George W. Bush's first term as president of the United States began on January 20, 2001 and continued until his second term commenced on January 20, 2005. By far the most memorable event of this first term in office was the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
Bush was instrumental in pushing forward legislation in education and national security, in bringing about tax-reduction and allocating funds for global emergency AIDS relief. He withdrew the United States from participation in the 1998 Kyoto Protocol on world climate change and from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, as well as withdrawing U.S. support for the International Criminal Court, but his legacy was defined by his response to the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Shortly after the terrorist attack, a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan resulted in the overthrow of the Taliban government in Kabul, a regime which had allowed terrorist training camps, directed at western targets, to operate in Afghanistan. This approach was symptomatic of a change in the perception of the world and of the international threats to the United States, one expounded in Bush's 2002 State of the Union Address and known subsequently as the Bush Doctrine. The United States gave itself the right to pursue its enemies wherever they could be found. In 2003, a U.S.-led military force invaded Iraq.
More and more people understand that being a patriot is more than just putting your hand over your heart and saying the Pledge of Allegiance to a nation under God... more and more people understand that serving something greater than yourself in life is a part of being a complete American —President George W Bush, Thursday, August 15, 2002Read more about George W. Bush's First Term As President Of The United States: Election Controversy, Economic Policies, Education, Healthcare, Science and Technology, Military Incidents, September 11, 2001, Foreign Policy, Intelligence Reform, Time Magazine Person of The Year, Response To The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Major Bills Passed
Famous quotes containing the words united states, george, bush, term, president, united and/or states:
“Europe and the U.K. are yesterday’s world. Tomorrow is in the United States.”
—R.W. “Tiny” Rowland (b. 1917)
“No barber shaves so close but another finds his work.”
—English proverb, collected in George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs (1640)
“Let the others have the charisma. I’ve got the class.”
—George Bush (b. 1924)
“We term sleep a death ... by which we may be literally said to die daily; in fine, so like death, I dare not trust it without my prayers.”
—Thomas Browne (1605–1682)
“The President has apples on the table
And barefoot servants round him, who adjust
The curtains to a metaphysical t
And the banners of the nation flutter, burst
On the flag-poles in a red-blue dazzle, whack
At the halyards.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“On the whole, yes, I would rather be the Chief Justice of the United States, and a quieter life than that which becomes at the White House is more in keeping with the temperament, but when taken into consideration that I go into history as President, and my children and my children’s children are the better placed on account of that fact, I am inclined to think that to be President well compensates one for all the trials and criticisms he has to bear and undergo.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“I would like to be the first ambassador to the United States from the United States.”
—Barbara Mikulski (b. 1936)