President Bush was in Florida on the morning of September 11, talking to children in a scheduled visit to an elementary school. After he returned to Washington, D.C., that evening, he addressed the nation, reassuring them that the government was doing everything possible to determine who was behind the attacks and to bring them to justice. Then, after meeting with members of his National Security Council, Bush spoke the words that people had been thinking:

The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war. This will require our country to unite in steadfast determination and resolve. Freedom and democracy are under attack.

Bush vowed that the United States would find its enemy wherever it was hiding and that it would not give up the battle...