Bush Faces Defining Moment

W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 12 -- When terrorists steered hijacked passenger planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, they thrust George W. Bush into the center of a national crisis that will likely define his presidency.

Aides describe the president as "steely" but "even-keeled" as he tries to lead the United States through a crucial moment in its history — one unlike any faced by his predecessors.

"The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror, they were acts of war," the commander in chief told reporters in the White House Cabinet Room this morning, where Bush was meeting with his top national security advisers.

"Freedom and democracy are under attack," he said.

Day One

Less than 12 hours after those attacks began, the president returned to the White House to calm the nation and warn its enemies.

"Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America," he said Tuesday night in an address from the Oval Office.

The president vowed retaliation, saying, "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."

That course of action already has strong public support. More than nine in 10 Americans told an ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll they back military action against any groups or nations found to be responsible. Better than 80 percent also favor action against countries that assist or shelter terrorists.

"We've got a nation rallying behind a president who is doing what he has to do," said Norm Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank.

The first of what Bush today described as "acts of war" came when a plane struck the World Trade Center at approximately 8:50 a.m. Tuesday. Aides say that when White House Chief of Staff Andy Card informed Bush of the second crash, which came roughly 10 minutes later, the president concluded there was "no doubt" the carnage was the result of terrorism.