(born 1946), 43rd president of the US 2001–2009; full name George Walker Bush. He is the son of President George Bush. A conservative Texas Republican, he served as governor of Texas 1995–2000 before he became president in one of the closest and most controversial presidential elections in US history, when the accuracy of the vote count in the state of Florida was challenged by Democratic nominee Al Gore. One of his early acts as president was to launch a ‘War on Terror’ against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon; he also ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, maintaining that Saddam Hussein was developing chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.