I submit this for review

papasmerf

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I submit this for review.........As read by on air host on WBEN on 4-14-04 http://www.wben.com/features/bauerle/althistory.php

AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY:

As read by Tom on April 14, 2004, here is a scenario of what probably would have happened if the folks in charge had proceeded based on the Aug 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Brief

(Washington, April 9, 2004) A hush fell over the city as George W. Bush today became the first president of the United States ever to be removed from office by impeachment. Meeting late into the night, the Senate unanimously voted to convict Bush following a trial on his bill of impeachment from the House.

Moments after being sworn in as the 44th president, Dick Cheney said that disgraced former national security adviser Condoleezza Rice would be turned over to the Hague for trial in the International Court of Justice as a war criminal. Cheney said Washington would "firmly resist" international demands that Bush be extradited for prosecution as well.

On August 7, 2001, Bush had ordered the United States military to stage an all-out attack on alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan. Thousands of U.S. special forces units parachuted into this neutral country, while air strikes targeted the Afghan government and its supporting military. Pentagon units seized abandoned Soviet air bases throughout Afghanistan, while establishing support bases in nearby nations such as Uzbekistan. Simultaneously, FBI agents throughout the United States staged raids in which dozens of men accused of terrorism were taken prisoner.

Reaction was swift and furious. Florida Senator Bob Graham said Bush had "brought shame to the United States with his paranoid delusions about "so-called terror networks." British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused the United States of "an inexcusable act of conquest in plain violation of international law." White House chief counterterrorism advisor Richard Clarke immediately resigned in protest of "a disgusting exercise in
over-kill."

When dozens of U.S. soldiers were slain in gun battles with fighters in the Afghan mountains, public opinion polls showed the nation overwhelmingly opposed to Bush's action. Political leaders of both parties called on Bush to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan immediately. "We are supposed to believe that attacking people in caves in some place called Tora Bora is worth the life of even one single U.S. soldier?" former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey asked.

When an off-target U.S. bomb killed scores of Afghan civilians who had taken refuge in a mosque, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Aznar announced a global boycott of American products. The United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn the United States, and Washington was forced into the humiliating position of vetoing a Security Council resolution declaring America guilty of "criminal acts of aggression." Bush justified his attack on Afghanistan, and the detention of 19 men of Arab descent who had entered the country legally, on grounds of intelligence reports suggesting an imminent, devastating attack on the United States. But no such attack ever occurred, leading to widespread ridicule of Bush's claims.

Speaking before a special commission created by Congress to investigate Bush's anti-terrorism actions, former national security adviser Rice shocked and horrified listeners when she admitted, "We had no actionable warnings of any specific threat, just good reason to believe something really bad was about to happen." The president fired Rice immediately after her admission, but this did little to quell public anger regarding the war in Afghanistan.

When it was revealed that U.S. special forces were also carrying out attacks against suspected terrorist bases in Indonesia and Pakistan, fury against the United States became universal, with even Israel condemning American action as "totally unjustified."

Speaking briefly to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before a helicopter carried him out of Washington as the first-ever president removed by impeachment, Bush seemed bitter. "I was given bad advice," he insisted. "My advisers told me that unless we took decisive action, thousands of innocent Americans might die. Obviously I should not have listened."

Announcing his candidacy for the 2004 Republican presidential nomination, Senator John McCain said today that "George W. Bush was very foolish and naïve; he didn't realize he was being pushed into this needless conflict by oil interests that wanted to seize Afghanistan to run a pipeline across it." McCain spoke at a campaign rally at the World Trade Center in New York City.
 

onthebottom

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You

Always know what to do after the fact, it's called being a Monday Morning Quarterback, and there are more than a few here.

OTB
 

tompeepin

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Give me a break! :D You guys are all drama queens! Clinton sent a Cruise missile in, it was no big deal! You guys would have done anything to nail his ass, except you love it when others "get blowed up real good." Hey some of you are pissed you did not get to invade France. You were so jealous of not getting any that you focused all your attention on Clinton's missile being in Monica's mouth. And then his beating around the bush.

It would have been no different than Iraq, plain and simple. Some would have squawked and fuck all would have been done. Osama had already attacked America [embassies], that was all the reason you would have needed. Saddam didn't even do that. Get real drama queens.

No administration would have been able to do more than possibly apprehend a few hijackers before hand, thus avoiding the hijacking of only one less plane, so there would have been three instread of four, even if Osama had been taken out. The planning and preparations had been done over several years.
 

rsalomon

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Clinton did not send the Cruise until the Embassy was bombed. Not a Bush fan, but I agree, that memo from Dick Clark did not give enough specfics to warrant an unprovoked attact. Osama was going to hit no matter what. The US has to be correct 100% of the time when it comes to securing it's shores. Osama only needs to be accurate 1% of the time.

The world is a scary place right now.
 

tompeepin

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Re: the August 6th PDB

DonQuixote said:
1. He's been on more vacations than any other POTUS
He was in Crawford, Texas on vacation when the PDB
was delivered.

Bush's only asset is his name.

Don
And that he is so well rested. He goes to bed around 8 PM or something like that. Barbara comes and tucks him in. :D hahaha
 

rsalomon

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I heard the other day that Bush has spent 8 months of his term on vacation in Crawford Texas! This is suppossed to be the most difficult and challenging job in the world and he has taken 8 months vacation in less than 4 years!

Wonder if he gets dental coverage as well?!? ;)
 
rsalomon said:
I heard the other day that Bush has spent 8 months of his term on vacation in Crawford Texas! This is suppossed to be the most difficult and challenging job in the world and he has taken 8 months vacation in less than 4 years
And you believe everything you read and hear??
I highly doubt this to be true because the press would be immediately on it.
 

onthebottom

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tompeepin said:
Hey some of you are pissed you did not get to invade France.
Been there, done that. I guess we should have kept it.

OTB
 

onthebottom

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rsalomon said:
I heard the other day that Bush has spent 8 months of his term on vacation in Crawford Texas! This is suppossed to be the most difficult and challenging job in the world and he has taken 8 months vacation in less than 4 years!

Wonder if he gets dental coverage as well?!? ;)
NPR reported this morning that Regan spent 1 full year of his 8 years as president in California. Let's face it, you don't rest if you have this job, it follows you whereever you go, even Texas. Have you not seen all those photo ops of world leaders in Texas with Bush, good to get out of the beltway I would imagine.

OTB
 

Ickabod

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onthebottom said:
Have you not seen all those photo ops of world leaders in Texas with Bush, good to get out of the beltway I would imagine.

OTB
Good to get out of the beltway? Why not soak up the benefits of "getting out of the beltway" simply from his gazzillion fund raising trips?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62524-2004Apr8.html

For those that don't have a free registration, the relevant portion:

White House communications director Dan Bartlett retorted that Bush is "not skiing" in Texas, as Kerry did on a recent vacation in Idaho. He said Bush remains in contact with his military advisers and is spending Easter weekend with his family. "Most Americans will understand that," Bartlett said.

This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.


Not that it matters. The guy's probably less harm this way.
 

papasmerf

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The job follows you
name to only time executive power was transfered to the VP for any period of time then returned to the president.

But in anyevent this post is an alterative history to what the 9-11 pannel is demanding to know.

Why didn't you do anything.
 

rsalomon

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Not disputing that the job follows you, I think the complaint about Bush is that he is running the US by comittee. He delegates everything. It is well known that members of his team do not get along (Rumsfield & Powell), so a combination of poor delegation and in fighting appears to be the noose around this administration.
 

Bearlythere

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I find it humourous in the extreme that people think they know what is going on inside the White House and can judge by what is mentioned in the press to deduce things that are going on. First off, despite any personal differences between Rummy and Colin Powell, they put out a pretty united front on what Bush wants done.
Second of all, despite Bush's many travels around the country, he is rarely ever out of communication to what is going on for any longer than it takes to take a dump and have a shower. The job dictates it and I am sure as hell knowing Clinton didn't exactly set the tone for working dilgently on the job. He may have spent a lot of time in the White house, but man, he wasn't working...Right Monica?

Now, on what the thread was about. The point of the fiction at the start of this thread IS ( and the 911 Commision doesn't want to hear it) that IF Bush knew what was coming on Sept 11, 233 days into his presidency, he would have had a hard time doing anything more than lobbing Cruise missles at Bin Laden. This didn't work, as Clinton found out. Nothing else would have been acceptable to the press and the Democrats. He couldn't have known the nature of the attack on that day, for the only intelligence that anyone ( including the infamous Mr. Clarke) is that Bin Laden didn't like the US. That is great...but what does that tell you? Jack squat, for it doesn't give the possible nature of the attack, where the cells were operating or even the targets. Rice said in her testimony that they were aware of Bin Laden and that they were aware he might try something, but given the past history of attacks on US installations on foreign soil, they likely wouldn't be on US soil. September 11 was a shot out of the blue, much like Pearl Harbor, and it started a war that the US is going to win, hell or high water.

So us weak kneed, spaghetti spined liberal Canadians should just think twice before stating what is right. We were not directly attacked and if Bin Laden ever attacked Downtown TO, I am damned sure the village idiot we had running Ottawa wouldn't have had a cogent response other than to ask the US for help....
 

onthebottom

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Bearlythere said:


So us weak kneed, spaghetti spined liberal Canadians should just think twice before stating what is right. We were not directly attacked and if Bin Laden ever attacked Downtown TO, I am damned sure the village idiot we had running Ottawa wouldn't have had a cogent response other than to ask the US for help....
Even I wouldn't be this harsh, not that it's inaccurate!

OTB
 

train

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onthebottom said:
Even I wouldn't be this harsh, not that it's inaccurate!

OTB
Yeah nice to know that we had villiage idiots running both countries , although I think Martin may be better than Johnny Crouton . What do you think , will Kerry be smarter than Bush ?
 

onthebottom

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train said:
Yeah nice to know that we had villiage idiots running both countries , although I think Martin may be better than Johnny Crouton . What do you think , will Kerry be smarter than Bush ?
I don't think Kerry will get the chance, but if he does, no.

Sadly, I think the POTUS has grown to such a powerful and important position that no one is really qualified to do it, least of all anyone who would actually want to do it.

Carter was probably our most intelligent and honest president (it's not that high a bar) and he was HORRIBLE at the job. He's the only Democratic POTUS candidate I've ever voted for (and it was my first vote). I really liked Regan's policies and approach but I thought Carter was such a great human being and had such a terrible 4 years I couldn't help myself. I guess now I'd put it down to youthful indiscretion ;-)

OTB
 
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