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The final totals underscored the tightness of the election: Bush won 271 electoral votes to Gore’s 266, but Gore led him in the national popu- lar vote 48 .4 percent to 47 .9 percent . Nader polled 2 .1 percent and Bu- chanan .4 percent . Gore, his states colored blue in media graphics, swept the Northeast and the West Coast; he also ran well in the Mid- western industrial heartland . Bush, whose states were colored red, beat his opponent in the South, the rest of the Midwest, and the mountain states . Commentators everywhere commented on the vast gap between “red” and “blue” America, a divide characterized by cultural and social, rather than economic, differences, and all the more deep-seated and emotional for that reason . George W . Bush took office in a climate of ex- treme partisan bitterness .
Bush expected to be a president primarily concerned with domestic policy . He wanted to meld tradition- al Republican Party belief in private enterprise, low taxation, and small government with a sense of social responsibility for the less fortunate groups in American society . He had talked during his campaign about reforming the Social Security sys- tem . Impressed by Reagan’s supply- side economics, he advocated lower taxes to stimulate economic growth .
The economy was beginning to slip back from its lofty peak of the late 1990s . This helped Bush secure passage of a tax cut in May 2001 . Lower taxes would indeed buoy the economy, but at the cost of an omi-
nously growing federal budget defi- cit . At the end of the year, Bush also obtained the “No Child Left Behind” Act, which required public schools to test reading and mathematical proficiency on an annual basis; it prescribed penalties for schools unable to achieve a specified stan- dard . Social Security remained un- addressed despite Bush’s efforts to make it a priority in his second term .
The Bush presidency changed irrevocably on September 11, 2001, as the United States suffered the most devastating foreign attack ever against its mainland . That morn- ing, Middle Eastern terrorists simul- taneously hijacked four passenger airplanes and used two of them as suicide vehicles to destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City . A third crashed into the Pentagon building, the Defense Department headquarters just out- side of Washington, D .C . The fourth, probably aimed at the U .S . Capitol, dived into the Pennsylvania coun- tryside as passengers fought the hi- jackers .
The death toll, most of it consist- ing of civilians at the Trade Center, was approximately 3,000, exceeding that of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . The economic costs were also heavy . Several other buildings near the Trade Center also were de- stroyed, shutting down the financial markets for several days . The effect was to prolong the already develop- ing recession .
As the nation began to recover from the attack, an unknown person
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or group sent out letters containing small amounts of anthrax bacteria . Some went to members of Congress and administration officials, others to obscure individuals . No notable person was infected . But five victims died, and several others suffered se- rious illness . The mailings touched off a wave of national hysteria, then stopped as suddenly as they had be- gun, and remained a mystery . In 2008, the Federal Bureau of Inves- tigation announced that the likely culprit was a troubled government scientist who had committed suicide .
The administration obtained pas- sage of the USA Patriot Act in Octo- ber 2001 . Designed to fight domestic terrorism, the new law considerably broadened the search, seizure, and detention powers of the federal gov- ernment . Its opponents argued that it violated constitutionally protected individual rights . Its backers re- sponded that a country at war need- ed to protect itself .
After initial hesitation, the Bush administration also decided to sup- port the establishment of the De- partment of Homeland Security . Authorized in November 2002 and designed to coordinate the fight against domestic terrorist attack, the new department consolidated 22 federal agencies .
The administration, like its pre- decessor, had been unprepared for the unimaginable . However, it re- taliated quickly . Determining that the attack had been an al-Qaida operation, it launched a military of- fensive against Osama bin Laden
and the fundamentalist Muslim Taliban government of Afghanistan that had provided him refuge . The United States secured the passive cooperation of the Russian Federa- tion, established relationships with the former Soviet republics that bor- dered Afghanistan, and, above all, resumed a long-neglected alliance with Pakistan, which provided polit- ical support and access to air bases .
Utilizing U .S . Army Special Forces and Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary operatives, the ad- ministration allied with long-mar- ginalized Afghan rebels . Given effective air support the coalition ousted the Taliban government in two months . Bin Laden, Taliban leaders, and many of their fighters, however, escaped into remote, semi- autonomous areas of Northeastern Pakistan . From there they would try to regroup and attack the new Af- ghan government .
In the meantime, the Bush admin- istration was looking elsewhere for sources of enemy terrorism . In his 2002 State of the Union address, the president identified an “axis of evil” that he thought threatened the na- tion: Iraq, Iran, and North Korea . Of these three, Iraq seemed to him and his advisers the most troublesome and probably easiest to bring down .
Saddam Hussein had ejected United Nations weapons inspectors . The economic sanctions against Iraq were breaking down, and, although the regime was not believed to be involved in the 9/11 attacks, it had engaged in some contacts with al-
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Qaida . It was widely believed, not just in the United States but through- out the world, that Iraq had large stockpiles of chemical and biologi- cal weapons and might be working to acquire a nuclear capability . Why else throw out the inspection teams and endure continuing sanctions?
Throughout the year, the admin- istration pressed for a United Nations resolution demanding resumption of weapons inspection with full and free access . In October 2002, Iraq declared it would comply . Nonethe- less, the new inspectors complained of bad faith . In January, their chief, Hans Blix, presented a report to the UN declaring that Iraq had failed to account for its weapons of mass destruction, although he recom- mended a resumption of weapons inspections before withdrawing .
Bush in the meantime had re- ceived a Senate authorization by a vote of 77–23 for the use of mili- tary force . The U .S . military began a buildup of personnel and materiel in Kuwait .
The American plans for war with Iraq encountered unusually strong opposition in much of Eu- rope . France, Russia, and Germany all were against the use of force . Even in those nations whose governments supported the United States, there was strong popular hostility to co- operation . Britain became the major U .S . ally in the war that followed; most of the newly independent East- ern European nations contributed assistance . The governments of Ita- ly and (for a time) Spain also lent
their backing . Turkey, long a reliable American ally, declined to do so .
Nevertheless, on March 19, 2003, American and British troops, sup- ported by small contingents from several other countries, began an in- vasion of Iraq from the South . Groups airlifted into the North coor- dinated with Kurdish militia . On both fronts, resistance was occasion- ally fierce, but usually melted away . Baghdad fell on April 8 . On April 14, the military campaign in Iraq was declared over .
Taking Iraq turned out to be far easier than administering it . In the first days after the end of major com- bat, the country experienced perva- sive looting . Hit-and-run attacks on allied troops followed and became increasingly organized, despite the capture of Saddam Hussein and the deaths of his two sons and heirs . Dif- ferent Iraqi factions seemed on the verge of war with each other .
New weapons inspection teams were unable to find the expected stockpiles of chemical and biological weaponry . It became clear that Iraq had never restarted the nuclear pro- gram it had been pursuing before the first Gulf War . After his apprehen- sion, Saddam Hussein admitted that he had engaged in a gigantic bluff to forestall attack from abroad or in- surrection at home .
In the year and a quarter after the fall of Baghdad, the United States and the United Kingdom, with increas- ing cooperation from the United Nations, moved ahead with estab- lishment of a provisional govern-
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ment that would assume sovereignty over Iraq . The effort occurred amidst increasing violence that included at- tacks not only on allied troops, but also on Iraqis connected in any way with the new government . Most of the insurgents appeared to be Sad- dam loyalists; some were indigenous Muslim sectarians; others likely were foreign fighters .