BLOOMINGTON - Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns had harsh words Thursday for the Bush administration's handling of war policy in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"There was a gross failure of leadership" in the early days of the U.S. going to war, he said as part of a news conference at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.

The filmmaker whose credits include "The War," currently showing on public television affiliates, said U.S. involvement in World War II brought the nation together in a way different from what happened in 2001.

After the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, the nation quickly rallied together, he said. U.S. leaders encouraged people to enlist and quickly convinced communities to sacrifice in many ways.

After the 2001 attacks, American leadership instead sent a very different message, said Burns.

"We were told: Forget about it; go shopping" to restore the hit to the economy, he said.

"It was a squandered opportunity," Burns said.

In World War II, sacrifice on the home front - real and symbolic - united the nation. But in the Iraq war, Americans back home hardly notice, he said.

"We're being told the stakes are exactly the same," he said. If democracy is as much at stake now as it was in World War II, "why are we not contributing more as Americans? If it is a great threat, where is the solidarity, where is the draft?"