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SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (AP) – Warning that the nation was falling into division and extremism, former President George W. Bush on Saturday called for a return to the spirit of cooperation that emerged – almost instantly – after the September 11 attacks 20 years ago. .
Delivering the opening speech at the national memorial to the victims of Flight 93, who forced their plane hijacked by Al-Qaida terrorists before it could be used as a weapon against the nation’s capital, Bush warned against “the violence that gathers inside”.
“There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home,” he said. “But in their contempt for pluralism, in their contempt for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same filthy spirit. And it is our permanent duty to confront them.
Bush’s warning came just eight months after the violent insurgency on the United States Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. It has marked some of the criticism. Bush’s harshest attacks against this attack and seemed to be an implicit criticism of Trump’s policies.
Bush lamented that “so much of our policy has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment.”
He admitted he didn’t have easy solutions. Instead, he channeled the heroism of the victims of Flight 93 and the determined spirit of a wounded nation to emerge stronger from the tragedy.
“On the day of America’s trial and mourning, I saw millions of people instinctively grab a neighbor’s hand and rally to each other’s cause,” Bush said. “This is the America I know.”
He added that following the attacks, Islamophobia, nativism or selfishness could have come to the fore, but the country rejected them and said: “This is the nation that I know.”
“This is not nostalgia, this is the truest version of ourselves,” said Bush. “This is what we have been and what we can be again.”
Bush’s call for unity was applauded by President Joe Biden, who traveled to Shanksville shortly after Bush’s speech, after watching his speech aboard Air Force One during the flight of the 9/11 commemorative events in New York City.
“I thought President Bush gave a really good speech today,” Biden said. “Truly.”
Biden also prioritized national unity, telling reporters on Saturday: “It’s the thing that’s going to affect our well-being more than anything else.”
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