9/11 attacks likely to shape Bush campaign

George W. Bush's presidency was meandering along until the September 11 attacks gave it a purpose, and his vigorous response drew world praise that fell apart over his invasion of Iraq.

Two wars after the attacks, Mr Bush, 58, faces a closely divided electorate in his re-election campaign this fall, hopeful that Americans will agree with him that Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein even though weapons of mass destruction have not been found.

"I had a choice to make. Do I forget the lessons of September 11, and trust a madman, or take action to defend America? Given that choice, I will defend our country every time," was a frequent refrain on the campaign trail.

It was the September 11, 2001, attacks that created the most dramatic moments of the Bush presidency and put a permanent mark on Mr Bush, who walked and talked with a Texas swagger that belies his family's patrician East Coast roots.

It was not yet a year since Mr Bush had taken office after a bitter, 36-day recount battle in Florida was decided in his favour by the Supreme Court, even though Democrat Al Gore had won the popular vote.

Americans, having seen Mr Bush in action, were not all that impressed. He pushed through a big tax cut as promised but otherwise appeared to be coasting.

Caught out of town when the attacks brought down the World Trade Centre towers and tore a gash from the Pentagon, killing about 3,000 people, Mr Bush drew criticism for his initial, tentative response when he vowed "to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act."

Then he took a circuitous route back to Washington aboard Air Force One while Vice- President Dick Cheney was making decisions in an underground bunker.

It was not until September 14 that the American people and the rest of the world would see another side to Mr Bush, when he visited the smoking ruins at Manhattan's Ground Zero, stepped up on a crumpled fire engine and addressed cheering police, firefighters and rescuers.

"I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon," he said.

The attacks were condemned around the world. And on October 7, 2001, Mr Bush ordered US forces into Afghanistan to dislodge the Taliban militia from control of the country and to destroy the al Qaeda network blamed for the attacks.

Mr Bush divided the world into those who were with the United States in its quest to destroy terrorism and those who were not, revealing the good-versus-evil worldview that has won him ardent admirers or bitter enemies.

A fervent Christian who holds prayer meetings at the White House, Mr Bush stressed that the war on terrorism was not a war on Islam, although he angered Muslims by initially describing the coming US response to the attacks as a "crusade".

A new sense of mission quickly transformed US foreign policy with Mr Bush labelling Iraq, Iran and North Korea an "axis of evil" and then announcing a pre-emptive strategy that would attack foes before they could become a threat.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden escaped a US-British dragnet in Afghanistan and to Mr Bush's dismay remains at large, and a report on the attacks by a bipartisan commission investigating the September 11 attacks found there had been widespread intelligence failures about the attackers.

The attacks battered a US economy already sagging from the bursting of the stock market bubble at the end of the eight-year Clinton administration.

Mr Bush's re-election campaign struggled to put the best face on a lackluster economy in which job growth had failed to catch up with other economic indicators showing positive activity. He faced the possibility of having seen more jobs lost on his watch than Herbert Hoover during the Great Depression.

With the situation in Afghanistan seemingly under control, Mr Bush turned his attention to the supposed threat presented by Iraq's Saddam in late 2002, triggering a confrontation that would offset the international goodwill in response to the September 11 attacks.

Mr Bush argued that Iraq posed a grave and gathering danger and must be dealt with in the context of what happened on September 11. He built his case on intelligence that indicated Iraq possessed dangerous weapons and was prepared to use them.

"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised," he told Americans on March 17, 2003.

Another cause for enmity between Mr Bush and Saddam was Saddam's 1993 assassination attempt against Mr Bush's father, George Bush, who as president led a large coalition against Iraq over its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Saddam was someone "who tried to kill my dad," Mr Bush once said.

US and British forces invaded Iraq in March after abandoning efforts to get international endorsement for war.

By May 1, Mr Bush felt confident enough of victory to don a flight suit, climb into the cockpit of a military jet and land aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier where, with a "Mission Accomplished" banner behind him, he declared major combat operations over in Iraq.

That turned out to be premature, and US-led forces soon faced a guerilla insurgency that has killed hundreds of US and allied troops. Many more have been wounded.

Mr Bush drew fire for the administration's lack of preparation for the post-war era and for mounting casualties. And what about the weapons of mass destruction that the war was fought over? No solid evidence had yet been found of their existence.

Mr Bush was the first presidential son since John Quincy Adams in 1825 to follow his father's footsteps into the White House.

For his first 45 years, Mr Bush was not seen as presidential timber. Until elected governor of Texas in 1994, Bush was known as the undistinguished son of his distinguished father.

As governor, Mr Bush proved to be cautious and pragmatic, willing to reach across party lines to build alliances with Democrats. He also benefited from an economic expansion that enriched Texas as well as the rest of the nation.

The eldest son of George and Barbara Bush, George Walker Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1946. The family moved to Midland, an oil town in west Texas, in 1950.

After gaining a bachelor's degree from Yale, where he was a boisterous president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, Mr Bush worked at several jobs, distinguishing himself in none.

During the Vietnam War, he enlisted in 1968 as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard and spent the entire war in the United States.

Mr Bush gained an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1975. Two years later he married Laura Welch, a librarian who became a steadying influence on him and an ally in his battle to quit alcohol. The couple have twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara.