On the morning of September 11, 2001, a military aide reported to Vice President Dick Cheney that the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 was approaching Washington, D.C., and asked whether it should be shot down. “In ‘the time it takes a batter to swing,’ as [vice presidential Chief of Staff] Scooter Libby put it, Cheney said yes.” When questioned by author Peter Baker about the shootdown order, Cheney said, ” ‘I don’t want it to sound heartless, but there was no alternative… It wasn’t the kind of thing you agonized over.’ ”
– Peter Baker, Days of Fire, Page 125