Heavy terrors with a chance of manipulation

Reading Wagoner's speech put me in the wayback machine. I didn't go too far, just five or six years. Reflecting on the then and the now really forced me to speculate about the culture at the time. I mean, we were all around on the fateful day, but I don't think we were mature or integrated into the "real world" enough to recall the political climate of the time. Wagoner seems to have chosen his words carefully...very carefully. However, his diction gives key to the discrepancy between his intent and his thought process. For example, he claims his employees, as all Americans, are "grieving, they're angry, they're nervous, and they're distracted." Even though he couldn't have possibly talked to all his employees, it seems fair enough to say, given the circumstances. However, he asserts, "...they're looking for leadership more than ever." As head of the company, Wagoner is obviously the go-to guy for his employees if they're looking for leadership. How do we know he isn't just looking to assert his power further, using tragedy as an opportunity for personal gain? This whole "Keep America Rolling" campaign was built around the need to ignore the shakeup in America. However, it seems a little Big Brotherish to me that an authority figure is telling me to buy stuff for the sake of the state. Whether or not Wagoner, specifically, took advantage of the situation is irrelevant. What is relevant is the culture of fear 9/11 created, the power with which people unified, and the ease with which that power and fear was channeled into aggression. Methinks the rhetoric of those in charge knew how to transform the cloud of fear into a fog of war.