who was the president of usa in 2005

The presidency of George W. Bush began at noon EST on January 20, 2001, when George W. Bush was inaugurated as 43rd President of the United States, and ended on January 20, 2009.  Bush, a Republican, took office following a very close victory over Democratic incumbent Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. Four years later, in the 2004 election, he defeated Democrat John Kerry to win re-election. Bush, the 43rd President, is the eldest son of the 41st President, George H. W. Bush. He was succeeded by Democrat Barack Obama, who won the 2008 presidential election.

Presidency of George W. Bush

Upon taking office, Bush pushed through a $1.3 trillion tax cut program and the No Child Left Behind Act, a major education bill. He also pushed for socially conservative efforts, such as the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and faith-based welfare initiatives. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Bush declared a global war on terrorism and, in October 2001, ordered an invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban, destroy the terrorist group al-Qaeda, and capture Osama bin Laden. That same month, he signed into law the controversial Patriot Act in order to strengthen security and allow for greater surveillance. In 2003, Bush ordered an invasion of Iraq, asserting that Iraq possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1441. Later that year, he signed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, which created Medicare Part D and made other changes to Medicare.

Bush's second term was highlighted by several free trade agreements, a strong push for offshore and domestic drilling, and  the successful nominations of Supreme Court Justices John G. Roberts and Samuel Alito. Bush also sought immigration reform and major changes to Social Security, but both efforts failed. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continued, and in 2007 he launched a surge of troops in Iraq. The Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina and the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy earned wide coverage, and his second term saw a drop in his approval ratings. A global meltdown in financial markets dominated his last days in office as policymakers looked to avert a major economic disaster, and he signed into law the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) through the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

With the help of political adviser Karl Rove, Bush began preparing for a 2000 presidential campaign soon after his victory in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election. Following the defeat of Republican nominee Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election, Bush was widely viewed as one of the top contenders for the 2000 Republican nomination.

After a strong re-election victory in the gubernatorial re-election of 1998, Bush became the widely acknowledged front-runner in the race for the nomination. Discouraged by Bush's popularity and strong fundraising, potential Republican candidates such as Jack Kemp and Colin Powell declined to enter the race. In the years preceding the 2000 election, Bush built up his stable of advisers, with his economic advisers led by supply-side economics advocate Lawrence B. Lindsey and his foreign policy team led by Condoleezza Rice. Though several Republicans dropped out of the race rather than challenge Bush, Arizona Senator John McCain launched a spirited challenge that was supported by many moderates and foreign policy hawks. McCain's loss in the South Carolina primary effectively ended the 2000 Republican primaries, and Bush was officially nominated for president at the 2000 Republican National Convention. Bush selected former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney as his running mate; though Cheney offered little electoral appeal and had health problems, Bush thought that Cheney's extensive experience would make him a valuable governing partner.[1]

With President Bill Clinton term-limited, the Democrats nominated Vice President Al Gore. Bush's campaign emphasized their own candidate's character in contrast with that of Clinton, who had been embroiled in the Lewinsky scandal for much of his second term. In the presidential debates, Bush exceeded the expectations of many in holding his ground against Gore, and Bush held a substantial lead in several polls taken after the final debate in October. However, the unearthing of a 1976 DUI arrest appeared to sap Bush's momentum, and as election night approached, the race was widely considered to be very close. On election night, several television networks called the race for Gore based on exit polls and early returns, but as the night continued, the networks reversed themselves and called the race for Bush. Florida emerged as the key state in the election, as whichever candidate won the state would win the presidency. Official tallies showed Bush with lead of less than two thousand votes out of a total of two million cast in Florida, and both campaigns dispatched attorneys to engage in the legal battle over the ensuing recount.[2]

The Florida Supreme Court ordered a manual recount of a portion of the ballots, but was overruled by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Bush v. Gore on equal protection grounds. Bush won the election with 271 electoral votes compared to Gore's 266, though Gore narrowly won a plurality of the popular vote. In the concurrent congressional elections, Republicans retained a narrow majority in the House but lost five seats in the Senate to leave the partisan balance at fifty Republicans and fifty Democrats.[2]

Rejecting the idea of a powerful White House Chief of Staff, Bush had high-level officials report directly to him. Bush brought to the White House several individuals who had worked under him in Texas, including Senior Counselor Karen Hughes, Senior Adviser Karl Rove, legal counsel Alberto Gonzales, and Staff Secretary Harriet Miers. Other important individuals in the White House included National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Chief of Staff Andrew Card, and Vice President Cheney, who emerged as the most powerful individual in the White House aside from Bush himself.[3] Paul H. O'Neill, who had served as Deputy Director of the OMB, was appointed Secretary of the Treasury, while former Missouri Senator John Ashcroft was appointed Attorney General.[4] O'Neill, who opposed the Iraq War and feared that the Bush tax cuts would lead to deficits, was replaced by John W. Snow in February 2003.[5] In June 2006, Snow was succeeded by Henry Paulson, the head of Goldman Sachs, after Bush agreed to let Paulson lead his administration's economic policy.[6] Ashcroft, who differed with Bush on issues such as NSA surveillance, resigned after the 2004 election, and was replaced by Gonzales.[7] After serving as Chief of Staff for more than five years, Card left the White House of his own accord, and was replaced by Joshua Bolten.[8] Gonzales and Rove both left in 2007 after controversy regarding the dismissal of U.S. attorneys, and Gonzales was replaced by Michael Mukasey, a former federal judge.[9]

As Bush had little foreign policy experience, his appointments would serve an important role in dictating the foreign policy of the United States during his tenure. Bush's initial foreign policy appointees had largely served under his father's administration. Vice President Cheney had been Secretary of Defense, National Security Adviser Rice had served on the National Security Council, and deputy secretaries Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Armitage had also served in important roles. Secretary of State Colin Powell had served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the first President Bush.[10] Bush had long admired Powell, and the former general was Bush's first choice for the position. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had served in the same position during the Ford administration, rounded out the key figures in the national security team.[11] Rumsfeld and Cheney, who had served together in the Ford administration, were the leading foreign policy figures in Bush's first term.[12] Frustrated by the decisions of the Bush administration, particularly the launching of the Iraq War, Powell resigned following the 2004 elections.[13] He was replaced by Rice, while then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley took Rice's former position.[14] After the 2006 elections, Rumsfeld was replaced by former CIA Director Robert Gates.[15] The personnel shake-ups left Rice as one of the most prominent individuals in the administration, and she played a strong role in directing Bush's second term foreign policy.[16]

After the 2004 election, many expected that Chief Justice William Rehnquist would be forced to step down from the United States Supreme Court. Cheney and White House Counsel Harriet Miers were tasked with finding a suitable replacement, and they settled on D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals John Roberts and Fourth Circuit Judge Michael Luttig, both widely respected conservatives, as the two finalists. In June 2005, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor unexpectedly announced that she would step down from the court, and Bush nominated Roberts for her position the following month. After Rehnquist died in September, Bush briefly considered elevating Associate Justice Antonin Scalia to the position of Chief Justice, but instead chose to nominate Roberts for the position. Roberts won confirmation from the Senate in a 78-22 vote, with all Republicans and a narrow majority of Democrats voting to confirm Roberts. To replace O'Connor, the Bush administration wanted to find a female nominee, but was unsatisfied with the conventional options available. The president settled on Miers, but her nomination immediately faced opposition from conservatives feared her unproven ideology and lack of judicial experience. After Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist informed Bush that Miers did not have the votes necessary to win confirmation, Miers withdrew from consideration. Bush nominated Samuel Alito, who received strong support from conservatives but faced opposition from Democrats. Alito won confirmation in a 58-42 vote in January 2006.[17]

Bush also appointed 62 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, 261 judges to the United States district courts, and 2 judges to the United States Court of International Trade. Bush appointed Neil Gorsuch to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in 2006; Gorsuch would later be nominated by President Donald Trump for a seat on the Supreme Court.

Bush's promise to cut taxes was the centerpiece of his 2000 presidential campaign, and upon taking office, he made tax cuts his first major legislative priority. A budget surplus developed during the Bill Clinton administration, and with the Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's support, Bush argued that the best use of the surplus was to lower taxes. After Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill expressed concerns over the tax cut's size and the possibility of future deficits, Vice President Cheney took charge of writing the bill, which the administration proposed to Congress in March 2001.[23] President Bush rejected the idea of "triggers" that would phase out the tax reductions should the government again run deficits, arguing instead that the tax cuts were the best ways to stimulate the economy regardless of deficits. The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 won the support of congressional Republicans and a minority of congressional Democrats, and Bush signed it into law in June 2001. The act lowered the top income tax rate from 39-35%, and it also reduced the estate tax. The narrow Republican majority in the Senate necessitated the use of the reconciliation, which in turn necessitated that the tax cuts would phase out in 2011 barring further legislative action.[24]

After the tax bill was passed, Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party and began caucusing with the Democrats, giving them control of the Senate. After Republicans re-took control of the Senate during the 2002 mid-term elections, Bush proposed further tax cuts. With little support among Democrats, Congress passed the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, which cut taxes by another $350 billion over 10 years. That law also lowered the capital gains tax and taxes on dividends. Collectively, the Bush tax cuts reduced federal individual tax rates to their lowest level since World War II, and government revenue as a share of gross domestic product declined from 20.9% in 2000 to 16.3% in 2004.[24]

Bush's other major policy initiative upon taking office was education reforms. Although some congressional Republicans had called for abolishing the Department of Education, the President's success in campaigning on education reform had convinced many Republicans, including Congressman John Boehner of Ohio, that an education reform bill increasing federal funding would prove politically popular.[25] Seeking to craft a bipartisan bill, Bush sought out Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, a leading liberal Senator who served as the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, and Pensions. Bush proposed the No Child Left Behind Act, which required extensive testing to ensure that schools met uniform standards for skills such as reading and math. Bush hoped that testing would make schools more accountable for their performances and provide parents more information in choosing which schools to send their children. Kennedy shared Bush's concern for the education of impoverished children and hoped to increase federal funding for education, but he strongly opposed the president's proposed school vouchers, which would have allowed parents to use federal funding to pay for private schools. Both men cooperated to pass the No Child Left Behind Act, which dropped the concept of school vouchers but included Bush's idea of nationwide testing. Both houses of Congress registered overwhelming approval for the bill's final version, which Bush signed into law in January 2002.[26] However, Kennedy would later criticize the implementation of the act, arguing that Bush had promised great federal funding for education.[27]

On his first day in office - January 20, 2001, President Bush moved to block federal aid to foreign groups that offered counseling or any other assistance to women in obtaining abortions.[28] Days later, he announced his commitment to channeling more federal aid to faith-based service organizations, despite the fears of critics that this would dissolve the traditional separation of church and state in the US.[29][30] To further this commitment, he created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to assist faith-based service organizations.[31] In 2003, Bush signed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.[32]

Following a national furor over recognizing same-sex marriages in both San Francisco and Massachusetts, Bush announced his opposition to same-sex marriages in 2004 when endorsing the Federal Marriage Amendment to the US Constitution which would have permanently defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.[33]

Bush was staunchly opposed to euthanasia and supported Attorney General John Ashcroft's decision to file suit against the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which was ultimately decided by the US Supreme Court favoring the Oregon law.[34] However, while he was governor of Texas, Bush had signed a law giving hospitals the authority to remove life support from terminally ill patients against the wishes of spouses or parents, if the doctors deemed it as medically appropriate.[35] This perceived inconsistency in policy became an issue in 2005, when Bush signed controversial legislation forwarded and voted on by only three members of the US Senate to initiate federal intervention in the court battle of Terri Schiavo, a comatose Florida woman who ultimately died.[36]

Early in his administration, President Bush became personally interested in the issue of stem cell research. The Clinton administration had issued guidelines allowing the federal funding of research utilizing stem cells, and the Bush administration studied the situation's ethics. Evangelical religious groups argued that the research was immoral as it destroyed human embryos, while various advocacy groups touted the "miracle possibilities" of stem cell research. In August 2001, Bush announced that he opposed stem cell research, and he banned federal funding for research on new stem cell lines.[37]

In July 2006, Bush used his first presidential veto on the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which would have expanded federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. A similar bill was passed in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate early in summer 2007 as part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 100-Hour Plan. However, Bush vetoed the second bill as well and Congress could not override the veto.[38]

Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Bush announced the creation of the Office of Homeland Security and appointed former Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge its director. After Congress passed a law creating the Department of Homeland Security, Ridge became the first director of the newly-creatly department. The department was charged with overseeing immigration, border control, customs, and the newly-established Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which focused on airport security. On October 26, 2001, Bush signed into law the Patriot Act. Passed on the President's request, this act permitted increased sharing of intelligence among the US Intelligence Community and authorized the government to examine the credit card bills and library records of suspected terrorists. Bush also secretly authorized the National Security Agency to conduct warrantless surveillance of communications in and out of the US.[39]

Bush's environmental record began with promises as a presidential candidate to clean up power plants and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In a speech on September 29, 2000, Bush pledged to commit two billion dollars to the funding of clean coal technology research. In that same speech, he also promised to work with Congress, environmental groups, and the energy industry to reduce the emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, and carbon dioxide into the environment within a "reasonable" period of time. He would later reverse his position on that specific campaign pledge in March 2001 in a letter to Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, stating that carbon dioxide was not considered a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, and that restricting carbon dioxide emissions would cause energy prices to rapidly increase.[40]

In March 2001, the G.W. Bush administration announced that it would not implement the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty signed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan that required nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The administration argued that ratifying the treaty would unduly restrict U.S. growth while unsuccessfully limiting emissions from developing nations.[41] In February 2002, President Bush announced his alternative to the Kyoto Protocol, by bringing forth a plan to reduce the intensity of greenhouse gases by 18% over 10 years. The intensity of greenhouse gases specifically is the ratio of greenhouse gas emissions and economic output (i.e., under this plan, emissions still continued to grow, but at a slower pace). Bush stated that this plan would prevent the release of 500 million metric tons of greenhouse gases, which is about the equivalent of removing 70 million cars from the road. This target would achieve this goal by providing tax credits to businesses that use renewable energy sources.[42]

President Bush stated that he believed global warming is real[43] but also a serious problem, although he asserted there existed a "debate over whether it's man-made or naturally caused".[44] The Bush Administration's stance on global warming remained controversial in the scientific and environmental communities. Critics alleged that the administration[45] misinformed the public and did not do enough to reduce carbon emissions and deter global warming.[46]

On January 6, 2009, President Bush designated the world's largest protected marine area. The Pacific Ocean habitat includes the Mariana Trench and the waters and corals surrounding three uninhabited islands in the Northern Mariana Islands, Rose Atoll in American Samoa, and seven islands along the equator.[47]

In 1995, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) jointly published an op-ed calling for campaign finance reform, and began working on a bipartisan bill.[48][49] McCain's 2000 presidential campaign along with several scandals (including the Enron scandal) brought the issue of campaign finance to the fore of public consciousness in 2001.[48] Both McCain and Feingold pushed the bill in the Senate, while Chris Shays (R-CT) and Marty Meehan (D-MA) led the effort of passing it in the House.[48] In just the second successful use of the discharge petition since the 1980s, a mixture of Democrats and Republicans defied Speaker Dennis Hastert and passed a campaign finance reform bill.[50] The House approved the bill with a 240-189 vote, sending it to the Senate.[51] The bill passed the Senate in a 60-40 vote, the bare minimum required to overcome the filibuster.[49] Throughout the Congressional battle on the bill, Bush declined to take a strong position.[51] However, he signed the bill in March 2002 after it cleared both houses of Congress. However, in March 2002, Bush signed into law the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. In signing it, Bush stated that he thought the law would improve the financing system for elections but was "far from perfect."[52] The law placed several limits on political donations and expenditures, and closed loopholes on contribution limits on donations to political candidates by banning the use of so-called "soft money."[48] Portions of the law restricting independent expenditures would later be struck down the Supreme Court in the 2010 case of Citizens United v. FEC.[53]

After the passage of the Bush tax cuts and the No Child Left Behind Act, Bush then turned his domestic focus to healthcare. He sought to expand Medicare so it would also cover the cost of prescription drugs, a program that became known as Medicare Part D. Many congressional Democrats opposed the bill, arguing that it should have allowed Medicare to negotiate the prices of drugs, while many conservative Republicans also opposed the expansion of a government program. Along with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, he narrowly won approval of the bill in the House, while Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist overcame strong opposition in the Senate.[54] In December 2003, Bush signed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, the largest expansion of Medicare since the program's creation in 1965.[55]

After winning re-election in 2004, Bush called for changes in Social Security as part of his vision of an "ownership society." He wanted to restructure the program for citizens to invest some of the money going in to the payroll taxes funding the program.[56] The President argued that Social Security faced an imminent funding crisis and that reform was necessary to ensure its continuing solvency.[57] However, Bush's plan earned unified opposition from congressional Democrats and failed to attract the necessary support from Republicans, and legislation on Social Security reform was never brought to a vote.[58]

Hurricane Katrina, one of the largest and most powerful hurricanes ever to strike the United States, ravaged several states along the Gulf of Mexico in August 2005. On a working vacation at his ranch in Texas, Bush initially allowed state and local authorities to respond to the natural disaster. The hurricane made landfall on August 29, devastating the city of New Orleans after the failure of that city's levees. Over eighteen hundred people died in the hurricane, and Bush was widely criticized for his slow response to the disaster. His approval ratings fell below 40% and never recovered.[59]

Alhough he concentrated on other domestic policies during his first term, Bush supported immigration reform throughout his administration. In May 2006, he proposed a five-point plan including increased border security, a guest worker program, and a path to citizenship for the twelve million illegal immigrants living in the United States. The Senate passed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, which included many of the president's proposals, but the bill did not pass the House of Representatives. After Democrats took control of Congress in the 2006 mid-term elections, Bush worked with Ted Kennedy to re-introduce the bill as the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007. The bill received intense criticism from many conservatives, who had become more skeptical of immigration reform, and it failed to pass the Senate.[60]

After years of financial deregulation accelerating under the Bush administration, banks began lending subprime mortgages to more and more home buyers, causing a housing bubble. Many of these banks also invested in credit default swaps and derivatives that were essentially bets on the soundness of these loans. When housing prices starting declining in 2007, the Bush administration began fearing a possible short recession, thus passing the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. Falling home prices started threatening the financial viability of many institutions, and Bear Stearns, a prominent U.S.-based investment bank, was on the brink of failure in March 2008. Recognizing the growing threat of a financial crisis, Bush allowed Treasury Secretary Paulson to arrange for another bank, JPMorgan Chase, to tank over most Bear Stearn's assets. Out of concert that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might also fail, the Bush administration put both institutions into conservatorship. Shortly afterwords, the administration learned that Lehman Brothers was on the verge of bankruptcy. The administration's intervention in other financial institutions (often described as "bailouts") was criticized on both the left and the right. Both Bush and Paulson were reluctant to intervene on behalf of Lehman Brothers. The firm declared bankruptcy on September 15.[61]

Paulson hoped that the financial industry had shored itself up after the failure of Bear Stearns and that the failure of Lehman Brothers would not strongly impact the economy, but news of the failure caused stock prices to tumble and froze credit. American International Group (AIG), another major financial institution, teetered on the brink of failure. In fear a financial collapse, Paulson and the Federal Reserve took control of AIG. Hoping to shore up the other banks, Bush and Paulson proposed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which would create the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), in which the federal government would buy toxic assets. The House rejected TARP in a 228-205 vote; although support and opposition crossed party lines, only about one third of the Republican caucus supported the bill. After the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 778 points on the day of the House vote, the House and Senate both passed TARP. Bush later extended TARP loans to U.S. automobile companies, which faced their own crisis due to the weak economy. TARP helped end the financial crisis, but it did not prevent the onset of the Great Recession.[62][63]

In July 2002, following several accounting scandals such as the Enron scandal, Bush signed the Sarbanes–Oxley Act into law. The act expanded reporting requirements for public companies[64] Shortly after the start of his second term, Bush signed the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, which had been a priority of his administration and part of his broader goal of instituting tort reform. The act was designed to remove most class action lawsuits from state courts to federal courts, which were regarded as less sympathetic to plaintiffs in class action suits.[65]

Upon taking office, Bush had little experience with foreign policy, and his decisions were guided by his advisers. Bush embraced the views of Cheney and other neoconservatives, who advocated for the spreading of democracy, by force if necessary. They also de-emphasized the importance of multilateralism, arguing that, as the world's lone superpower, the U.S. could act unilaterally if necessary. Though the first several months of his presidency focused on domestic issues, the Bush administration pulled the U.S. out of several existing or proposed multilateral agreements, including the Kyoto Protocol, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the International Criminal Court. Foreign affairs would increasingly come to the fore after the 9/11 attacks and the October 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.[66]

In 2002, during his State of the Union Address, Bush set forth what has become known as the Bush Doctrine. Although this doctrine was technically used for justifying the invasion of Afghanistan, it was not clearly stated as a matter of policy until this address. Because of the possibility of further massive terrorist attacks orchestrated by organizations that existed in multiple places all over the world, Bush stated that the United States would implement a policy of preemptive military strikes against nations known to be harboring or aiding a terrorist organization hostile to the United States. Bush outlined what he called the "Axis of Evil," consisting of three nations that, he argued, posed the greatest threat to world peace due to their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and potential to aid terrorists. The axis consisted of Iraq, North Korea and Iran. Iraq would increasingly become the object of the administration's attention, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq and its aftermath became the central foreign policy issue of the Bush presidency.[67]

Terrorism had emerged as an important national security issue in the Clinton administration, and it became one of the dominant issues of the Bush administration[69] In the late 1980s, Osama bin Laden had established al-Qaeda, a militant Sunni Islamist multi-national organization. Bin Laden sought to defeat the so-called "Near Enemy," Western-backed governments in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Pakistan. After Saudi Arabia began hosting U.S. soldiers in 1991, al-Qaeda conducted a terrorist campaign against U.S. targets, orchestrating attacks such as the 1998 USS Cole bombing. During Bush's first months in office, U.S. intelligence organizations intercepted communications indicating that al-Qaeda was planning another attack on the United States, but foreign policy officials were unprepared for a major attack on the United States.[70]

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four airliners and flew two them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, destroying both 110-story skyscrapers. Another plane crashed into Pentagon, while the final plane was brought down in Pennsylvania following a struggle between the terrorists and the aircraft's passengers.[71] The attacks had a profound effect on many Americans, who felt vulnerable to international attacks for the first time since the end of the Cold War.[72] Appearing on national television on the night of the attacks, Bush promised to punish those who had aided the attacks, stating, "we will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." In the following days, Bush urged the public to renounce hate crimes and discrimination against Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans.[71] He also declared a "War on Terror", instituting new domestic and foreign policies in an effort to prevent future terrorist attacks.[73]

After 9/11, the Bush administration decided upon a decisive military action to punish the government of Afghanistan, which harbored the leaders of al-Qaeda. Bush's top foreign policy advisers were in agreement that launching strikes against al-Qaeda bases would not stop future attacks. Bush decided to lead an invasion of Afghanistan, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the conservative Taliban government.[74] Powell took the lead in assembling allied nations in a coalition that would launch attacks on multiple fronts.[75] On September 14, Congress passed a resolution called the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, authorizing the president to use the military against those responsible for the attacks. On October 6, 2001 Bush authorized the invasion of Afghanistan.[74]

General Tommy Franks, the commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), drew up a four-phase invasion plan. In the first phase, the U.S. built up forces in the surrounding area and inserted CIA and special forces operatives who linked up with the Northern Alliance, an Afghan resistance group opposed to the Taliban. The second phase consisted of a major air campaign against Taliban and al-Qaeda targets, while the third phase involved the defeat of the remaining Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. The fourth and final phase consisted of the stabilization of Afghanistan, which Franks projected would take three to five years. The war in Afghanistan began on October 7 with several air and missile strikes. On October 19, the Northern Alliance began its offensive, and the capital of Kabul was captured on November 13. Hamid Karzai was inaugurated as the new president of Afghanistan. However, the senior leadership of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, including bin Laden, avoided capture. Karzai would remain in power for the duration of Bush's presidency, but his effective control was limited to the area around Kabul, as various warlords took control of much of the rest of the country.[76] While the Karzai's government struggled to control the countryside, the Taliban regrouped in neighboring Pakistan. As Bush left office, he considered sending additional troops to bolster Afghanistan against the Taliban, but decided to leave the issue for the next administration.[77]

During and after the invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. captured numerous members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Rather than bringing the prisoners before domestic or international courts, Bush decided to set up a new system of military tribunals to try the prisoners. In order to avoid the restrictions of the United States Constitution, Bush held the prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp; because the camp is on territory that the U.S. technically leases from Cuba, individuals within the camp are not accorded the same constitutional protections that they would have on U.S. territory. Bush also decided that these "enemy combatants" were not entitled to all of the protections of the Geneva Conventions as they were not affiliated with states. While the administration established the camp at Guantanamo, it also authorized the creation of secret CIA prisons in various countries. In hopes of obtaining information from the prisoners, Bush allowed the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding.[78] The treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, a U.S. prison in Iraq, elicited widespread outrage after photos of prisoner abuse were made public.[79] In 2005, Congress passed the Detainee Treatment Act, which purported to ban torture, but in his signing statement Bush asserted that his executive power gave him the authority to waive the restrictions put in place by the bill.[80] Bush's policies suffered a major rebuke from the Supreme Court in the 2006 case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, in which the court rejected Bush's use of military commissions without congressional approval and held that all detainees were protected by the Geneva Conventions.[81] Following the ruling, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which effectively overturned Hamdan.[82] The Supreme Court overturned a portion of that act in the 2008 case of Boumediene v. Bush, but the Guantanamo detention camp remained open at the end of Bush's presidency.[83]

During the Presidency of George H. W. Bush, the United States had launched the Gulf War against Iraq after the latter invaded Kuwait. Though the U.S. defeated Iraq and threw it out of Kuwait, it left Saddam Hussein's administration in place, partly to serve as a counterweight to Iran. After the war, the Project for the New American Century, consisting of many individuals such as Wolfowitz and Cheney who would serve in both Bush administrations, advocated for the overthrow of Hussein.[85] In the days following the 9/11 attacks, hawks in the Bush administration such as Paul Wolfowitz argued for military action against Iraq, but the issue was set aside in favor of planning the invasion of Afghanistan.[86] Under the Clinton administration, the United States had adopted a policy of regime change against Saddam Hussein's Iraqi government, and some within the administration believed that it shared some responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. The administration also thought that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that could potentially threaten the U.S. and U.S. allies, possibly by providing those weapons to terrorists.[87] Many in the administration also hoped that the fall of Iraq would help spread democracy in the Middle East, deter the recruitment of terrorists, and increase the security of Israel By the end of 2001, while the war in Afghanistan was ongoing, the administration began drawing up military plans for an invasion of Iraq.[12]

In his 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush identified Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as the "axis of evil" due to their (WMD) programs and alleged sponsorship of terrorism. Throughout 2002, administration officials developed the Bush Doctrine, which called for preemptive and unilateral war when justified by national security interests.[88] Beginning in September 2002, the Bush administration mounted a campaign designed to win popular and congressional support for the war. Most congressional Republicans supported fell in line behind Bush, while leading Democrats like Hillary Clinton urged Bush to seek international support before going to war.[89] In October 2002, Congress approved the Iraq Resolution, authorizing the use of force against Iraq. While congressional Republicans almost unanimously supported the measure, congressional Democrats were split in roughly equal numbers between support and opposition to the resolution.[90] Bowing to domestic and foreign pressure, Bush sought to win the approval of the United Nations before launching an attack on Iraq.[91] Led by Powell, the administration won the November 2002 passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, which called on Iraq to dismantle its WMD program.[92]

In December 2002, Iraq issued a report stating that it did not have a WMD program, but the U.S. rejected the report as false.[93] After a U.N. weapons inspections team led by Hans Blix, as well as another team led by Mohamed ElBaradei, failed to find evidence of an Iraqi WMD program, Bush's proposed regime change in Iraq faced mounting international opposition. Germany, China, France, and Russia all expressed skepticism about the need for regime change, and the latter three countries each possessed veto power on the United Nations Security Council.[94] At the behest of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who supported Bush but hoped for more international cooperation, Bush dispatched Powell to the U.N. to make the case to the Security Council that Iraq maintained an active WMD program.[95] Though Powell's presentation preceded a shift in U.S. public opinion towards support of the war, it failed to convince the French, Russians, or Germans.[95] Contrary to the findings of Blix and ElBaradei, Bush asserted in a March 17 public address that there was "no doubt" that the Iraqi regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. Two days later, Bush authorized Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the Iraq War began on March 20, 2003.[96]

Allied forces, led by General Franks, launched a simultaneous air and land attack on Iraq on March 20, 2003, in what the American media called "shock and awe." With 145,000 soldiers, the ground force quickly overcome most Iraqi resistance, and thousands of Iraqi soldiers deserted. On April 7, the U.S. captured the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. However, Hussein escaped and went into hiding. While the U.S. and its allies had quickly achieved military success, the invasion was strongly criticized by many countries, and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan argued that the invasion was a violation of international law and the U.N. Charter.[97]

On May 1, 2003, Bush delivered the "Mission Accomplished speech," in which Bush declared the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq. Despite the failure to find evidence of an ongoing WMD program or an operational relationship between Hussein and al-Qaeda, Bush declared that the toppling of Hussein "removed an ally of al-Qaeda" and ended the threat that Iraq would supply weapons of mass destruction a terrorist organization. Believing that only a minimal residual American force would be required after the success of the invasion, Bush and Franks planned for a drawdown to 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by August 2003. But after the fall of Baghdad, Iraqis began looting their own capital, presenting one of the first of many challenges the U.S. would face in keeping the peace in Iraq.[98]

Bush appointed Paul Bremer to lead the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which was charged with overseeing the transition to self-government in Iraq. In his first major order, Bremer announced a policy of de-Ba'athification, which denied government and military jobs to members of Hussein's Ba'ath Party. This policy angered many of Iraq's Sunnis, many of whom had joined the Ba'ath Party merely as a career move. Bremer's second major order disbanded the Iraqi military and police services, leaving over 600,000 Iraqi soldiers and government employees without jobs. Bremer also insisted that the CPA remain in control of Iraq until the country held elections, reversing Garner's plan to set up a transition government made up of Iraqis. These decisions contributed to the beginning of the Iraqi insurgency opposed to the continuing U.S. presence. Fearing the further deterioration of Iraq's security situation, General John Abizaid ordered the end of the planned drawdown of soldiers, leaving over 130,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The U.S. captured Hussein in December 2003, but the occupation force continued to suffer casualties. Between the start of the invasion and the end of 2003, 580 U.S. soldiers died, with two thirds of those casualties occurring after Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech.[99]

After 2003, more and more Iraqis began to see the U.S. as an occupying force. The fierce fighting of the First Battle of Fallujah alienated many in Iraq, while cleric Muqtada al-Sadr encouraged many Shia Muslims to oppose the CPA.[100] Sunni and Shia insurgents engaged in a campaign of guerilla warfare against the United States, blunting the technological and organizational advantages of the U.S. military.[101] While fighting in Iraq continued, domestic opposition to the war also strengthened, and many anti-war activists held protests against the Iraq War. In increasingly greater numbers, congressional Democrats such as Jack Murtha began attacking the war as well.[102] Bremer left Iraq in June 2004, transferring power to the Iraqi Interim Government, which was led by Ayad Allawi.[101] In January 2005, the Iraqi people voted on representatives for the Iraqi National Assembly, and the Shia United Iraqi Alliance formed a governing coalition led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari. In October 2005, the Iraqis ratified a new constitution that created a decentralized governmental structure dividing Iraq into communities of Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, and Kurds. After another election, Jafari was succeeded as prime minister by another Shia, Nouri al-Maliki. The elections failed to quell the insurgency, and hundreds of U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq died during 2005 and 2006. Sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias also intensified following the 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing.[103] In a December 2006 report, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group described the situation in Iraq as "grave and deteriorating," and the report called for the U.S. to gradually withdraw soldiers from Iraq.[104]

As the violence mounted in 2006, Rumsfeld and military leaders such as Abizaid and George Casey, the commander of the coalition forces in Iraq, called for a drawdown of forces in Iraq, but many within in the administration argued that the U.S. should maintain its troop levels.[105] Still intent on implementing a democratic Iraq, the Bush administration rejected a drawdown and began planning for a change in strategy and leadership following the 2006 elections.[106] After the elections, Bush replaced Rumsfeld with Gates, while David Petraeus replaced Casey and William J. Fallon replaced Abizaid.[107] Bush and his National Security Council formed a plan to "double down" in Iraq, increasing the number of U.S. soldiers in hopes of establishing a stable democracy.[108] After Maliki publicly announced his support for an increase of U.S. soldiers, Bush announced in January 2007 that the U.S. would send an additional 20,000 soldiers to Iraq as part of a "surge" of forces.[109] Though McCain and a few other hawks supported Bush's new strategy, many other members of Congress from both parties expressed doubt or outright opposition to it.[110]

In April 2007, Congress, now controlled by Democrats, passed a bill that called for a total withdrawal of all U.S. troops by April 2008, but Bush vetoed the bill.[111] Without the votes to override the veto, Congress passed a bill that continued to fund the war but also included the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which increased the federal minimum wage.[112] U.S. and Iraqi casualties continuously declined after May 2007, and Bush declared that the surge had been a success in September 2007.[113] He subsequently ordered a drawdown of troops, and the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq declined from 168,000 in September 2007 to 145,000 when Bush left office.[113] The decline in casualties following the surge coincided with several other favorable trends, including the Anbar Awakening and Muqtada al-Sadr's decision to order his followers to cooperate with the Iraqi government.[114] In 2008, at the insistence of Maliki, Bush signed the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, which promised complete withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of 2011.[115]

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict, ongoing since the middle of the 20th century, continued under Bush. After President Clinton's 2000 Camp David Summit had ended without an agreement, the Second Intifada had begun in September 2000.[116] While previous administrations had tried to act as a neutral authority between the Israelis and Palestinians, the Bush administration placed the blame for the violence on the Palestinians, angering Arab states such as Saudi Arabia.[116][117] However, Bush's support for a two-state solution helped smooth over a potential diplomatic split with the Saudis.[118] In hopes of establishing peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, the Bush administration proposed the road map for peace, but his plan was not implemented and tensions were heightened following the victory of Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian elections.[119]

Believing that protectionism hampered economic growth, Bush concluded free trade agreements with numerous countries. When Bush took office, the United States had free trade agreements with just three countries: Israel, Canada, and Mexico. In 2003, Bush signed the Chile–United States Free Trade Agreement, the Singapore–United States Free Trade Agreement, and he concluded the Morocco-United States Free Trade Agreement
and the Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement the following year. He also concluded the Bahrain–United States Free Trade Agreement, the Oman–United States Free Trade Agreement, the Peru–United States Trade Promotion Agreement, and the Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement. Additionally, Bush reached free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama, but agreements with these countries were not ratified until 2011.[120]

Bush emphasized creating a personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to ensure harmonious relations between the U.S. and Russia. After meeting with Putin in June 2001, both presidents expressed optimism regarding cooperation between the two former Cold War rivals.[121] After the 9/11 attacks, Putin allowed the U.S. to use Russian airspace, and Putin encouraged Central Asian states to grant basing rights to the U.S.[122] In May 2002, the U.S. and Russia signed the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, which sought to dramatically reduce the nuclear stockpiles of both countries.[123]

In his 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush grouped Iran with Iraq and North Korea as a member of the "Axis of Evil", accusing Iran of aiding terrorist organizations.[124] In 2006, Iran re-opened three of its nuclear facilities, potentially allowing it to begin the process of building a nuclear bomb.[125] After the resumption of the Iranian nuclear program, many within the U.S. military and foreign policy community speculated that Bush might attempt to impose regime change on Iran.[126] In December 2006, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1737, which imposed sanctions on Iran in order to curb its nuclear program.[127]

North Korea had developed weapons of mass destruction for several years prior to the Bush administration, and the Clinton administration had sought to trade economic assistance for an end to the North Korean WMD program. Though Secretary of State Powell urged the continuation of the rapprochement, other administration officials, including Vice President Cheney, were more skeptical of the good faith of the North Koreans. Bush instead sought to isolate North Korea in the hope that the regime would eventually collapse.[128]

North Korea launched missile tests on July 5, 2006, leading to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1695. The country said on October 3, "The U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test", which the Bush administration denied and denounced.[129] Days later, North Korea followed through on its promise to test nuclear weapons.[130]  On October 14, the Security Council unanimously passed United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, sanctioning North Korea for the test.[131] In the waning days of his presidency, Bush attempted to re-open negotiations with North Korea, but North Korea continued to develop its nuclear programs.[132]

Shortly after taking office, Bush pledged $200 million to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.[133] Finding this effort insufficient, Bush assembled a team of experts to find the best way for the U.S. reduce the worldwide damage caused by the AIDS epidemic.[133] The experts, led by Anthony S. Fauci, recommended that the U.S. focus on providing antiretroviral drugs to developing nations in Africa and the Caribbean.[133] In his State of the Union message in January 2003, President Bush outlined a five-year strategy for global emergency AIDS relief, the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. With the approval of Congress, Bush committed $15 billion to this effort, which represented a huge increase compared to funding under previous administrations. Near the end of his presidency, Bush signed a re-authorization of the program that doubled its funding. By 2012, the PEPFAR program provided antiretroviral drugs for over 4.5 million people.[134]

Bush made 48 international trips to 72 different countries (in addition to visiting the West Bank) during his presidency.[135]

He visited six continents: Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. On one of his two trips to Sub-Saharan Africa, he visited three of the poorest countries in the world: Liberia, Rwanda, and Benin. He was the first sitting president to visit: Albania, Bahrain, Benin, Estonia, Georgia, Iraq, Lithuania, Mongolia, Qatar, Slovakia, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates. Bush also made a secret trip to Iraq on Thanksgiving Day 2003 to dine with the troops. His father had made a similar visit to the U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia in 1990. On November 15â€“20, 2006, Bush made the third round the world presidential flight (after Johnson and Nixon).

The number of visits per country where he travelled are:

In July 2005, Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief political advisors, Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby respectively, came under fire for revealing the identity of covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Valerie Plame to reporters in the CIA leak scandal. Libby resigned on October 28, hours after his indictment by a grand jury on multiple counts of perjury, false statements, and obstruction in this case. In March 2007, Libby was convicted on four counts, and Cheney pressed Bush to pardon Libby. Rather than pardoning Libby or allowing him to go to jail, Bush commuted Libby's sentence, creating a split with Cheney, who accused Bush of leaving "a soldier on the battlefield."[136]

In December 2006, Bush dismissed eight United States Attorneys. Though these attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, the large-scale mid-term dismissal was without precedent, and Bush faced accusations that he had dismissed the attorneys for purely political reasons. During the 2006 elections, several Republican officials complained that the U.S. attorneys had not sufficiently investigated voter fraud. With the encouragement of Harriet Miers and Karl Rove, Attorney General Gonzales dismissed eight U.S. attorneys who were considered insufficiently supportive of the administration's policies. Though Gonzales argued that the attorneys had been fired for performance reasons, publicly released documents showed that the attorneys were dismissed for political reasons. After Gonzales testified before the Senate in April 2007, several Senators from both parties asked Gonzales to resign. As a result of the dismissals and the subsequent congressional investigations, Rove and Gonzales both resigned. A 2008 report found from the Justice Department inspector general found that the dismissals had been politically motivated, but a special counsel found that no crimes had been committed and no one was ever prosecuted in connection to the dismissals.[137]

Bush's approval ratings ran the gamut from high to all-time record low. Bush began his presidency with ratings near fifty percent.[138] In the time of national crisis following the September 11 attacks, polls showed approval ratings of greater than 85%, peaking in one October 2001 poll at 92%,[138] and a steady 80â€“90% approval for about four months after the attacks.[139] Afterward, his ratings steadily declined as the economy suffered and the Iraq War initiated by his administration continued. By early 2006, his average rating was averaging below 40%, and in July 2008, a poll indicated a near all-time low of 22%. Upon leaving office the final poll recorded his approval rating as 19%, a record low for any U.S. President.[138][140][141]

In the 2002 mid-term elections, Bush became the first president since the 1930s to see his own party pick up seats in both houses of Congress. Republicans picked up two seats in the Senate elections, allowing them to re-take control of the chamber.[144] Bush delivered speeches in several venues in support of his party, campaigning on his desire to remove the administration of Saddam Hussein. Bush saw the election results as a vindication of his domestic and foreign policies.[145]

Bush and his campaign team seized on the idea of Bush as a "strong wartime leader," though this was undermined by the increasingly-unpopular Iraq War.[55] His conservative policies on tax cuts and several other issues appealed to many on the right, but Bush could also lay claim to some centrist achievements, including No Child Left Behind, Sarbanes-Oxley, and Medicare Part D.[146] Fearing that he might hurt Bush's re-election chances, Cheney offered to step down from the ticket, but Bush refused this offer, and the two were re-nominated without opposition at the 2004 Republican National Convention.[147] On the advice of pollster Matthew Dowd, who perceived a steady decline in the number of swing voters, the 2004 Bush campaign emphasized turning out conservative voters rather than the persuasion of moderates.[148]

In the 2004 Democratic primaries, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts defeated several other candidates, effectively clinching the nomination on March 2. A Vietnam War veteran, Kerry had voted to authorize the Iraq War but had come to oppose it.[149] The Bush campaign sought to define Kerry as a "flip-flopper" due to his vote on a bill funding the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.[150] Kerry sought to convince Republican Senator John McCain to become his running mate, but chose Senator John Edwards of North Carolina for the position after McCain rejected the offer.[151] The election saw a major jump in turnout; while 105 million people had voted in 2000, 123 million people voted in 2004. Bush won 50.7% percent of the popular vote, making him the first individual to win a majority of the popular vote since United States presidential election, 1988,
while Kerry took 48.3% of the popular vote. Bush won 286 electoral votes, winning Iowa, New Mexico, and every state he won in 2000 except for New Hampshire.[152]

Damaged by the unpopularity of the Iraq War and President Bush, the Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress in the 2006 elections. Republicans were also damaged by various scandals, including the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal and the Mark Foley scandal. The elections confirmed Bush's declining popularity, as many of the candidates he had personally campaigned for were defeated. After the elections, Bush announced the resignation of Rumsfeld, and promised to work with the new Democratic majority.[153]

Under the terms of the twenty-second amendment, Bush was ineligible to seek a third term in 2008. Senator John McCain won the 2008 Republican primaries, while Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeated Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic presidential nomination. McCain sought to distance himself from the unpopular policies of Bush, and Bush appeared only by satellite at the 2008 Republican National Convention, making him the first sitting president since Lyndon Johnson to not appear at his own party's convention.[154] Though McCain briefly took the lead in polls of the race taken after the convention, Obama quickly re-took the lead, and he retained for the remainder of the campaign.[155] Obama won 365 electoral votes and 52.9% of the popular vote. The election gave Democrats unified control of the legislative and executive branches for the first time since the 1994 elections. After the election, Bush congratulated Obama and invited him to the White House. With the help of the Bush administration, the presidential transition of Barack Obama was widely regarded as successful, particularly for a transition between presidents of different parties.[156] During his inauguration on January 20, 2009, Obama thanked Bush for his service as president and his support of Obama's transition.[157]

Polls of historians and political scientists taken after 2009 have generally ranked Bush as a below-average president at best and absolutely awful at worst. Historians have also concluded that he is one of the worst presidents to serve more than one term in office. A 2009 C-SPAN survey of historians ranked Bush in 36th place among the 42 former presidents.[158] A 2017 C-Span poll of historians ranked Bush as the 33rd greatest president.[159] A 2018 poll of the American Political Science Association's Presidents and Executive Politics section ranked Bush as the 30th greatest president.[160]

In summing up evaluations of Bush's presidency, Gary L. Gregg II writes:

The Bush presidency transformed American politics, its economy, and its place in the world, but not in ways that could have been predicted when the governor of Texas declared his candidacy for America's highest office. As President, Bush became a lightning rod for controversy. His controversial election and policies, especially the war in Iraq, deeply divided the American people. Arguably his greatest moment as President was his initial, heartfelt response to the tragedy of the 9/11 attacks. Soon, however, his administration was overshadowed by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Bush's place in U.S. history will be debated and reconsidered for many years to come.[161]


who has won the icc world cup 2011

The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Cricket World Cup 2011) was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and (for the first time) Bangladesh. India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, thus becoming the first country to win the Cricket World Cup final on home soil.[1][2] India's Yuvraj Singh was declared the man of the tournament.[3] This was the first time in World Cup history that two Asian teams had appeared in the final. It was also the first time since the 1992 World Cup that the final match did not feature Australia.

2011 Cricket World Cup

All the matches were One Day Internationals, and all were played over 50 overs. Fourteen national cricket teams took part, including 10 full members and four associate members of the ICC.[4] The opening ceremony was held on 17 February 2011 at Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka,[5] and the tournament was played between 19 February and 2 April. The first match was played between India and Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka.[6]

Pakistan was also scheduled to be a co-host, but after the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team in Lahore, the International Cricket Council (ICC) cancelled that,[7] and the headquarters of the organising committee, originally in Lahore, was transferred to Mumbai.[8] Pakistan was to have held 14 matches, including one semi-final.[9] Eight of the games (including the semi-final) were awarded to India, four to Sri Lanka, and two to Bangladesh.[10]

The ICC announced on 30 April 2006 which countries would host the 2011 World Cup. Australia and New Zealand had also bid for the tournament; if successful, they would have shared the hosting equally, leaving the location of the final still to be decided. The Trans–Tasman bid, Beyond Boundaries, was the only one delivered to the ICC headquarters in Dubai before the 1 March deadline, but the Asian bidders were granted an extension by the ICC.[11] The New Zealand government had given assurance that Zimbabwe would be allowed to compete in the tournament, following political discussions in the country over whether their cricket team should be allowed to tour Zimbabwe in 2005.[citation needed]

The extra time needed for the Asian bid had weakened its prospects, but when the time came to vote, Asia won the hosting rights by ten votes to three.[11] The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has revealed that the vote of the West Indies Cricket Board was decisive, as the Asian bid had the support of South Africa and Zimbabwe as well as the four bidding countries.[12] The Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported that the Asian countries had promised to hold fund-raising events for West Indian cricket during the 2007 World Cup, which may have influenced the vote.[13] However, I. S. Bindra, chairman of the Monitoring Committee of the Asian bid, said that their promise of extra profits of around US$400Â million had been decisive,[14] that there "was no quid pro quo for their support",[15] and that playing the West Indies had "nothing to do with the World Cup bid".[15]

Late in 2007, the four host nations agreed on a revised format for the 2011 World Cup, identical to that of the 1996 World Cup, except that there would be 14 teams instead of 12. The first round of the tournament would consist of two groups of seven teams. Each team in a group would play all the others once, and the top four from each group would qualify for the quarter-finals.[16] This ensured that every team would play at least six matches.

As per ICC regulations, all 10 full members automatically qualify for the World Cup, including Zimbabwe who have given up their Test playing status until the standard of their team improves.[17]

The ICC also organised a qualifying tournament in South Africa to determine which Associate teams would participate in 2011 event. Ireland, who had been the best performing Associate nation since the last World Cup, won the tournament, beating Canada in the final. The Netherlands and Kenya also qualified by virtue of finishing third and fourth respectively.[18] All 4 associates kept their ODI status as well as Scotland who this time failed to qualify for the World Cup.

The following 14 teams qualified for the final tournament.

In April 2009 the ICC announced that Pakistan had lost its right to co-host the 2011 World Cup because of concerns about the "uncertain security situation" in the country, especially in the aftermath of the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team in Lahore.[19][20] The PCB estimated that this would lose them $10.5Â million.[21] This figure took account only of the fees of $750,000 per match guaranteed by the ICC. The overall loss to the PCB and the Pakistani economy were expected to be much greater.

On 9 April 2009 PCB chairman Ijaz Butt revealed that they had issued a legal notice to oppose ICC's decision.[22] The ICC, however, claimed that the PCB was still a co-host, and that they had only relocated the matches out of Pakistan.[23] Pakistan proposed that South Asia host the 2015 World Cup and that Australia and New Zealand host the 2011 event, but this option did not find favour with their co-hosts and was not implemented.[24]

On 11 April 2005 PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan announced an agreement on the allocation of games,[25] under which India would host the final, Pakistan and Sri Lanka the semi-finals,[26] and Bangladesh the opening ceremony.[27] After being stripped of its status as a co-host, Pakistan proposed to host its allocated games in the United Arab Emirates as a neutral venue. They had played matches in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah in the preceding months.[citation needed] On 28 April 2009, however, the ICC announced that matches originally intended to be played in Pakistan would be reallocated. As a result, India hosted 29 matches across eight venues, including the final and one semi-final; Sri Lanka hosted 12 matches at three venues, including one semi-final; and Bangladesh hosted 8 matches at two grounds, as well as the opening ceremony on 17 February 2011.[28]

On 1 June 2010 the first tranche of tickets were put on sale after a meeting of the tournament's Central Organising Committee in Mumbai. The cheapest tickets cost 20 US cents in Sri Lanka.[29] In January 2011 the ICC declared the Eden Gardens ground in Kolkata, India, to be unfit and unlikely to be complete by 27 February, when it was scheduled to host a match between India and England. The match was moved to Bangalore.[30]

The World Cup has grown as a media event with each tournament.[citation needed] The ICC sold the broadcasting rights for the 2011 event to ESPN Star Sports and Star Cricket for around US$2Â billion.[citation needed] For the first time, the tournament was broadcast in high-definition format, and it was to be covered by at least 27 cameras using recent technology. It was also planned to be shown across platforms such as online and mobile 3G. It was the first time that an ICC event had the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS).[31]

The final was watched live by 135 million people in India,[32][33] as recorded by the ratings agencies TAM and aMap, including 67.6 million Indian cable and satellite viewers.[34] The final was watched by 13.6% of Indian TV-equipped households on average, with a peak of 21.44% at the end of the game,[35] thus beating the semi-final between India and Pakistan, which had an estimated 11.74% TV rating in India for the whole match.[33]

The official event ambassador was Sachin Tendulkar.[36]

The official song of the 2011 Cricket World Cup has three versions, in Bengali, Hindi, and Sinhala, corresponding to the three host countries.[37] "De Ghuma Ke" (Swing It Hard) is the Hindi version, composed by the trio of Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy.[38] It employs an array of Indian rhythms combined with elements of rock and hip hop. The Sinhala version, "Sinha Udaane", was adapted by Sri Lankan R&B and hip hop artist Ranidu Lankage and composed by lyricist Shehan Galahitiyawa.[37] Both songs were performed at the opening ceremony. "Sinha Udaane" was performed by Lankage.[39]

Stumpy, a young elephant, was the official mascot for the 2011 Cricket World Cup.[40] He was unveiled at a function in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 2 April 2010,[41] and his name was revealed on 2 August 2010 after an online competition conducted by the ICC in the last week of July.[42]

The opening ceremony was held in the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 17 February 2011, two days before the first match.

The 2011 Cricket World Cup winning team would be taking home a prize money of US$3 million and US$1.5 million for runner-up, with the International Cricket Council deciding to double the total allocation for the tournament to US$8.01 million. The winning team will also take home a replica of the ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy, that has been awarded since 1999. The decision was taken at the ICC Board meeting which was held in Dubai on April 20, 2010.[43]

All the Indian stadiums for the tournament had been finalised by mid-October 2009,[44] and those of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in late October 2009. The ICC announced all the venues in Mumbai on 2 November 2009. Two new stadiums were constructed in Kandy and Hambantota, Sri Lanka, for the event.[45]

The Umpire selection panel selected 18 umpires excluding a reserve umpire, Enamul Haque (Bangladesh) to officiate at the World Cup: 5 from Australia, 6 from Asia, 3 from England, 2 from New Zealand and 1 each from South Africa and West Indies.

Each country chose a 30-member preliminary squad, which would then be reduced to 15. All the 14 teams announced their final squads before 19 January 2011.

The following 14 warm-up matches were played before the World Cup started.[46][47] For statistical purposes, these matches are not considered to be One Day Internationals.

The top four teams from each group qualified for the quarter-finals (indicated in green).

The top four teams from each group qualified for the Quarter finals (indicated in green).


who killed scarface in the end of the movie

Deprived of the element of surprise, Sosa's gunmen directly attack Tony's mansion. Tony bursts from his office wielding a M16 assault rifle with a M203 grenade launcher attachment. He yells "Say hello to my little friend!" and opens fire on the henchmen, killing dozens of them despite being heavily wounded himself by return fire. The carnage continues until Sosa's top assassin, the Skull, sneaks up behind him and shoots him in the back. Tony falls from his balcony into a fountain in the lobby below, floating face-down dead in a pool of blood and water beneath a statue of the globe carrying the inscription "The World Is Yours".

Tony Montana

Antonio "Tony" Montana is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the 1983 film Scarface. He is portrayed by Al Pacino in the movie, and is voiced by André Sogliuzzo in the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours. Embodying the rise from the bottom to the top, Tony Montana has become a cultural icon and is one of the most famous movie characters of all time. In 2008, Montana was named the 27th Greatest Movie Character by Empire Magazine.[1] He is partly based on Tony Camonte, the protagonist of the original novel and the 1932 film adaptation. By association the character is also inspired by Al Capone. According to Oliver Stone, Tony's last name was inspired by former NFL quarterback, Joe Montana, Stone's favorite player. A prequel novel, Scarface: The Beginning, written by L.A. Banks, was released in 2006.[2][3]

In May 1980, Tony is one of the 125,000 Cubans who after seeking refuge in the Peruvian Embassy, wound up on the Mariel Boatlift to Miami. When he gets there, he is questioned by U.S. officials; he says that he was a "political prisoner" and that because he had an American father, he has the right to a green card. However, because of a trident-style tattoo on his right hand, which indicates that he was an assassin in prison, his request is denied.

Tony and his friend Manolo "Manny" Ribera are sent to "Freedomtown", a refugee camp that holds Cuban immigrants without green cards. After one month in the camp, Frank Lopez, head of a Miami drug cartel, offers to obtain them green cards in return for murdering Emilio Rebenga. Soon after Rebenga arrives at the camp, Manny and Tony and friend take advantage of the August 11 riot, where Tony stabs Rebenga. Tony and Manny are granted green cards and released, and the two get jobs as dishwashers for a small food stand in Little Havana. In August 1980, Frank sends his right-hand man, Omar Suarez, to offer them a deal smuggling marijuana, offering $500, a small amount of pay but with low risk of arrest or gun battles. Tony demands more pay, and he and Omar quarrel. On the advice of his compatriot, Omar then offers Tony and Manny $5000 to buy cocaine from a new supplier, which is riskier than the marijuana deal but will pay much more, as it is dealing with violent Colombians.

A few days later, Tony, Manny, and their associates Angel and Chi Chi drive to a hotel in Miami Beach to make the deal with a group of Colombians. The deal goes bad; a couple of Colombian enforcers handcuff Tony and Angel to a shower pole at gunpoint, threatening to kill them with a chainsaw if Tony does not reveal the location of the drug money. Tony refuses to talk, and Hector, the enforcers' leader, dismembers Angel. Before Hector can do the same to Tony, Manny bursts in the room, shooting an SMG. A short gunfight ensues in which Manny is shot in the arm, and Tony kills the Colombians. Tony, Manny, and Chi Chi escape with the cocaine and the money. Tony, who no longer trusts Omar, takes it to Frank personally, and he and Manny end up working for him. Meanwhile, Tony takes an interest in Frank's girlfriend, Elvira Hancock.

Three months later, Tony pays a visit to his mother Georgina and younger sister Gina, neither of whom he has seen for five years. Gina is excited to see Tony, but his mother is ashamed of him, having long ago learned of his life of crime. When he gives his mother $1,000, his mother angrily rejects the gift and throws him out. Tony leaves, but Gina runs after him and hugs him, telling Tony she has been going to hairdressing school and helping out Mama. Tony says that a poor girl like Gina deserves to have a little fun; he slips her the $1,000 secretly and orders her not to tell Mama about it, only that Mama gets a little bit of it from time to time, through using some of it for grocery shopping or paying a utility bill.

Later, while in Bolivia, Tony and Omar go on Frank's behalf to see drug cartel lord Alejandro Sosa. Sosa has Omar killed for being a police informant, and makes Tony his business partner. At The Babylon nightclub, Tony is shaken down by corrupt narcotics detective Mel Bernstein, who informs him he has evidence linking Tony to the murders of Rebenga and the Colombian drug dealers. Bernstein proposes to "tax" Tony on his transactions in return for police protection and information. Tony is convinced Frank sent Bernstein because only Frank would know details about the murders. While talking to Bernstein, Tony sees Gina dancing with a low-level drug dealer. Enraged, Tony beats the dealer and slaps Gina, stopping only after Manny calms him down. Manny drives Gina home and tells her she can do better than those low lives and that Tony is only looking out for her. However, when Gina admits an interest in Manny, he freezes, fearing Tony's wrath.

That night, two men attempt to kill Tony. He escapes, and becomes convinced that Frank ordered his death. Armed with silenced pistols, Tony and Manny track Frank down to his car dealership, killing him and Bernstein. Afterward, Tony goes to Frank's house, telling Elvira that her lover is dead and that he wants her. Over the next year-and-a-half, Tony makes $75 million off of 2,000 kilograms of cocaine that he brings to America, and is soon making $10â€“15 million every month in profits from his business relationship with Sosa. He marries Elvira and takes over Frank's empire, purchasing a large mansion as well as ornate luxuries such as a pet tiger. Tony also creates many legal businesses as fronts, including a hairdresser's managed by Gina. However, cracks in Tony's "American dream" begin to form as both he and Elvira become addicted to cocaine. Meanwhile, Manny and Gina begin dating behind her brother's back, afraid of Tony's wrath should he find out.

In February 1983, Tony is arrested for tax evasion and money laundering. Tony's lawyer, George Sheffield, tells him that although he can plea bargain away most of the time Tony faces, he will still end up serving at least three years in prison. Sosa calls Tony down to Bolivia and asks him for help assassinating a Bolivian anti-government activist, who is exposing Sosa's dealings with Bolivian leaders. In exchange, Sosa will use his contacts in the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C., to keep Tony out of prison. After returning to Miami, Tony does not tell Manny about the hit, although tries to talk Tony out of going to New York, simply citing a bad premonition he has about it. Not long after, Elvira leaves Tony for good after he insults her in a local restaurant. An intoxicated Tony starts yelling at the patrons: he tells them that they need people like him to blameâ€”a "bad guy".

Tony and Sosa's associate Alberto travel to New York to assassinate the activist. Alberto plants a bomb under the activist's car, planning to detonate it as he drives to the United Nations Building to give a speech about his activist work. On the day the assassination is to take place, Tony orders Alberto not to set off the bomb because the activist's wife and children are in the car as well, something which is of no concern to Alberto. When Alberto tries to detonate the bomb anyway, Tony attempts to persuade him using logic and stories from his childhood in Cuba. When this does not work, Tony shoots and kills Alberto, thus double-crossing Sosa.

On December 9, 1983 Tony returns to Florida and receives a telephone call from a furious Sosa, who admonishes him for the hit's failure. Tony attempts to locate Manny, and finds him and Gina together, both wearing nothing but bathrobes. Tony shoots and kills him in a cocaine-fueled rage, before Gina reveals that they had just married and were going to announce their matrimony to Tony. Tony and his men take a distraught Gina back to his mansion. Meanwhile, a large group of assassins sent by Sosa surround the mansion. While a distraught Tony sits in his office, snorting vast quantities of cocaine, the gunmen begin killing his guards outside. Gina enters Tony's office wielding a Smith & Wesson Model 36, accusing him of wanting her for himself, before shooting him in the leg. Tony attempts to calm her down, before one of the assassins enters the office through the window and opens fire, killing Gina. Tony immediately kills the assassin, creating a commotion.

The video game titled Scarface: The World Is Yours, a quasi-sequel to the film, features an alternate ending in which Tony kills the Skull and survives the assassination attempt, but still loses most of his possessions. Tony detects his would-be assassin and shoots him before escaping his mansion. The end of the first mission shows that he lost $65,884,703 (which is how much Scarface made in box office) and 25,000 kilos of cocaine.

For the next three months, he goes into hiding in a small shack near Virginia Key Beach Park in Miami where he only had basic necessities, his trademark 1963 Cadillac Series 62, $1,000, and a M1911 pistol. His mansion is seized by undercover police officers, but he is able to move back in by bribing them with $10,000 that he makes in a single day of selling drugs.

During this quest for vengeance, Tony takes down several rivals who are eager to take over his empire after the assassination attempt. Alejandro Sosa and Gaspar Gomez have since teamed up to form a drug monopoly, and set their prices unreasonably high. George Sheffield (James Woods), his former lawyer, betrays him to Gomez and Sosa.

Tony first reclaims Little Havana, which had been taken over by the Diaz brothers. This included the "Lopez Motors" dealership where he bought his Porsche 928 in the film, which the brothers since renamed "Diaz Motors". The game allows the player to venture outside Miami to the Caribbean, where he takes down Nacho Contreras. Tony also meets a bartender named Venus, who becomes one of his girlfriends at the end of the game. At the end of the game, Tony single-handedly takes on a small army at Sosa's home in Bolivia, where he kills Sheffield, Gomez and Sosa.


the fall of the first republic of nigeria took place on

The political unrest during the mid-1960s culminated into Nigeria's first military coup d'état. On 15 January 1966, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and his fellow rebel soldiers (most of who were of southern extraction) and were led by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna of the Nigerian Army, executed a bloody takeover of all institutions of government. Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, was assassinated along with the premier of Northern Nigeria, strong-man Ahmadu Bello the Sardauna of Sokoto,[7] Samuel Akintola, premier of the West[8] and Festus Okotie-Eboh, the Finance Minister. [1]. It is not clear whether President Azikiwe's life was spared because he was out of the country at the time, or whether he had been informed about the impending coup and was out of the country so that his life could be spared. Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi took control as the first Head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria on January 16, 1966.[9]

First Nigerian Republic

The First Republic was the republican government of Nigeria between 1963 and 1966 governed by the first republican constitution.

Although Nigeria gained independence from Britain on October 1st, 1960, the nation remained a Commonwealth Realm with Elizabeth II as titular head of state until the adoption of a new constitution in 1963 declaring the nation a republic.[1]

The name “Nigeria” is derived from the word “Niger” – the name of the river that constitutes the most remarkable geographical feature of the country. Nigeria is a country of 923,768 square kilometres, bound to the west by Benin, to the north by the Niger and Chad Republic, east by the Republic of Cameroon, and south by the Gulf of Guinea. The country gained independence from the British government on Oct, 1st 1960, and became a republic in 1963. The journey to independence started with some constitutional developments in Nigeria, these constitutional developments saw the country attaining self-rule in some quarters in 1957 and total independence on Oct. 1st 1960.

Note: Nnamdi Azikiwe resigned from NCNC to become the First Governor-General of Nigeria from November 16, 1960[2] - September 30, 1963.

The country was split into three geopolitical regions—Western Region, Eastern Region and Northern Region—and its political parties took on the identities and ideologies of each region. The Nigerian People's Congress (NPC) represented the interests of the predominantly Hausa/Fulani Northern Region, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC)] (later renamed to "National Council of Nigerian Citizens") represented the predominantly Igbo Eastern Region, and the Action Group (AG) dominated the Yoruba Western Region. The NPC took control of the federal parliament, and formed a coalition government with the NCNC. The National Independence Party (NIP) formed by Professor Eyo Ita became the second political party in the old Eastern Region. Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, leader of the NPC, was poised to become the Prime Minister, but instead he chose to become the Premier of the Northern Region, and supported his deputy Tafawa Balewa's candidacy for Prime Minister. This raised suspicions amongst the southern politicians, who resented the idea of a federal government controlled by a regional leader through his designated proxy. In the end, Tafawa Balewa of NPC was named Prime Minister and Head of Government, and Nnamdi Azikiwe of NCNC was named President.

At Nigeria's independence, the Northern Region gained more seats in parliament than both Eastern and Western regions combined—this would cement Northern dominance in Nigerian politics for years to come. Resentment amongst southern politicians precipitated into political chaos in the country. Obafemi Awolowo, Premier of Western Region, was accused of attempting to overthrow the government. This followed a period of conflict between the AG regional government and the central government. In spite of the flimsiness of the evidence presented by the government's prosecutors, he was convicted. With incarceration of Awolowo, Samuel Akintola took over as the Premier of Western Region. Because Akintola was an ally of Ahmadu Bello, the undisputed strong man of Nigeria, Akintola was criticized as being a tool of the North.[3] As premier of the West, Akintola presided over the most chaotic era in Western Region—one which earned it the nickname "the Wild-Wild West". However, as late as Thursday, January 13, 1966, Balewa had announced that the federal government was not going to intervene in the West.[4] However, the very next day, Akintola, premier of the West met with his ally Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, premier of the North and party boss of NPC party to which Balewa belonged.[5] At the same time a top-level security conference in Lagos was taking place which was attended by most of the country's senior army officiers. All of this activity created rumors that the Balewa government would be forced to crack down on lawlessness in the West using military might.[6]

Jaja Wachuku
Foreign Minister
(1961 - 1965)

Chief S.A Ajayi OFR (Federal Minister of Interior, minister of Forestry(state)

The republic would be torn by the secession of Biafra and the ensuing civil war from 1966â€“70. After the end of the war,the nation re-unified and military rule continued for another nine years, implementing Nigerianization of foreign businesses. Eventually, elections were held in 1979 leading the way to the Nigerian Second Republic.