`I will not yield. I will not rest.'
George W. Bush finds his presidential footing on a most unfamiliar terrain
But today's challenges are in many ways more daunting than those of the 1990s, and Bush's advisers are split about the next step. Powell, along with the former president and much of the intelligence community, wants to proceed cautiously. They fear that extending the counterattack too far will cause dire repercussions in the Muslim world. But Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz are among those pushing for the harshest and most broad-based response possible, according to administration officials. Bush, so far, has chosen the wider options, although he has allowed Powell to organize the international coalition.
Even more important, his father's war--designed to force Iraq out of Kuwait--was waged for a clear purpose, against an easily defined enemy, and with a massive conventional force that far outmatched Saddam's hapless military. Americans could even watch the battles on television--including the laser-guided bombs and missiles that destroyed their targets in what resembled a lethal video game on the nightly news. George W. Bush's war will be murkier in almost every way--and, as he concedes, he will find it immeasurably harder to demonstrate success.
A British influence. Behind the scenes, Bush's advisers describe a man with a new sense of purpose. His latest hero is not drawn from the traditional list of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or Franklin Roosevelt. Instead, Bush has become more enthralled than ever with Winston Churchill. Bush finds parallels between his own circumstances and those of the British prime minister who led his country against the Nazi blitz a half century ago and, with America's help, to ultimate triumph over the Third Reich. Almost since America's terrorist crisis began on September 11, Bush has told friends how he hopes to emulate Churchill's "resolve, his humor . . . his ability to lift a people during a very challenging time," says White House Chief of Staff Andy Card.
On the morning of his prime-time speech, he escorted a group of religious leaders on a tour of the Oval Office and pointed out a bust of Churchill he has prominently displayed near his desk. He also showed his guests a portrait of Lincoln and an inspirational painting of Western horsemen charging up a steep hill called A Charge to Keep. He said the three artworks inspire him. But aides say it is Churchill who has special relevance because Bush sees the prime minister's situation--rallying his country against what amounted to terror attacks against civilians--as similar to his own.
There is a larger point. Bush's identification with Churchill suggests that he also sees the current crisis as a life-or-death struggle. Aides say he is more methodical and disciplined than ever. He gets to the Oval Office at daybreak, carefully reads his briefing books, and asks plenty of pointed questions, which was not his habit when his presidency started in January. Using the Oval Office as a command center and with Rice at his side, he spends several hours each day doggedly calling foreign leaders to organize the international coalition.
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