From Mother Jones · Alex Nguyen · · 1m 20s
Bush paints 9/11, and leaves out the wars
Twenty-five years on, the president who launched the War on Terror marks the anniversary with 16 canvases about courage.
In brief
Twenty-five years on, the president who launched the War on Terror marks the anniversary with 16 canvases about courage. A museum exhibit can shape how a presidency is remembered by choosing which parts of it to paint. Originally reported by Mother Jones.
The anniversary lineup
George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg and JD Vance all turned up for the 25th anniversary memorial of the September 11 attacks.
Bush marks it with paint
On Friday, Bush released a new collection of his own paintings for the anniversary of the attacks that killed thousands while he was in office.
Sixteen works in Dallas
The exhibit, "Remembering 9/11," hangs at the Bush Museum in Dallas for the whole month of September.
The classroom moment
One canvas shows Andy Card leaning in to whisper news of the attack while Bush sat with elementary school students in Sarasota, Florida.
How the museum frames it
The Bush Presidential Center pitches the series as a reflection on what emerged from a defining moment, with no mention of what came next.
“the courage, sacrifice, and resilience that emerged from one of the most defining moments in American history”
What the canvases skip
The response Bush launched brought America's longest foreign occupation, at least 4.5 million deaths, and the Department of Homeland Security.
The main idea
A museum exhibit can shape how a presidency is remembered by choosing which parts of it to paint.
