Original subtitles

[rousing musical sting]

- We are at

a historic conundrum

the likes of which

I never thought I would see...

[crowd shouting]

In my lifetime.

- We still do not know

the outcome

of yesterday's vote.

- Sometimes it seems

we share a continent

but not a country.

[sirens wailing]

Today, thousands of lives

were suddenly ended by evil,

despicable acts of terror.

- The world before 9/11

looks different than the world

after 9/11.

- Every nation

has a choice to make:

In this conflict,

there is no neutral ground.

- The facts show

that Saddam Hussein

and his regime

are concealing their efforts

to produce weapons

of mass destruction.

- In this battle

against terrorism,

there is no silver bullet.

[dramatic orchestral music]

♪ ♪

- Today, America is again

forging its future

by choosing the man to lead it

into the 21st century.

This is CNN's coverage

of Election 2000.

- This is

the last official stop

of Campaign 2000.

[crowd cheering]

- And if people do what I think

they're gonna do,

you're looking at the next

President of the United States.

[cheering]

- The schedule

over the last 48 hours

reflected a major worry--

Florida,

home of Governor Jeb Bush.

- And when he looked me

in the eye and said,

"Florida's gonna be

Bush-Cheney country,"

I believe him.

[cheering]

- In Texas, George W. Bush

was known

as a bipartisan governor.

At the time, the State House

was run by Democrats,

and he had a very good

working relationship with them.

- We poured our hearts

and souls in this campaign

and organization,

and the people

are gonna decide.

- Indiana and Kentucky,

the polls now have closed

in those two states.

Our projected winner

is Governor George W. Bush,

as expected.

- Bush wins South Carolina.

Vermont, up in the green

mountain state,

they're for Al Gore.

- A big call to make.

CNN announces

that we call Florida

in the Al Gore column.

- About roughly

8:45,

we and all the other networks

call Florida for Gore.

I remember saying, "How is Bush

possibly gonna," you know--

"What's the path

he could possibly take?"

Because he's lost Michigan,

he's gonna lose Pennsylvania.

If anybody wins all three,

it's over.

- You can bet

that Governor Bush

will be madder

than a rained-on rooster

that his brother,

the governor, wasn't able

to carry the state for him.

- Mr. Bush says

he is not yet ready

to concede Florida.

So that only complicates

the evening just a little bit.

- The networks called

this thing awfully early,

but the people who are

actually counting the votes

are coming up with

a little different perspective.

- George Bush

was a very confident man.

I don't think Bush ever doubted

that he would manage somehow

to get elected.

- Some new returns came in,

and suddenly

the Gore lead

that was necessary

to make this prediction

evaporated.

- What the networks give us,

the network taketh away.

NBC News

is now taking Florida out

of Vice President Gore's

column.

- As the night went on

it stayed close until,

at about 2:00

in the morning Eastern time,

it looked like

it was game over.

- ABC News

is now going to project

that Florida goes to Mr. Bush.

- George Walker Bush:

the new President

of the United States,

the Governor of Texas.

- At that point, Al Gore

called George W. Bush

to concede.

- Then by about 3:00 a.m.

Eastern time,

the numbers start

to wobble again.

- Something to report to you

here in this

very unusual night.

The Vice President

has re-called the Governor

and retracted his concession...

- Oh.

- Saying that Florida

is, uh, too close right now.

- Under Florida law,

if the margin of victory

is less than half-percent,

then there's

an automatic recount.

- Mr. Vice President,

did you win the election, sir?

- We're having a great run,

here.

- A confident

and seemingly relaxed Al Gore

is effectively starting

a second campaign

for the White House.

His campaign chairman

in Florida

announcing the campaign

will support lawsuits

over the issue

of ballot irregularities

in Palm Beach.

- I cast a vote for Gore,

but at the same time,

I must have punched

the Buchanan column as well.

- There was

the butterfly ballot,

in Palm Beach County

where an awful lot of people

thought they were voting

for Al Gore,

but because the way

the ballot was designed

they ended up voting

for Pat Buchanan.

And believe me,

those two candidates

had nothing in common.

- Pat, good evening.

- Hi, Charlie.

- Do you think you really got

3,400 votes

in Palm Beach County?

- Yes, I did get 3,400 votes,

but I also agree

that many of those

very probably

and almost certainly

were intended for Al Gore.

- I think if it hadn't been

for Pat Buchanan

and the butterfly ballot,

Al Gore would have been

President of the United States.

- A hand recount of the vote

is already under way tonight

in Palm Beach County,

one of four Florida counties

which could determine who

becomes the next President.

- There were four counties

where we had concrete evidence

of irregularities,

and so we asked

for in-depth recounts

in those four counties.

- The blame may fall squarely

on a tiny piece of paper

called a "chad."

The chad is what voters

are supposed to punch out

of paper ballots

when they make their choice.

Sometimes, it sticks.

- The hanging one is counted,

the swinging door is counted,

and the tri is counted.

The ones that are not counted

are the ones

that are just dippled

or pregnant.

They're a little bit out

but they're not through.

- The real issue at hand now

is the decision

by Florida Secretary of State

Katherine Harris

to have all ballots

from all counties

turned in and certified

by tomorrow night.

- I've decided it is my duty

under Florida law

to exercise my discretion

in denying

these requested amendments.

- The game was this:

the Democrats wanted

to keep the recount going,

and the Republicans wanted

to stop it.

- They may keep asking

for recount after recount

after recount.

But when is it going to end?

I ask you,

when is it going to end?

- Each day was a drama,

and the Gore forces

had just one shot left.

They could go

to the Florida Supreme Court.

- The court today

has issued its opinion

by a vote of 4-3.

It has ordered a manual recount

of all under votes

in any Florida county

where such a recount

has not yet occurred.

[crowd shouting]

Because time

is of the essence,

the recount

shall commence immediately.

- The Florida Supreme Court

issued an opinion

changing the deadlines,

changing the manner

in which votes

would be counted.

We were stunned,

and so we challenged that

in the United States

Supreme Court.

- The votes are being counted,

and all of a sudden

the television screen flashes

that the United States

Supreme Court,

in a 5-4 decision, has ordered

the county to stop.

And there hasn't even been

an argument of an appeal.

- Here you had

a conservative Supreme Court

stepping in with the authority

of the Federal government

to stop what was traditionally

a local issue.

It was the reverse

of everything you heard

from conservatism.

- The wait is under way

for a decision

from the United States

Supreme Court.

A decision

that could keep alive

Al Gore's presidential hopes,

or kill them outright

and hand the presidency

to George Bush,

in what would be the first

presidential election

ever decided by the court.

- The system had never

had this kind

of stress test before,

and it failed it.

The result of all this:

chaos and uncertainty

as to who the President

of the United States would be

come January 20th.

- Everybody in the country

was on pins and needles

and those of us

who were working, uh,

to try to get the situation

stabilized and over with

were exhausted.

- I thought

we were so clearly right

that I thought

there had to be a chance

that I could persuade one

of those five Justices

to change their mind.

And I hoped I could do it.

Um, I didn't.

- It was a very unusual

late-night ruling

from the United States

Supreme Court,

the decision ending

any lingering hope

of a recount.

- The problem

with Bush v. Gore

is that it looked

so partisan.

It ended in a 5-4 vote

with the conservatives

in the majority.

And so, what's important here

is to understand

the bad taste

in a lot of people's mouths.

The outcome

of the 2000 election--

and I don't mean the fact

that Bush won,

I mean the way he won--

deepened skepticism

about the impartiality

of our institutions.

- Thank you, all.

[cheering and applause]

Whether you voted for me

or not, I will do my best

to serve your interests,

and I will work

to earn your respect.

The Presidency

is more than an honor;

it is a charge to keep.

And I will give it my all.

Thank you very much,

and God bless America.

[cheering and applause]

- I, George Walker Bush,

do solemnly swear...

- That I will

faithfully execute

the office of President

of the United States...

- That I will

faithfully execute

the office of President

of the United States...

[trumpets playing]

- The Bush Presidency starts

with a lot of political anger,

and there are many Democrats

who don't feel

that on day one,

on his inauguration,

that you're watching

the victor become President.

- Sometimes, it seems

we share a continent

but not a country.

We do not accept this,

and this is my solemn pledge:

I will work to build

a single nation

of justice and opportunity.

- Early on, Bush is concerned

about two things, primarily.

One is education,

and this initiative

"No Child Left Behind."

And the other is tax cuts.

- Bush comes into office

essentially as

a moderate conservative,

as a compassionate

conservative.

It's a pretty

middle-of-the-road presidency

for his first few months.

- This is a CBS News

Special Report.

Dan Rather reporting

from CBS News'

world headquarters

in New York.

Good evening.

President Bush is about

to officially announce

what could be one of

the more significant decisions

of his presidency.

- The issue of research

involving stem cells

derived from human embryos...

- The fact that that was one

of George W. Bush's

first major speeches

to the nation tells a lot

about the challenges

that he thought

were the greatest

that he faced.

What was he gonna do

when science and religion

didn't take him the same place?

Boy, things would change

for him in a month.

- We want to tell you

what we know

as we know it.

But, we just got

a report in that there's been

some sort of

explosion at the

World Trade Center in

New York City.

- You're looking at the, uh,

World Trade Center.

We understand that a plane

has crashed

into the World Trade Center.

We don't know

anything more than that.

[sirens wailing]

- Of course, as we all know,

years ago there was

that terrorist attack.

It took place

down on the ground

and in the underground levels

and the garage levels.

Uh, but again,

that's not to imply

that we have any reason

at this point

to believe that this is--

this is terrorism or not.

We simply don't know.

[sirens wailing]

- Have you seen any evidence

of people being taken out

of the building?

- Of course, the major concern

is human loss...

- Oh, my goodness.

- I mean, do you know--

- Oh! Another one just hit!

Something else just hit,

a very large plane...

- Oh, my--

just flew directly over

my building,

and there's been

another collision.

- This is CBS News

continuing live coverage

of the apparent

terrorist attacks today

here in New York City.

[camera shutters snapping]

[tense music]

- [indistinct]

I saw a large plane,

like a jet, go immediately--

headed directly

into the World Trade Center.

[sobbing]

It just flew into it,

into the other tower

coming from south to north.

[gasps]

I watched the plane fly

into the World Trade Center.

♪ ♪

- Oh, my goodness.

Oh, my goodness.

We're looking at a, uh,

live picture from Washington,

and there is smoke

pouring out of the Pentagon.

- In the nation's capitol,

a state of emergency

and an emergency plan

now in effect

to keep the Federal government

running in an orderly way.

- And again, I don't mean

to say this

in melodramatic terms--

where is the President

of the United States?

The President

of the United States led--

I know we don't know

where he is, but pretty soon

the country needs to know

where he is.

- Uh, there's a lot

of confusion.

Again, it appears

that an aircraft of some sort

did hit the side

of the Pentagon--

- Wow.

Jamie, Jamie--

I need you to stop

for a second.

There has just been

a huge explosion, uh--

[stammering]

I'll tell you that I can't see

that second tower.

- Let's go

to the Trade Tower again,

because, John,

we now have a...

What do we have?

We don't...

- It looks like, uh,

a new flume--

a new, large plume of smoke.

- One can only hope that

the area has been evacuated,

but of course you wonder about

all the emergency vehicles

and the people

who might have been injured

early in the morning.

- There was, you know,

dust and whatnot everywhere,

but it was--

- Oh, my God, duck down!

[people screaming]

[rumbling]

- Step back!

[roaring]

[muffled shouting]

- Oh, my God,

this is so terrible.

[crowd weeping, coughing]

- Mister! Mister! Mister!

[somber music]

- [coughing]

- We came from the 82nd floor,

and I don't know

where my parents are,

I don't know--

I hope to God they okay.

- I was standing next to

one World Trade Center,

and then all of a sudden

I heard rumbling,

and we all started running

away from it.

The glass, like, blew out

and threw me onto the sidewalk.

- I was thinking of going back

to try and find people

from my office,

but it was chaos.

So John's like, "Let's go."

I start to leave

and I see people jumping

from the top

of the World Trade Center.

Oh, God...

[radio chatter]

- It was unbelievable,

and it--

This guy's still trapped;

we couldn't get to him.

♪ ♪

- I'm just gonna add

to the chaos

and the trauma of the day

by saying that a large plane

has now crashed

about 80 miles southeast

of Pittsburgh.

- We don't know

where their destination was,

what their target was.

We can only presume--

we can only guess

that they were short

of the target.

♪ ♪

- It would never be the same

for George W. Bush.

From that moment on,

he would never again

have the bandwidth

to think primarily

about domestic problems.

- By September,

he still wasn't seen

as a heavyweight.

There were still questions,

even from Republicans

who liked him.

Could he handle this job

if something big happened?

And then

something big happened.

But in the early weeks

of the crisis,

George W. Bush proves

to be incredibly effective.

[crowd murmuring]

- This nation stands

with the good people

of New York City

as we mourn the loss

of thousands of our citizens.

[crowd chattering]

- I can hear you!

[crowd cheering]

I can hear you.

The rest of the world

hears you.

And the people...

[crowd cheering]

And the people who knocked

these buildings down

will hear all of us soon.

[crowd cheering]

[rousing music]

- We're going to go

to ABC's Terry, uh--

Terry Moran,

who is at Camp David

where there is going

to be a meeting this morning.

Terry, has it begun yet

with the President

and his national security

advisors?

- Well, not yet.

We're told that this meeting

is--is really the first

big, formal meeting

of the entire

national security team--

including

Vice President Cheney,

Secretary of State Powell,

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld,

National Security Advisor

Condoleezza Rice,

and others--

since the attacks.

- Well, the meeting

at Camp David

was a pretty sober affair.

They all knew

that in one way or another

they had failed

the American people.

So the mindset

completely shifts

to trying to prevent

another 9/11.

REPORTER: Are you

satisfied that

Osama bin Laden

is the kingpin

of this operation?

- There is no question

he is what we would call

a prime suspect.

And if he thinks he can hide

and run from the United States

and our allies,

he will be sorely mistaken.

- I joined the FBI in 1997.

I was, uh, assigned

to work terrorism.

When we saw the planes

hit the buildings,

the World Trade Center,

we knew that it was Al-Qaeda.

- There had been

a progressive escalation.

In 1998, Bin Laden attacked

the U.S. embassies

in East Africa.

Two simultaneous attacks

using suicide tactics.

Then the attack

on the USS "Cole."

Something like 9/11

was the next

logical continuation.

- Afghanistan,

under the Taliban regime,

had harbored Al-Qaeda.

So, when the President meets

with all of his

national security advisors

in Camp David,

they decide the Taliban

had to be uprooted

if they were really gonna get

at Bin Laden.

- What's different here,

what's changed

in terms of U.S. policy

is the President's

determination

to also go after those nations

and organizations

and people that lend support.

- The obvious response

is to go after Al-Qaeda.

But the administration

needed somehow

to show that it was serious.

- Our war on terror

begins with Al-Qaeda,

but it does not end there.

It will not end

until every terrorist group

of global reach

has been found,

stopped, and defeated.

[applause]

- They said,

"This has changed everything."

The world was not

gonna be the same.

And they created

what they called

"the global war on terror."

- President Bush plans to sign

the anti-terrorism bill

into law today

after it was

overwhelmingly approved

by the Senate.

The legislation gives

sweeping new powers

to law enforcement,

including

expanded wire-tapping

and surveillance authority.

- The most important part

of the Patriot Act

is the power of surveillance.

Some people

are privately worried

this is too much,

but at the time,

in the aftermath of the anger

and shock and horror,

there's very strong support

from both parties to pass it.

- This government

will enforce this law

with all the urgency

of a nation at war.

- The politics of the time

led to America's

sort of tough war attitude.

We were gonna fight them here,

and we were gonna

fight them abroad.

- Operation Enduring Freedom,

the U.S. retaliation

against Osama Bin Laden

and Afghanistan's

Taliban rulers is under way.

U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles

delivered the first blows,

hitting military targets

near the capital city

of Kabul.

- It was a righteous war.

We had every reason

to go to Afghanistan.

We gave the Taliban

so many opportunities

to give Bin Laden up,

and they refused.

- On my orders,

the United States military

has begun strikes

against Al-Qaeda terrorist

training camps

and military installations

of the Taliban regime

in Afghanistan.

These carefully targeted

actions are designed

to disrupt the use

of Afghanistan

as a terrorist base

of operations.

- Around the world,

there was enormous support

for the war in Afghanistan.

There was a sense

that Osama Bin Laden

and Al-Qaeda had attacked

not just the United States

but the security

of the global community.

The U.S. military mission

to overthrow the Taliban

was very swift--

it took only about six weeks

to force the Taliban

out of Kabul.

- Toppling the Taliban

wasn't that difficult.

Toppling a government

is one thing.

To track down

individual fugitives,

that was difficult.

- The President's

approach to this

is that it will be continuous,

but that it will

be broadly based,

and it will be economic

and political and diplomatic,

uh, as well as military,

overt and covert.

- The concept,

especially by Don Rumsfeld,

was, "We want

a small footprint."

And--and there was some wisdom

in that.

They sent in a bunch

of CIA officers

with suitcases full of money,

and they hired a bunch

of tribesmen

to go after Bin Laden.

- U.S. officials say

American commandos

operating alongside

opposition forces

got within two miles

of a cave complex

where Osama Bin Laden

is believed to be holed up.

They could not go any further

without exposing themselves

to fire

from the Al-Qaeda fighters

defending the cave.

- There was a moment where

we had Bin Laden bottled up

inside Tora Bora,

we knew where he was,

but the road to Pakistan

was left open.

- Opposition and U.S.

Special Operations Forces

rolled into

the Tora Bora mountains

in pursuit

of fleeing Al-Qaeda fighters,

but the Pentagon says

it's anyone's guess

where Bin Laden is.

- Al-Qaeda got away,

Bin Laden went off

to Pakistan,

but what was very striking

is how quickly

it turned to Iraq.

- I never say

anything's inevitable,

but if I were Saddam Hussein

I'd be thinking very carefully

about, uh, the future,

and I'd be looking very closely

to see what happened

to the Taliban in, uh--

in Afghanistan.

- After a flight

halfway around the world,

20 terrorist suspects

captured in Afghanistan

are settling in tonight

in an open-air prison

in the Caribbean.

- Shackled, hooded,

and in one case sedated,

they had been loaded aboard

a transport yesterday

in Kandahar, with two guards

for every prisoner.

- In many cases,

you had no idea

how senior they were,

how junior they were,

how much information they had,

so you had to have a system

to bring them somewhere

and then subject them

to intensive interrogation.

- The Bush Administration

decided to call them

"enemy combatants,"

and they did not have

prisoner-of-war status.

They didn't want them to have

those kinds of protections.

- Across Europe,

there have been complaints,

warning America won't win

the war on terror

if it gives up

the high-ground.

- Some people said,

"The President does not

"have unilateral power

to deprive these people

of any rights whatsoever."

And it began to erode

international support for us.

- Some here now say

the critics' real complaint

is less about how

Al-Qaeda prisoners are treated

than it is about how America's

acted on its own

with no apology.

- The President

of the United States!

[cheering]

- The intensity

of the early days

of the war on terrorism

started to concern

some people.

But you have to realize

the country was different,

that people were shocked

by what happened with 9/11,

and the Bush administration

used that.

- Our war against terror

is only beginning.

- There was the sense

in the Bush Administration

that there are

these rogue states

which will take advantage

of the chaos created

by Al-Qaeda.

So even though Bin Laden

hasn't been captured,

the United States

is on the road

to war somewhere else.

- Our goal is

to prevent regimes

that sponsor terror

from threatening America

with weapons of mass

of mass destruction.

North Korea is a regime

arming with missiles,

and weapons

of mass destruction.

Iran aggressively pursues

these weapons

and exports terror.

Iraq continues to flaunt

its hostility toward America

and to support terror.

The Iraqi regime has plotted

to develop anthrax

and nerve gas

and nuclear weapons

for over a decade.

States like these

and their terrorist allies

constitute an "axis of evil"

arming to threaten the peace

of the world.

- President Bush, Rumsfeld,

and Cheney--

long before 9/11--

wanted regime change in Iran.

They felt like

in the first Persian Gulf War

in 1991

that the job was not done.

And when they started

the war against terrorism,

they saw that

as a perfect opportunity.

- Many Americans

weren't really thinking

of Saddam Hussein,

they were thinking

of Osama Bin Laden,

so it wasn't clear

why this should be part

of the war.

- The Iraqi regime

possesses biological

and chemical weapons.

- Imagine a September 11

with weapons

of mass destruction.

- But we don't want

the smoking gun

to be a mushroom cloud.

- The administration

had to mount an argument,

and they did it by scaring us.

- Simply stated,

there is no doubt

that Saddam Hussein

now has weapons

of mass destruction.

That he is amassing them

to use against our allies

and against us.

- Vice President Cheney

made repeated visits

out to CIA headquarters,

and it was quite clear

what conclusions

were very welcome

at the White House

and what conclusions, uh,

were not.

- The Bush Administration

found the intelligence

it wanted,

and then sold that intelligence

to the American public.

- Why haven't our allies,

who presumably would know

this same information,

come to the same conclusion?

- I don't think they know

the same information.

I think the fact is that, um,

in terms of the quality

of our intelligence operation,

I think we're better

than anybody else.

- I think that the world

has to be presented

with the information,

with the intelligence

that's available.

A debate is needed within

the international community

so that everybody can make

a judgment about this.

- Today, the White House

denied reports

of a division

in the administration

over how to handle

Saddam Hussein.

- A White House spokesman says

there is no internal rift,

insisting the administration

speaks with one voice

in demanding Iraq be rid

of all weapons

of mass destruction.

- It turned out that

there was, in fact, this war

within the Bush Administration

among some very heavy hitters.

- Colin Powell is not a fan

of invading Iraq.

He has this famous expression,

the Pottery Barn rule:

"If you break it, it's yours."

And he knows that if we go in

and break Iraq, it's ours.

We're gonna have to rebuild it.

On the other side,

Rumsfeld and Cheney

they just want to go in.

- When you're dealing

with terrorist networks

that can attack at any time,

at any place,

using any technique,

you know before you start

that you can't defend

against that.

Therefore, you have no choice.

We know they have weapons

of mass destruction.

We know

they have active programs.

There--there isn't any debate

about it.

- Powell is the odd-man-out,

here.

He realized he couldn't affect

the decision itself,

so at that point

he switched gears

to trying to affect

how the decision

would be carried out

and persuaded the President

to get public support.

- The Democrats

are opposed to the war.

George Bush is happy

to have this become an issue.

Bush actually pushes the idea

of having a resolution

supporting the use of force

in Iraq

before

the congressional elections

so that members of Congress

will feel compelled

to vote for it.

- Congressional opposition

in both houses

finally came down

to a few hardcore liberals

who worried Congress

was giving up its right

to declare war.

But it was a lonely fight

when the White House invited

a bipartisan crowd

of supporters

for an obvious show of power,

opposition really began

to melt.

- Because I believe

it is important

for America to speak

with one voice

at this critical moment.

I will vote

to give the President

the authority he needs.

It was one of the hardest

decisions I've made.

Even though I had a great deal

of skepticism and concern,

I felt it was important to--

to give our Commander in Chief

the benefit of the doubt

as well.

- For critics of the war,

it was very difficult

to argue against it,

because the memory

of September 11th meant

that those who were aggressive

had the upper hand.

- In balancing the risks

of action versus inaction,

I think New Yorkers--

who have gone through

the fires of hell--

may be more attuned to the risk

of not acting.

I know that I am.

- President Bush says

America has spoken

with one voice.

Early this morning,

the Senate voted 77 to 23

to clear the way

for the President to use force

against Iraq if necessary.

The vote came hours after

the House also gave

overwhelming approval.

- The United States in 2002

was not a normal America.

We had been attacked in a way

we'd never

been attacked before.

It was just a whole new game.

And as a result,

President Bush had a mandate

to do whatever he wanted.

- The days of Iraq acting

as an outlaw state

are coming to an end.

- Saddam Hussein's regime

is a grave

and gathering danger.

We must stand up

for our security,

and for the permanent rights

and the hopes of mankind.

By heritage and by choice,

the United States of America

will make that stand.

And delegates

to the United Nations:

you have the power

to make that stand as well.

Thank you very much.

[applause]

- As Bush

is now seriously preparing

for the invasion of Iraq,

he realizes he's gonna have

to make a public case.

not just, um,

to the American people,

but to the world.

- No one should have

any illusions.

- What the President

of the United States

is talking about is a new war

against Iraq, with the purpose

of removing from power

Saddam Hussein.

- You have a dictator there

who's not obeying

UN resolutions--

and he certainly wasn't--

who had had weapons

of mass destruction--

that we thought still did.

So I think there's quite

a strong case for action.

- A deal was reached,

a vote taken,

and now

the UN Security Council

has made it clear:

let weapons inspectors in,

or else.

- Powell pushed very hard

to get the Security Council

to adopt a resolution,

demanding Saddam Hussein

readmit international

weapons inspectors.

And Saddam Hussein

agreed to it.

- The outcome

of the current crisis...

is already determined.

A full disarmament of weapons

of mass destruction

will occur.

The only question

for the Iraqi regime

is to decide how.

- Weapons inspectors

are confident

their first few days there

have gone smoothly.

That includes the right

to make surprise checks

on so-called "special sites,"

including

presidential palaces.

- When the Saddam regime

readmitted the inspectors,

they were making progress.

But they simply did not have

enough time

to really find out anything,

uh, of significance.

- At this point,

the Security Council

was very much against

an invasion.

And so it was decided,

in the White House,

that they had to make

one more push and really say,

"We've got the evidence."

And who better to do that

than Powell?

- The Secretary's presentation

is intended

to win the Security Council's

authorization

for military action

to disarm Iraq.

In the end,

President Bush says

he does not need

the authorization,

but he would like to have it.

- In the Vice President's

office,

they had already written

a speech for Powell.

It was every rumor, every bit

of unverified intelligence

they had ever gotten.

And he got it

and looked at it and said,

[scoffs] "I'm not gonna

give this speech,

are you kidding?"

- Colin Powell spent

a few days at the CIA,

going over

all their intelligence,

and the majority of it

was discarded.

- Our conservative estimate

is that Iraq today

has a stockpile

of between 100 and 500 tons

of chemical weapons agent.

An Iraqi major who defected

confirmed that Iraq

has mobile biological research

laboratories.

Saddam Hussein

already possesses two

out of the three key components

needed to build a nuclear bomb.

- Powell had some doubts,

but I think those doubts

were pretty much dispelled

by the Director

of Central Intelligence,

George Tenet.

- He insists that George Tenet

sit behind him,

be right there

in the television shot,

in order to show that

the intelligence community

stands behind this.

- I can trace the story

of a senior terrorist operative

telling how Iraq

provided training

in these weapons to Al-Qaeda.

- You could sense the tension

in the room.

The audience was riveted

by what he had.

He held up a little vial

claiming that this was

what a vial of anthrax

looked like

and how deadly it could be.

There were all kinds

of graphics.

There were excerpts

of conversations

that had been picked up

by electronic surveillance

intercepts.

- We must not shrink

from whatever is ahead of us.

We must not fail in our duty

and our responsibility

to the citizens

of the countries

that are represented

by this body.

- Well, this was, perhaps,

the most dramatic presentation

at the UN in half a century.

America essentially trying

to win the world over

for a war it now believes

is necessary;

the skeptics

shaking their heads.

The stakes couldn't be higher.

[crowd shouting]

- Millions of demonstrators

turned out around the world

to protest the use of force

against Iraq.

crowd: Ain't no power

like the power of the people

'cause the power of the people

don't stop!

- You have massive numbers

of people in the United States

and across the globe

pour out in the streets

to demonstrate.

In fact, it stands today

as the largest

single demonstration

against war

in our history.

- [shouting

in foreign language]

[crowd shouting]

crowd: No more lies!

No more war!

No more Bush in 2004!

- There's no question about it

that the majority

of the country

was strongly behind

invading Iraq.

And those of us--

whether you're on the left

or the right--

who opposed that feeling

after the 9/11 horrors

were, I think,

considered unpatriotic.

- Within

the Bush Administration

you had

the Vice President Cheney,

Secretary of Defense

Rumsfeld--the hardliners,

those who wanted to take

more dramatic action.

And there was a momentum that

the international community

was unable to stop.

- The United Nations

Security Council

has not lived up

to its responsibilities,

so we will rise to ours.

Saddam Hussein and his sons

must leave Iraq

within 48 hours.

Their refusal to do so

will result

in military conflict,

commenced at a time

of our choosing.

- Tonight, we are precisely

halfway through the deadline

President Bush gave

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein

to leave Iraq

and take his two sons

along with him.

The alternative will be war.

[dramatic music]

- No one really joined

the United States

except Great Britain...

[air sirens wailing]

And so Bush was doing this

on his own.

- The international community

thought that

what we were doing

might have consequences

we couldn't imagine.

- The U.S. war to disarm Iraq

and oust Saddam Hussein

intensified dramatically today

as the air campaign began

with massive bombing raids

on Baghdad and elsewhere.

- The rest of the world

saw this

as a war of aggression.

[explosions]

- My fellow citizens,

at this hour, American

and coalition forces

are in the early stages

of military operations

to disarm Iraq,

to free its people,

and to defend the world

from grave danger.

- Huge rounds of fire

getting much, much closer.

All the air defenses

are opening up

all around me, at the moment.

A massive shock-blast

just coming through

our windows.

I'm going to have

to take cover.

- The invasion

and the toppling of Saddam

was really quite easy.

The entire campaign

did not take more than a month.

- We see that coalition forces

advanced from southern Iraq

near the Kuwaiti border,

and from there they moved

through Najaf, Karbala,

and Kut, and now into Baghdad.

It's taken 22 days of war

for the coalition

to get this far.

- I was privileged to command

the 101st Airborne Division.

We liberated the first

major city, uh, in Iraq, Najaf.

Then Karbala and Hillah,

then moved into Baghdad.

- The man who ruled here

so brutally and absolutely

for almost 25 years

has vanished.

- Closer we got,

the more they knew

Saddam was finished,

and they were glad to show it.

- The troops

were very welcome.

Shiites and people who--

who hated Saddam were joyful,

running through the streets.

You had the iconic image

of the big statue

of Saddam Hussein

being pulled over

with some help

from U.S. troops.

- This is George W. Bush,

the President

of the United States.

At this moment,

the regime of Saddam Hussein

is being removed from power,

and a long era of fear

and cruelty is ending.

The government of Iraq,

and the future

of your country,

will soon belong to you.

[crowd cheering]

- Things, however,

very quickly started

to turn dicey.

- The city of Baghdad

has now experienced

five days of looting.

Government ministries,

hospitals, museums,

the homes of the wealthy,

and even the palaces

of Saddam Hussein

have been stripped bare.

- You saw the looting

and the total disorder

in the streets, and the,

frankly, indifference

on the part

of American authorities

to what was happening.

- The Pentagon says

coalition forces will indeed

get that unrest under control,

but that has not yet happened.

- It wasn't just that

there was disorder;

the society

is being torn apart,

and there's nobody in control.

And that was our fault.

- Mr. Bush declared an end

to the military phase

of the war in Iraq

and called the battle a victory

in the war against terrorism.

- The Administration's

very intent on actions

that show to the public

things are going well.

So on May 1, 2003,

Bush flies out to a ship

near San Diego

and gives this speech

where he talks about

just how well

the operation had gone.

And the Navy had hung a banner

in the background

that said,

"Mission Accomplished."

- The transition

from dictatorship to democracy

will take time,

but it is worth every effort.

Our coalition will stay

until our work is done,

and then we will leave.

And we will leave behind

a free Iraq.

[cheering and applause]

- Since the start of the war,

the President's

job performance

has jumped ten points

from 67%

to 77% as of this evening.

- Of course, the mission was

far from accomplished,

and in fact

what was actually happening,

uh, during this moment

is the, uh, real insurgency

was beginning to gather steam.

- The jubilant mood

among those very Iraqis

who suffered most

under Saddam's regime

was not necessarily shared

across the Iraqi capital,

where some violent resistance

remained.

- It was starting to appear

to me

that this was not going to end

the way it had been briefed.

Uh, you could just see

that this country

was probably going to crack.

- The United States learned

the hard way

that removing a tyrant

is not the same thing

as ushering in democracy.

It's much less difficult in--

in many instances

to get rid of the old

than it is to help bring about

something that's new

and better and enduring.

- It may seem

an ungracious note

on which to end,

but beware the euphoria.

Ripping down Saddam's pictures,

toppling his statues,

those are the benign,

photogenic events

that can delude us

into misunderstanding

what lies ahead.

There are hundreds

of thousands of scores

to be settled in this country.

Blood debts to be repaid.

The U.S. military doesn't want

to get into the middle of that,

but if it doesn't,

there are likely

to be lynchings

and massacres

that will sicken

the world.

And make the establishment

of a new government

hideously complicated.

It is good

that people

are finally able

to believe

that Saddam's regime

has been crushed.

The military victory

was difficult enough.

But now comes the hard part.