Where Were You at the Moment Your Thinking Changed?

Ever the arrogant bastard, President Bush dropped the following doozie in response to a question about his lack of popularity in Europe, while at a press conference during his “diplomatic” visit to meet with European leaders:

Look, people didn’t agree with my decision on Iraq. And I understand that. For Europe, September the 11th was a moment; for us it was a change of thinking.

While there were several other ridiculous contentions in Bush’s long-winded, bumbling answer to this single question (full transcript here), this one calls for its own response.

Mr. President,

Remember where you were when you first heard about the attack on the Twin Towers?

Here’s a reminder:


And here's a reminder of where you were a few seconds later:


And here’s a reminder of where you were about a minute and a half later:



And here’s where you were about 4 and a half minutes later:


And Just in case you don’t remember, here’s a frame-by-frame recap of where you were on September the 11th.

Kind of looks more like a “moment” than a “change of thinking,” doesn’t it Mr. President?

Of course, your change of thinking may not have actually occured on September the 11th as you were in that classroom working on your reading skills, and Andy Card whispered to you that America had been attacked. Your change of thinking may have occurred shortly after September of 2000, when your Vice President – the man whose nickname inside the C.I.A. was Edgar (as in Edgar Bergen,) according to a recently released book by Ron Suskind – first made you mouth the words “New Pearl Harbor” during a secret meeting in a secure bunker somewhere in the bowels of the White House.

I’m sure it took a bit longer than a “moment” for the PNAC to develop the ideas set forth in Rebuilding America’s Defenses – essentially a plan for how America could capitalize on a catastrophic attack. I’m sure it took longer than a “moment” for you to read it! Or, having read it, I’m sure it took a lot longer than a “moment” for you to muster up a change in whatever it is that you call “thinking!”

So as you were sitting there reading My Pet Goat at the very moment you should have been thinking, and acting, based on the facts of September the 11th, were you taking a moment to reflect on an earlier change of thinking? The change of thinking that ultimately led us to Iraq, while the mastermind of September the 11th was still hiding out in Afghanistan? Or were you just frozen, unthinking, in the moment?