Actually, George W. Bush framed 9/11 as an act of war the very next day, September 12, when he said
“I just completed a meeting with our national security team, and we’ve received the latest intelligence updates.
“The deliberate and deadly attacks, which were carried out yesterday against our country, were more than acts of terror.
“They were acts of war.”
His team then repeated this theme many times over the following days, weeks and months. They framed 9/11 as an act of war so that they could justify launching their own wars. Framing means telling a persuasive story. For the White House, a successful framing is picked up and repeated by the media and it reverberates with the public, generating support. The process of framing doesn’t exclude being in tune with public sentiment in devising the frame, catering to special interests or lobbies, and acting upon biases or irrational factors.
1:06 pm on April 9, 2015
