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AlphaWolf

You are now the President of the United States of America... You are at Booker Elementary School in Sarasota Florida on the morning of September 11th 2001, and your Chief of Staff has just told you that America is under attack, two commerical jetliners have crashed into the World Trade Center, What do you do? I'd like a detailed senerio, including up to the current day. What would you say to the Nation? What would you say to the World Leaders? UN?

I play it similarly to the current President, but I differ on one point, instead of declaring a broad "War on Terrorism" I declare a war/police action on Al-Quaeda alone, simply put, I think the more narrow focus would assist in seeing an "end game" so to speak instead of the current open ended war, in the past we have had very little success in open ended wars. I would have made the same demands on the Taliban that they hand over Bin Laden and top Al Quaeda leadership, and had they not, I would have gone to the UN, and NATO and Congress seeking a decleration of War on Afganistan, rallied the international co-alition and esentially done the same thing that the President has done thus far as well.. Remove the Taliban from power and attempt to capture/kill Bin Laden and Al Queada. But where I differ is that I would leave it at Afganistan and Al Queada, theyhave been the most active terrorist group against US intrests and they should remain the focus until they are dismantled or destroyed. Also on a related note, I would renew pressure on Israel and the Palestinians, I would use every diplomatic tool possible to force some kind of peace and long term settlement in that dispute, which by and large is alot of the surface fuel for many of the terrorist acts, take away their fuel and they'll have to find another rallying point, which probably would be Kasmir, in which case, I'd much rather see the Muslim world upset at Inda as opposed to the United States. So to tied it and bring it to a current day secenerio, Afganistan would be esentially where it is today, with Billions of dollars being poured in, New leadership, and the like, and The Millitary would be going to find Bin Laden, while the main difference would hopefully be the fruition of some kind of settlement between the Isreali's and Palestinians. A 2ndary side effect of limting the war to Al Queda would be the eliminating the diplomatic liscence for other world leaders to label any of their nusance and troublemakers terrorist and declaring war against them. and it would allow one to remain more neutral in world affairs and geopolitics..

Alright, your turn..

 

Shaman

This is probably my # 1 complaint with Pre-emptive strikes in the name of the WOT. Every country now says "Ok, our enemy is a terrorist organization, let's preemptively strike"
On the Kashmir subject, I had thought that Pres Kalam would use that as an excuse to bomb pakistan. Hell, he still might depending on what happens with us doing a preemptive strike on Iraq. But I digress, back to topic of what I would do if I were bush.

As much as I've criticized the man, I have not thought yet about what I would have said that morning to calm the fears of my people. It most likely would have been less focused on retaliation and more on understanding. I still would have addressed retaliation, but not until we had a very clear picture of what was going on. Perhaps spy on Bin Laden for a year or so and when we know his movement patters and whatnot, go nab him.
The instant "bomb first ask questions later" seemed not to work, as he is either dead or M.I.A.
I would not have declared a war on terror. I would declare a "campaign" against what drives people to terror.

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Herb Ninja

I agree. I think we needed to use our spy satellites and classified spy aircraft to find him, his terrorist buddies, and take him out without collatoral damage. Like you said, the bomb first, question later didn't seem to work. As for how I would address the nation, id have to go back that tragic day to know my true feelings, and to put them into words, would have been an insane challenge.

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