used by Charles Krauthammer in June 2001 to describe the Bush Administration's unilateral withdrawals from the ABM treaty and the Kyoto...
. Although this doctrine was technically used for justifying the invasion of Afghanistan, it was not clearly stated as a matter of policy until this address. Simply put, because of the "new world" Americans were now living in and the possibility of further massive terrorist attacks orchestrated by organizations that existed in multiple places all over the world, the United States could no longer think of the world as being exclusively made up of sovereign nations. Because of this, the United States would now implement a policy of using preemptive military strikes against any nation known to be harboring or aiding a terrorist organization hostile to the United States. President Bush also outlined what he called the Axis of Evil
Axis of evil
"Axis of evil" is a term initially used by the former United States President George W. Bush in his State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002 and often repeated throughout his presidency, describing governments that he accused of helping terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction...
, consisting of three nations that, he stated, posed a threat to world peace. These were Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
.
Afghanistan
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Taliban had described Osama Bin Laden as their guest and refused to place him in United States custody, although Bin Laden may have been hiding out of the reach of the Taliban, in the mountains of Afghanistan. The U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan overthrew the Taliban from the capital Kabul, and from large areas of Afghanistan, and a U.S.-approved government was installed. The majority of Al-Qaeda members, including Osama Bin Laden, were not captured, however, and some were still active in 2009. Bush has been criticized for sending an insufficient number of troops into Afghanistan initially and thus failing to achieve all of the mission's objectives. The Bush administration was successful in freezing Al-Qaeda funds and shutting down many of the terrorist training camps. The U.S. captured many Al-Qaeda leaders and members in the months and years following invasion.Ellen Mariani, widow of Louis Neil Mariani, killed in the September 11 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, charged that Bush "has not been forthright and honest with regard to his administration's pre-knowledge of the potential of the 9/11 attacks." Former White House chief counter-terrorism advisor Richard A. Clarke
Richard A. Clarke
Richard Alan Clarke was a U.S. government employee for 30 years, 1973–2003. He worked for the State Department during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush appointed him to chair the Counter-terrorism Security Group and to a seat on the United States National...
criticized both the failure to prevent the attacks of 9/11, and the response to them in both domestic and foreign policy, in his book Against All Enemies
Against All Enemies
Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror is a 2004 book by former U.S. chief counter-terrorism advisor Richard A. Clarke, criticizing past and present presidential administrations for the way they handled the War on Terrorism. The book focused much of its criticism on President George W...
.
Weapons of mass destruction
The Bush administration began announcing in 2002 that officials had evidence for the development of weapons of mass destructionWeapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...
(WMDs) in Iraq. The description of these devices ranged from chemical weapons to nuclear warheads with their associated delivery systems. The administration supported this claim with intelligence documents as well as aerial photographs. Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, the President of Iraq, was described as being a threat to the world and to his own people as long as he remained in power – especially if his regime had access to WMDs. Saddam had been supplied with conventional weapons and other assistance by the United States during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, but since then, the political arena had altered, especially due to an increasingly hardline stance taken by Saddam in Iraq, and his arbitrary invasion of Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
in 1990.
Invasion
Multinational force in Iraq
The Multi-National Force – Iraq was a military command, led by the United States, which was responsible for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Multi-National Force – Iraq replaced the previous force, Combined Joint Task Force 7, on 15 May 2004, and was later itself reorganized into its successor, United...
invaded Iraq in 2003. The operation was known in the United States as Operation Iraqi Freedom. Although the American government, with encouragement from the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, had attempted to gain a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force to remove Saddam from power, this attempt to gain international approval for the invasion was unsuccessful. Proponents of the use of force pointed to current and previous violations by Iraq of resolutions and sanctions imposed by the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
(UN) and the UN Security Council, as substantive enough to justify military intervention. President Bush, however, drew criticism for preemptively attacking a country that had never attacked the United States or threatened to do so, and for disregarding the opinion of the United Nations. He was criticized also, especially at home, for diverting attention away from capturing Osama Bin Laden. When asked during a press conference in March 2002 about what he was doing to capture Bin Laden, the president remarked: "You know, I just don't spend that much time on him." http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020313-8.html.
On May 2, from the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)
USS Abraham Lincoln , is the fifth Nimitz-class supercarrier in the United States Navy. She is the second Navy ship named after former president Abraham Lincoln. Her home port is Everett, Washington.-Construction:...
, in front of a huge banner that read "Mission Accomplished", Bush declared that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended." This drew criticism for being premature, since many Coalition forces were still fighting in Iraq. The banner, some said, was supposed to have been removed before the speech, and the president had not been involved.
Following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Iraq Survey Group
Iraq Survey Group
The Iraq Survey Group was a fact-finding mission sent by the multinational force in Iraq after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to find the alleged weapons of mass destruction alleged to be possessed by Iraq that had been the main ostensible reason for the invasion. Its final report is commonly called...
(ISG), made up of 1,200 members of British and American experts in the field of concealed weapons programs, was established. On October 3, 2003, it released its Interim report on Iraq, which stated that it had found numerous "WMD related materials" but no actual WMDs.
On November 27, 2003, the president made a surprise visit to Iraq to share a Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
dinner with the soldiers there in an effort to raise low morale. He spent two hours eating with troops at Baghdad International Airport
Baghdad International Airport
Baghdad International Airport, originally Saddam International Airport, , BIAP is Iraq's largest airport, located in a suburb about west of downtown Baghdad in the Baghdad Governorate...
before returning to the U.S.. The visit was kept top secret and even the army personnel had no idea he was coming. Some saw it as a patriotic gesture; others as a dangerous political stunt. Accompanied by U.S. National Security adviser Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
, the trip went without incident.
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, the deposed President of Iraq, was found and captured by U.S. forces. Pictures of the now bearded former leader, looking severely dazed, being poked and prodded by medical examiners, circulated in newspapers and on the Internet around the world. This was a boost to the Bush presidency; most Americans were pleased that Saddam had been found and captured.
Doubts
On January 23, 2004, the head of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), David KayDavid Kay
Dr. David A. Kay is best known for heading the Iraq Survey Group and acting as a Weapons inspector in Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion.-Education:...
, resigned his position, stating that he believed WMDs would not be found in Iraq. "I don't think they existed," he commented. "What everyone was talking about is stockpiles produced after the end of the last Gulf War and I don't think there was a large-scale production program in the '90s." Kay criticized the intelligence that led to the war in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying: "We were all wrong and that is most disturbing." The former UN weapons inspector Charles Duelfer was named by CIA director George Tenet
George Tenet
George John Tenet was the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, and is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University....
as Kay's successor. In May, Bush's approval rating had fallen to 46%. On September 30, the ISG released the Duelfer Report, its final report, confirming David Kay's assertion that there were no WMDs in Iraq.
Some said that allegations of Iraqi development of WMDs were a lie to get access to Iraq's oil reserves and that Bush had committed young Americans' lives for financial gain. Many people saw a continuation of this stance, even after the invasion, as illustrated by this May 29, 2003 statement:
"We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them."
It is now known that the Bush administration had full knowledge, from their team of independent experts on May 27, 2003, that these labs were used for nothing more than filling weather balloons with hydrogen.
Some people felt that the President had had adequate reason to attack Iraq and that he truly believed there were WMD development programs in place, given that allied intelligence agencies believed that they had grounds for suspicion, and that numerous requests by UN inspectors to visit facilities of interest in Iraq had consistently been refused by Saddam. Bush, in their opinion, was acting in the best interest of the United States.
Intelligence reform
As part of the recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission, Congress planned to pass a major intelligence reform bill in the summer of 2004. However, the bill was slowed down by disagreements between the Republicans in Congress. Armed Services CommitteeArmed Services Committee
The term Armed Services Committee may refer to:*United States House Committee on Armed Services*United States Senate Committee on Armed Services...
Chairman Duncan Hunter
Duncan Hunter
Duncan Lee Hunter is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the House of Representatives from California's 52nd, 45th and 42nd districts from 1981 to 2009....
from California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
opposed the bill because he thought it moved too much control over intelligence operations and budgets from the military to a new national intelligence director. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
wanted the bill changed to stop states from issuing driver's license
Driver's license
A driver's license/licence , or driving licence is an official document which states that a person may operate a motorized vehicle, such as a motorcycle, car, truck or a bus, on a public roadway. Most U.S...
s to illegal immigrants. The Bush administration, however, was keen to push for the bill as part of its "war on terror" initiative, but it was blocked in the House on 20 November 2004.
On December 10, 2004, an agreement was finally reached on the language of the bill and it was approved in the Senate by 89 votes to 2. The bill forced intelligence and law enforcement agencies to share information, called for a minimum federal standard for state drivers' licenses and for Homeland Security to set a standard for the identification needed to board a commercial aircraft. The bill created a new federal counter-terrorism center and a new, controversial, United States Director of National Intelligence
United States Director of National Intelligence
The Director of National Intelligence , is the United States government official subject to the authority, direction and control of the President, who is responsible under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 for:...
, who was to be given strong budgetary control. However, the complexity of the bill's language was criticized, with concerns that it might lead to confusion over the director's exact powers. Bush, who passed the bill into law on December 17, was accused of pressuring Congress into passing the bill before the end of the year. Some considered it to be the largest legislation overhaul in 50 years.
2004 election
Campaign
Intense issues in the Middle EastMiddle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, such as the overall security situation in Iraq and the lack of WMDs found in that country, fueled the fire for the 2004 election
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
. During his campaign, Bush's platform changed little from that of the 2000 election
United States presidential election, 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President....
, although he added several claims of success in fighting the war on terror and preventing another 9/11-style attack. Other presidential candidates criticized Bush for his failures in the war on terror, the war in Iraq, his policies on the environment, education, health care and the economy, the deficit in the Federal budget and his near-unilateral approach to foreign policy. Bush portrayed his Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
opponent John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
as soft and said he would "flip-flop", or change opinions on issues for political gain. Kerry portrayed Bush as stubborn, rigid and unyielding in his views, although Republicans, seizing upon this, claimed that Bush's stubbornness was a positive asset for the country.
The campaign was bitterly fought and each candidate made attacks on his opponent in some form or another almost on a daily basis. The polls remained neck-and-neck in the weeks before the election. The only time either candidate was significantly ahead in the polls was after their political parties' conventions. After the 2004 Republican National Convention
2004 Republican National Convention
The 2004 Republican National Convention, the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States, took place from August 30 to September 2, 2004 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York...
most polls showed an eleven point lead for President Bush, which kept dwindling as time went on. Despite outcries by law enforcement agencies across the country, Bush allowed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban to quietly die on September 13; this did not substantially affect his approval rating, however, in fact it went virtually unnoticed. Polls were very close to dead-even by the first presidential debate on September 30, 2004.
Presidential debates
During the three presidential debates, reactions to President Bush's performance were mixed. He was said to have scowled during the first debate several times, which he later made light of. Most media sources agree that he lost the first two debates. But by the third, which media sources saw as a tie, Bush had noticeably straightened up and appeared as firm and confident as he had been during past performances. Highly speculative claims that the President might have worn a wire or an earpiece of some kind during the last debate were suggested, based on pictures of Bush, taken during the debate, which show an apparent "bulge" running down his back. No investigation was ever conducted into these claims and most agree that if the president had been coached through an electronic device, his performances would probably have been better. Some technical problems surrounding this have been pointed out as well.Election day
On the eve of Election Day, most polls showed President Bush ahead by 2%. Many popular television, radio and print media, however, predicted that John Kerry would win the presidency. Exit polls showed Bush leading by 2 to 3%. As polling centers closed and the remaining votes were being counted, it became clear that Bush and Kerry were winning the same states that had been won by their parties in 2000. Bush managed to win the swing states of FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
(by 400,000 as opposed to the 537 margin of 2000) and Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
(by 119,000). He won his re-election bid by 34 electoral votes, the end total being: Bush–286, Kerry–252. The next afternoon John Kerry conceded his candidacy. During a speech on that same day, Bush outlined what he hoped to do in his second term and stated that he interpreted the results of the election as a "mandate" from the American people.
The enthusiasm shown by the public in this election and its campaign resulted in a record voter turnout and something of a resurgence in the common American's interest in politics. It was often said that for Bush to have a successful second term, he must bridge a growing divide between Americans and win over his opponent's supporters. However, with a majority in both houses of Congress and the prospect of appointing three new Supreme Court Justices
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
, getting his policies passed swiftly did not seem likely to require bi-partisan cooperation.
Time Magazine Person of the Year
On December 19, 2004, Time Magazine chose George W Bush to be its annual Person of the YearPerson of the Year
Person of the Year is an annual issue of the United States newsmagazine Time that features and profiles a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year."- History :The tradition of selecting a Man of the Year...
. Time Magazine gives this award to "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse," and said they gave to it Bush" for sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his 10-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters this time around that he deserved to be in the White House for another four years." They had made George W Bush their Person of the Year in 2000. His father, former President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, had received the title in 1990.
Response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
Crawford, Texas
Crawford is a town located in western McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is best known as the home of former President of the United States George W. Bush. He currently resides at the Prairie Chapel Ranch, which is located just outside Crawford, Texas....
ranch
Prairie Chapel Ranch
Prairie Chapel Ranch is a 1,583 acre ranch in unincorporated McLennan County, Texas, located seven miles northwest of Crawford. The property was acquired by President George W...
when he was informed of a devastating tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
that was unfolding in the Indian Ocean. The first estimates of casualties were 22,000 people killed, of whom, six were Americans. These figures were to rise dramatically in the coming hours and days.
Bush said the earthquake was a "terrible loss of life and suffering" and a $15 million aid package was put together to help the Asian countries suffering from the devastation caused by this tsunami. The U.S. and other Western nations were criticized, however, first by the UN and then by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, for not providing enough aid. They claimed that the amount pledged by the United States was half as much as Republicans were planning to spend on inauguration festivities. The New York Times also criticized Bush for waiting three days to express his condolences to the countries hit by the disaster.
Jeb Bush
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. He is a prominent member of the Bush family: the second son of former President George H. W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush; the younger brother of former President George W...
and Secretary of State Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
to Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
to assess the damage. After Japan announced that they were pledging US$500 million, the largest amount of any country so far, and when the death count had risen to estimates of around 150,000, Bush again increased the United States aid package to $350 million, making it the second largest contribution. On February 9, as relief efforts continued to be made, Bush asked Congress for a total of $950 million.
These financial pledges did not include the costs associated with the use of United States military personnel in the relief effort. By January 12, 2005, 15,000 troops had been committed, 25 ships and nearly 100 aircraft, whose role included the delivery of emergency supplies and search and rescue.
Private relief funding was also substantial. On January 3, 2005, the president named his two immediate predecessors, Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and George H. W. Bush, to head up a major campaign to gather private funding to assist the tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
victims. By January 11, only eight days later, $360 million had already been raised and more was expected.
Major bills passed
Although many bills were passed during Bush's first term, there were several initiatives that he not only spearheaded but which served to shape his general ideology. These were:- USA Patriot ActUSA PATRIOT ActThe USA PATRIOT Act is an Act of the U.S. Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001...
- October 26, 2001 - No Child Left Behind ActNo Child Left Behind ActThe No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...
- December 13, 2001
See also
- George W. Bush's second term as President of the United StatesGeorge W. Bush's second term as President of the United StatesGeorge W. Bush's second term as President of the United States began at noon on January 20, 2005 and expired with the swearing-in of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, at noon, Washington, D.C...
- George W. Bush main articleGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
- President of the United States of America
- Bush v. GoreBush v. GoreBush v. Gore, , is the landmark United States Supreme Court decision on December 12, 2000, that effectively resolved the 2000 presidential election in favor of George W. Bush. Only eight days earlier, the United States Supreme Court had unanimously decided the closely related case of Bush v...
- George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2004George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2004This article is about the presidential campaign of George W. Bush, the former President of the United States and winner of the 2004 Presidential Election. See George W. Bush for a detailed biography and information about his full presidency, and George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2000 for a...