People need not live in fear, but people better be ready for anything. 9-11 is all he had to go off of, and no matter what people say, Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for that attack. Remember, no president had to deal with a situation like 9-11 since 1941. Bush wasn't a good president by any means, but he was fucked pretty much from the jump. He was sworn in in January 2001, so he had 8 months before the shit hit the fan.