How would you have handled things differently if you were President in the aftermath of 9/11?

25 comments

1. Fuck man, I was 14.

   Hindsight is 20/20.

   That said, I was always opposed to invading Iraq. At *fifteen*, I recognized that it was a pointless bullshit distraction. How grown-ass adults got duped never made sense to me until I was a grown-ass adult myself.

   I remember hearing an NPR story about “key persons” being evacuated to Pakistan from Afghanistan prior to the invasion of Afghanistan and my dad saying “bin Laden is now in Pakistan, then.”

   So, more CIA operations in Pakistan, I guess?

2. I would have established a program where everyone got a plate of nachos and the beverage of their choice because I’ve never been sad when I was eating nachos.

3. Let’s hope I never find out

4. I think we handled it just fine. I have no recriminations for the Bush administration, I am glad he was in office during 9/11, I think the steps we took were prudent: increased airport security, creating of Homeland Security, targetting Al Qaeda, I dont even blame them for Iraq because I really believe they thought there were WMDs and after 9/11 we’re not taking chances. I think they kept us safe, and that attacks from Islamic fundamentalists reduced accordingly. You have to remember pre 9/11 we had the USS Cole, we had the embassy bombings, we had the first world trade center attack, we were under attack for a few years before the event.

5. Depends on your definition of “aftermath” as in what timeframe? Just “aftermath” is quite vague. That can be anywhere from just a few days after or years after if you’re including something like say the Iraq War.

6. From a PR standpoint, Bush handled the immediate aftermath of 9/11 very well. One moment that sticks out to me was when he stood before Congress and spoke in support of the Muslim faith at a time when they were especially vulnerable. I shudder to think what some of our other presidents would’ve done in that situation.

   Can’t really speak to entering Iraq. I would like to say that I would’ve refrained from doing it or would’ve at least done it more carefully but there was so much public pressure to make a big move. I’m really not sure.

7. I probably would not have invaded Iraq.

8. I would have committed more troops to the initial invasion of Afghanistan instead of relying on special forces and afghan militias that often didn’t really want to fight the taliban or AQ and mostly just chased them into the mountains and stopped

9. I would not have invaded Afghanistan or Iraq

10. Would be weird and not great for everyone else to have a kindergardener as president

11. With the knowledge of hindsight; I probably would not have invaded Iraq.

    Instead I would have invaded Afghanistan pretty much as happened in real life, and then would have applied an unprecedented amount of pressure on Pakistan. To the point of taking out their nuclear capabilities (if this would have been feasible) or a total economic blockade.

    That country, was supposed to be an ally; but they effectively betrayed /double crossed the US at every turn for the next decade.

12. How can anyone possibly answer this question accurately?

    At the time, I was in high school. Even now in my late 30’s, if I could magically put myself in that position, *at that time*, with the knowledge at hand… how could I say that I would have done anything fundamentally differently?

13. Not let Tora Bora happen

14. I was an adult, albeit not yet old enough to be President. So. Am going to answer this based on how I felt on that exact day. **It is not how I feel now.**

    But I still remember the rage, anger, and hatred I felt that day.

    On that day I wanted a nuclear response. I’m not proud of that. I was very much in favor of invading Afghanistan. I loved sending detainees to Guantanamo.

    And I allowed myself to believe the lies about Iraq that I not only supported the invasion but voted for W in 04. I regretted that before the end of his term. But I don’t remember when I finally realized how horribly we reacted.

    So, in hindsight I’m happy that I was not in charge. I don’t have the right personality for it.

15. I would’ve 1000 percent invaded Afghanistan. I just would not have stayed as long as we did

16. Say what you want about bush but he handled 9/11 well. I’m not a republican by any means but give credit where credit was due

17. I think the American People generally regret the patriot act but Bush did a good job uniting us when we needed it.

18. I would’ve gone after Saudi Arabia in addition to Afghanistan. While I don’t know all the behind the scenes stuff, I still believe the Saudi government played a roll in the attacks, even if it was just bankrolling it.

19. Wouldn’t have left that shit to the afghan warlords. Bush fucked up and bin Laden escaped and lived another 10 years.

20. Everyone is talking about Iraq and Afghanistan. My first thought is to stop the Patriot act, or a least make damn sure the public knows congress is basically passing the equivalent of a blank check that bypasses the bill of rights

21. Wouldn’t have gone to Iraq

22. I would’ve worked non-stop for a peaceful solution. Regardless, I would never start a war/kill people. Not an option.

    Disgusting. War? WTF? No.

23. When the Taliban offered to turn over Osama bin Laden, I would have accepted it and put him and his flunkies on trial like common criminals. Then I would have us transition off of fossil fuels because our oil addiction is most of why we’re so involved in the business of that part of the world all the time in the first place.

24. Don’t invade anywhere. Brush it off and keep the peaceful 90s going.

25. Pushed harder at Tora Bora.

    Otherwise, if we couldn’t get OBL, nothing really any different except maybe certain policies like Guantanamo torture and domestic surveillance.

    If you are to strike into Abbottabad, invading Afghanistan and setting up shop became necessary.

    If you count hysteria potentially leading to Iraq, I’m not sure I would’ve done differently. The intelligence analysis was just that – an analysis which favored the WMD explanation largely due to Saddam inflating his own capabilities to scare Iran. There wasn’t some conspiracy to nab oil or to finish daddy’s job or whatever (Daddy made it clear he did not want to go into Iraq back in the early 90s).

    With hindsight, yeah, you don’t invade Iraq and harm American credibility. You wait until Saddam does something stupid. Either that or you go into North Korea.