American Crossroads: Bush Years II
A documentary-style, first-person political thriller covering the second Bush term: Katrina, Iraq’s surge debate, global chessboard tensions, and the 2008 financial crisis. Your choices set the handoff into the Obama era.
Opening Chapter
January 2005 arrived like a held breath. The inauguration crowd was smaller than the one that would come later, but the mood was heavier. Flags snapped in the cold wind and the Mall looked like it had been waiting for something to fall. A second term is supposed to be a victory lap. This one felt more like a reckoning.
The first term had been a cascade of events no one could rewind: the 2000 recount, the clarity of September 11, the fast opening of Afghanistan, the long shadow of Iraq, the Abu Ghraib photos that broke something in the nation's self-image, and the 2004 election that asked the country to decide whether the same hands should keep steering. The answer was yes, and that answer carried weight.
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