Memories and Madness

I didn’t lose myself too much in the 20^th anniversary 9/11 stuff, but I have to say that “Inside the President’s War Room” was a captivating, interesting watch. If you haven’t seen it, I believe it will be available on BBC iPlayer. It was an inside look at the 12 hours or so after the attack on New York in 2001, but rose above the many other similar shows of the past two decades by featuring interviews with many of the main players from the US inner circle of power on that fateful day, including the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Press Secretary and Senior Advisors.
We all have our own memories of the day, but this is the first programme I can remember seeing that gives you an insight into the minds and make-up of the key figures on American soil and how they reacted and acted.
George W. Bush, it amazes me to say, came across as quite a level-headed, thoughtful, determined man who had respect for the office he was holding, rather than the bumbling, tactless, cheating, son-of-a-former-President accidental President that I viewed him as at the time. I may not agree with what he did in the wake of that particular September incident, but this programme did give me a bit of an explanation as to why he made the choices he did, and - whether he was right to make them or not - he did at least give me the impression that he had made them after careful consideration, and with a definite goal in mind. Of course, one has to watch all this with the understanding that they’ve all had 20 years to edit their own memories and to adjust their statements about their actions accordingly, but it gives you a new way of looking at everyone’s behaviour, and maybe even a growing level of respect for what they did that day under unbelievable circumstances.
And you do have to accept the revelation that, far from being calm, unfeeling super-beings with some kind of unseen internal power of control, they were all just regular humans who must have been absolutely terrified.
RORY’S THREE-WORD REVIEW: Worth a look.

RC 14-9-21