Thoughts on a freeper post: How Gore would have handled 9/11

I refer to this message: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1407511#1407537

The freeper's "liberal friend" (the term apparently means someone about three clicks to the left of Barry Goldwater) says President Gore wouldn't have handled 9/11 the same way George W. Bush did. He, naturally, is correct.

Mr. Bush was presented with a PDB in August 2001 entitled "Al Qaeda Determined to Strike Within U.S." He spends the rest of the day clearing brush on his Texas stage-set spread.

Later that month, Attorney General John Ashcroft stops flying on commercial airliners.

On September 10, 2001, Mr. Bush flies to Florida in preparation for a photo opportunity showing how much he cares about public education.

The next morning, nineteen Saudi men board four commercial airliners while Mr. Bush rises, gets dressed, has his makeup applied and enters a limousine for a trip to an elementary school. While on the way to the school, an airliner crashes into one of the Twin Towers--on a day when the principals of many of the financial firms housed in the Twin Towers, heavy GOP donors all, are at an Air Force base in Nebraska.

Later, while reading a storybook to second graders at the school, an airplane crashes into the other tower. He pauses with a stupid expression on his face then resumes reading for twenty more minutes. Both towers, as well as another World Trade Center building, collapsed a few hours later. A few days later, terrorist pilot Mohammed Atta's passport, which was printed on a previously-unknown kind of paper which is absolutely fireproof, was found near the wreckage of the WTC.

Later that day, Mr. Bush flies all over the United States in his 747. Except for fighters assigned to the Air Force's Air Combat Command, his is the only aircraft in the skies that day. Another airliner supposedly crashed into the Pentagon (although it seems to have been piloted by a man who can perform feats worthy of the Navy's Blue Angels even though he washed out of Cessna training) and a fourth suffered early termination of flight activity over a Pennsylvania field.

When Mr. Bush finally returned to Washington, he was handed a cup of water and two Cipro tablets. Cipro, Bayer's trademark for ciprofloxadine, is a powerful antibiotic which is usually contraindicated for incidences of airliners flying into large buildings but is absolutely indicated for incidences of anthrax infection. Several weeks later, anthrax infections were noted in the offices of Democratic Senator Tom Daschle, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, and the mailroom of a national newspaper that had previously published photographs and accounts of Mr. Bush's 20-year-old daughters while they were drunk and rolling on the floor. The newspaper quickly returned to printing photographs of the former president's daughter, who by all accounts is a model citizen.

Three days later, every prominent Saudi in America, including members of the Bin Laden family, had been permitted to leave the United States by jet airplane. All other air traffic was grounded.

After the Enabling Acts had been completely translated into English and reformatted into the strange language of American legislation, and renamed the Patriot Acts, the senators who had been so careless as to allow anthrax to infest their offices signed onto the legislation with great pleasure.

We then went to war in Afghanistan to capture the terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden, although we let him escape at least in Tora Bora. We also intended to remove the Taliban from office, which needed to be done, but after a short hiatus they have returned. The Taliban used the $43 million Mr. Bush granted them to enable their Phoenixlike ascendancy. Mr. Bush gave them the money because they were shutting down opium farms; the farming stoppages happened at a time when there were record surpluses of unsalable raw opium in Afghan warehouses. Now that the surpluses have been drawn down, opium production is once again allowed and the crop is expected to set new records. This because Afghanistan has exactly one means of earning foreign currency, that being opium.

In 2003, Bush launched a war against Iraq as supposedly a new front in a global war against terrorism. The war was predicated on lies. The war has killed nearly 700 Americans directly, probably 700 more have died as a result of war wounds, thousands have been injured and an uncountable number of Iraqis have died. On the other hand, the vice president's old company Halliburton has made money hand over fist.

Now let's assume Bush was a Brush Farmer in 2001 and Al Gore was president...

In August 2001 President Gore would have received a PDB entitled "Al Qaeda Determined to Strike Within U.S." The White House would have immediately contacted the FAA and the FBI with this news.

The FAA would have sent a list of the known members of al-Qaeda to all airlines and airport security officials, including photographs, and informed them to immediately detain any persons on that list. They would have also sent a note to the travel agents of America telling them to be especially watchful for people who act like they're terrorists--guys who buy one-way tickets with cash and show up at the airport with no luggage.

When certain Saudi nationals presented themselves to flight schools seeking instruction in flying jet airliners but showing no interest in knowing how to land the airplane (which is exactly the opposite of what students who want to fly for an airline do--a pilot who cannot land the plane smoothly does not have a marketable skill), those Saudis would have been detained.

When the nineteen Saudi men purchased one-way tickets with large wads of cash, the travel agents involved in the transactions would have informed the feds as to these people's identities and the airports they're flying out of.

On September 11, when these nineteen men presented themselves at the airline's check-in counter with no luggage to begin their quest for 63 virgins, somberly dressed men would have asked them to "step this way, please."

On September 12, a small story would have been printed on page A9 of the New York Times: "Nineteen men belonging to the al-Qaeda terrorist group were detained at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and at Boston's Logan Airport. It is believed that they may have been planning to hijack transcontinental flights."

And on September 13, conservative attack dog Barbara Olsen would have published a screed in the Times complaining about how big government inefficiency caused her to land in Los Angeles 30 minutes behind schedule, which meant she would have had to change her clothes in the airport restroom while on her way to speak about how terrible the Clintons were and the Gores are.

On September 14, conservative attack dog Ann Coulter would have called Al Gore twofaced for decrying racial profiling while "profiling" the nineteen "supposed terrorists." They're Arabs, after all, and real liberals don't stop anyone from doing anything just because they have dark skin.

Nope. No similarity at all.

They are always curious as to how Al Gore would have handled 9/11...

Since Al Gore can hardly be credited with having his shit together-9/11 happens, the economy tanks. Nothing really changes except Al's approval ratings are in the toilet and he considers pulling an LBJ '68. Be glad he didn't become POTUS, the Democrats would be finished. Jimmy Carter circa 1980 would be a close comparison. The repug attack machine would have chewed him up in the 2002 midterms, which would have been a repug landslide. President Lieberman? Possibly.

It's not a matter of "having your shit together" to prevent the attacks.

It is simply a matter of not wanting the attacks to happen.

And, believe me, Bush wanted the 9/11 attacks to happen more than anything.

wouldn't have happened. The thousands of people who have died on the Smirking Chimp's watch would still be alive, and we would still be a respected member of the global community, and we would not be in political cold war with N. Korea.

We would not be actively occupying two other countries.

We would not have leaders that have committed war crimes.

We would not have the unPATRIOTic Act.

We would not have Gitmo, as it is today.

We would not have TIA.



None of these things would exist if Gore would have been installed in the WH, as he was elected to do.

...capable of rational thought, that unlike Junior, Al Gore actually has a brain which he uses quite often. If Al Gore would have been allowed to rightfully become President in December 2000, 911 would never have happened. Gore's people would have implemented all of the changes proposed by Hart-Rudman to our anti-terrorism posture, instead of "ignoring" them like the NeoCons did.

I placed the word "ignoring" in parentheses because it should be growing more obvious on a daily basis that the NeoCons LIHOP or MIHOP on 911.

convince me otherwise. Whenever I deal with hypotheticals, I like to keep the facts as plausible and close to actual events as possible, otherwise it's like arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of pin. Nothing about Al Gore indicates to me that he would have done anything different than his predecessor (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). I don't recall Al ever saying,"And as your President, I will implement the Hart Rudman Commissions recommendations so that no one will ever bomb the WTC again."
Before 911 there would not have been the collective will to do so. It wasn't even on the radar screen.

for crying out loud -- and for everything that can be said about Al Gore, he definitely has his shit together -- maybe not campaigning, but governing, most certainly

The latest excuse from the * apologists is that Gore would have been incompetent too? This must be son of "It's all Bill's fault."

How lame.

I remember why I stopped posting on DU though. You can all go back to your kooky conspiracy theories. You can try to pin the blame for 911 on Bush if you want. I blame bin Laden and the 19 zealots who pulled off one of the most horrendous crimes in history.
Before I go, a word of advice: if you're ever taken hostage by a group of religious zealots who follow bin Laden and his ilk, show them your voter registration card and tell them how you voted for Kerry. Maybe they'll blow your brains out last.

there is no way on earth that Gore would have been bent over like Shrub was.