8/10/2023 0 Comments War room putlockerEdited seamlessly with unseen photographs and video footage, the result is a gripping access-all-areas account of that day: as Air Force One made a rare emergency take-off at a steep angle as Dick Cheney briefly wrestled with whether to try and shoot down United 93 as staff members watched the news on the TV, shocked, like the rest of the world as Bush settled on a policy to take a firm stance against terrorism and pledge to strike back against the attacks’ perpetrators and those assisting them.Īrriving in the week leading up to the 20th anniversary of 9/11, all these decisions come amid a context that’s only become more complex since, not least with the fallout of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Jeff Daniels narrates the 12 hours after the attacks with a calm, sombre tone, but it’s the astonishing array of talking heads that have the real weight director Adam Wishart (Trouble at the Big Top) secures access to former Vice President Dick Cheney, the then national security advisor Condoleeza Rice, former director of communications Dan Bartlett and Karl Rove, the then senior advisor to the president. It’s a sign of how unprecedented the disaster was that Bush delivered his first speech about the Twin Towers in the back of a school, when he was hoping to talk about education policy, as information was still being gathered. What followed was a day of chaos, getting on board Air Force One, deemed the safest place for the President – even as ripples of fear about a potential insider in the team left everyone rattled – then making base in a bunker away from Washington DC, while struggling to get a phone signal. You can almost see in the video footage of that visit his eyes hardening in resolve as he processes the events. The photo of George W Bush in a primary school, looking dazed in front of a class of kids as news of the second tower reached him, is a familiar sight from newspaper headlines, but this documentary gives us the account of what was going on behind the image – a man torn between interrupting seven-year-olds reading to the President to deal with the crisis and explaining the harrowing tragedy to children and teachers as it was still unfolding. Where notable leaders in historical times of conflict, such as Churchill, made decisions and took actions over time, what we watch here is an administration having to react on the spot to a horrifying tragedy that took the world by surprise. He admits here that when he said it, he had no idea what “this” was, how they were going to deal with it and whether or not things would be OK – and it’s that candid insight that makes this documentary such a remarkable watch.Ĭo-produced by the BBC and Apple TV+, the 90-minute film tells the story of the 9/11 attacks through the eyes of those making the decisions on the day about how to respond. The former US President recalls that moment, along with many others, from that tragic day in 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room. “We’re doing to deal with this and it’s going to be OK.” Those were the words of George W Bush to a member of staff on 11 September 2001, as he boarded Air Force One.
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