Would 9-11 have happened if it weren't for Bush?

[YellowRubberDuckie]

I wasn't around until last year around this time, so I don't know what everyone thinks about this subject, and with Fahrenheit 9-11 a success, I'd like to know what you think.

[elfwitch]

1. May or may not have happened...

I do think that if somebody else had been in charge that day, at the very least, the damage might not have been as bad. I feel that Gore might have at least had the Air Force jets in the air and on the ball before the second plane hit.

[LiberalBushFan]

2. might want to add this option:

No, because Gore would have chosen a cabinet that was actually concerned with national security rather than doing nothing for 9 months and ignoring terrorism.

[LSdemocrat]

3. Bush's incompetence and obsession with Cold War era ideas allowed 9/11

Bush was so wrapped up in creating a missile shield and cancelling every international treaty he could find that he completely ignored the issue of terrorism.

Gore would have prevented 9/11, as Clinton prevented numerous other Al-Qaeda plots from succeeding.

[olacan]

4. As I

have said before on this site I was not surprised by the attack, I was surprised in the way we were. I have for years believed that we would see terrorism come to America. After all we have been attacked for years overseas, it was only a matter of time. I expected the attack to come in car bombs, or water supplies, dirty bombs made up of medical waste, etc.

[jobycom]

10. I agree

My first thought when I heard of the second plane was "This is the one the Democrats have been warning us about." My second thought was that the nation would impeach or maybe even lynch Bush for his failure, and when Bush disappeared into his chicken run, and appeared only briefly to give an obviously drunken videotaped speech, I thought he was done.

I had no joy in that thought, mind you. It was a horrible day. But my anger at Bush was extreme at that moment. I was sickened by him. That hasn't faded.

[mikehiggins]

5. I'm with Elfwitch

It is an even bet that the terrorists could have had a shot at pulling it off, even if Gore was in charge, because the institutional infighting for turf would still have taken place, and higher ups would still have been likely to ignore lower downs' warnings about pilot training, etc.

That really wasn't anything new, actually. It'd been known Al Quida had been fascinated with the idea of hijackings, etc., for some time. OBL is no fool. He had a pretty good idea what you could do with a couple of tons of high powered jet fuel delivered by a crashing airplane.

Still, I think the Gore administration wouldn't have been so slow getting off the mark once anyone caught on to the number of hijackings going on at once. The fighters might well have been scrambled and I don't think anyone would have had to ask Lieberman for permission to down the airliners, especially after the hit on the first tower.

So, I think 911 would have happened but I don't think it would have been as successful as it was. As it happened, out of the four planes two hit their targets, one had to turn away and hit a secondary and one went down far from its goal. Considering all the time and energy they put into the thing, that really isn't all that good a record, IMHO.

With Gore in the White House I'd suspect the first tower would have come down but nothing else. Just a guess, of course.

[jobycom]

8. Gore would have had defences ready, I agree

Gore is nothing if not obsessive about preparation, and detail. With that much warning that something was about to happen, he'd have had defenses ready.

There was nothing surprising about the way they attacked. They had planned multiple hijackings before. They had threatened to use planes as weapons before. They had used that box-cutter tactic before. They had proven they were into maximum casualties, not just symbolic hijackings. Bush should have known what to expect.

[jobycom]

6. No, because Gore would have read his damned memoes!

Hell, Dan Quayle would have stopped it (I mean that).

First, Gore knew the dangers of Al-Quieda. He wouldn't have pulled back the investigations, he wouldn't have sat on his thumbs all summer as intelligence came pouring in. And when he got a memo that they were planning to hijack an airliner, he would done what he suggested we do in 1997 when he introduced the Gore Commission. He would have ordered airports to step up security. He would have ordered intelligence agencies to coordinate information and look for anything related to hijacking or Al-Quieda. He would have gotten personally involved, and not gone fishing. He would have tried to work with the Taliban to see what was going on. He would have studied past Al-Quieda hijackings and learned what to look for (they had used the boxcutter tactic before).

What everyone misses is that 9-11 wasn't some complex, well-coordinated attack taking years of planning. It was a ragtag, impromptu plot that took the planners years to get the courage to carry out. Any spotlight shown on security, on tactics, on possible targets, or on any of the terrorists themselves, and the whole plan would have fallen apart. It took gross negligence (at the very least) on the government's part to let this thing happen.

Dan Quayle would have done at least half of what I suggested. Anyone else would have.

[Hoping4Change]

9. Agreed and Gore would have had the sense to listen to

people like Clarke who knew something big was in the works. Gore would have been shaking the trees.

[Individualist]

7. LIHOP

The attacks could have been prevented had the numerous warnings been heeded and acted upon rather than ignored as they were by the Bushistas.

[AntiCoup2K4]

11. 9-11 happenned for one reason and one reason only

...the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.

-"Rebuilding America's Defenses -- Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century," page 51
Project for the New American Century, September 2000

These traitorous sons of bitches took over the government of the United States through manipulatioon and intimidation, and then they murdered 2700 people in cold blood in order to launch their agenda.

That's reality folks, and it's time to stop running from it. Just because it's ugly doesn't mean it didn't happen.

[Ducks In A Row]

12. Gore would have carried the ball passed to him from Clinton

Gore wouldn't have ignore the briefing Clinton gave him. Gore would have built on the information they'd already built up. Right there he would have been in front of anything happening.

The environment at the FBI would have been friendlier toward agents who discovered evidence at the flight schools (of people only wanting to learn to fly but not land) because the FBI would know that WH was interested in that kind of evidence.

[trof]

13. And he would have paid attention

to the Hart-Rudman report on national security which had been commissioned by his former boss. He would have had an 18 month running start on Al Queda.
Bush shelved it (Not Invented Here/Anything Clinton Is Bad) and said his vice-president would conduct his own study, which never happened.

[cheezus]

14. Other: it wouldn't have been as bad

the terrorists were determined to stike, and would have eventually gotten away with something, but nothing like 9/11. Bush LET it happen.