WASHINGTON (KRT) — Two hours before unleashing bombs and cruise missiles against Afghanistan, President Bush turned to an aide in the Oval Office and said, “I gave them fair warning.”
In fact, the president signed off on the plan for Sunday’s military action long before he put it into action. A senior administration official said Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld agreed weeks ago on the tactics, the extent of the strikes and the nature of the targets.
Bush and his advisers ran through a final checklist of diplomatic and military details in a videoconference call Saturday, while the president visited Camp David. Although the presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland is usually a place for Bush to relax, he spent the weekend preparing for war.
According to the administration official, who insisted on anonymity, Rumsfeld assured the president that a coalition of traditional allies and newfound friends, from Britain to Uzbekistan, was prepared to help. CIA director George Tenet reported that the attack was likely to catch Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers off-guard, because they weren’t expecting it for at least a few days. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the State Department would put its diplomatic missions on high alert and issue a travel warning to Americans abroad.
Bush also huddled at the presidential retreat with speechwriter Michael Gerson and counselor Karen Hughes. The two aides had played key roles in drafting the president’s widely acclaimed Sept. 20 speech to a joint session of Congress; now they were working on the follow-up announcement that military action had started.
With the plan in place, Bush began calling congressional leaders at about 9 p.m. Saturday to tell them he was ready to order retaliation. He found House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt at Camden Yards in Baltimore, where the St. Louis lawmaker was watching Cal Ripken in his final game with the Baltimore Orioles. Gephardt offered Bush his support, then turned back to the game.
Other calls went to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott and House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
The president resumed his public schedule by attending an annual tribute to fallen firefighters at the national training center in Emmitsburg, Md., near Camp David. His demeanor and words offered no clues to his intentions, but his tribute also could apply to the men and women he was sending to war.
“All of them serve,” Bush said, “knowing that one day they may not come home.”
The only hint that something had changed came when the president and first lady Laura Bush boarded a helicopter after his remarks and returned to the White House about 10:30 a.m. — several hours earlier than usual.
Back in the Oval Office, Bush began calling world leaders, running through a list that included Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Powell called about 10 other foreign leaders.
About 30 minutes after the first strikes in Afghanistan, the president went on national television to announce that “the battle is now joined on many fronts.” Departing from the traditional setting of the Oval Office, he spoke from the White House Treaty Room, with a view of the Jefferson Memorial over his right shoulder.
Then he joined his aides for sandwiches. He urged them to help prepare the nation for a military campaign unlike any war in the nation’s history.
“The president has very often said to us that it’s very important for the country to understand how really different this is,” White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. “It’s not just a typical, traditional, conventional war.” He described Bush’s mood as “resolute and determined” throughout the day.
“No American president undertakes a military mission with anything other than a full understanding of the seriousness of it,” Fleischer said. “But, I can tell you, from having traveled with him on Sept. 11, he right away, from the beginning, recognized that this was war.”
Jackie Koszczuk contributed to this report.
© 2001, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.