Post 9/11...Where We Could be

How many people felt very, very angry after the events of 9/11?

How many people wanted to go and kick Bin Ladens butt?

How many Americans felt that resurgince in patriotism when the President stood before us declaring Americas new war?

When it comes to the numbers I am not the one that could tell you. But I can say for sure, there was one that had all those feelings.

Me.

So much that I joined the military hoping to get my piece of the pie. This thread is not about the 9/11 conspiracy or the people in power during those times. It is about all of us that compise of humanity and its decisions after that day. Its about the Americans and non- Americans that knew change was around the corner.

And indeed that change has slowly etched its way into history books.

When something happens to you negatively and you are affected on a deep personal level there are normally two reactions that take hold of your inner feelings. Sorrow and revenge. These feelings were shared by everyone on that fateful day. From distant, past Asian enemies such as China and Russia, to current middle eastern percieved threats such as Iran and yes even Iraq to European countries, African nations and South American states all sent letters of sorrow and grief and stating they will assist when it comes time to seek justice on the assailants of such heinous crimes.

It is easy to look back on all the mistakes that have been made. But that is not the point here. What I would like to do is explore the possibilites and the "what ifs" of where the world might be today if different decisions would have been made.

Ill start with a simple, but unpopular one. What if, after that day, the United States of America asked a few simple questions to themselves before any response. Like what is the point here? Why was this directed at us? Is there something we can learn from this and take heed some message? What would our forefathers do? How does the constitution guide our action? What if we said first, before any assesment is made for a retaliation there will be a full investigation into how these events took place and who it is exactly that completeley destroyed our defenses in one fowl swoop on one day.

What if we had not gone to war at all? What if it was deemed not worth it to seek and destroy the perpetrators with our military? What if we said, this is a crime, therefor our crimes investigation department will be in charge of bringing the perpetrators to justice. No troops will be deployed and the war on terror will remain in the hands of our National Security Advisors along with the CIA and FBI. We will not apologize for actions taken inside foreign lands as long as they are inline with a world unified goal of eliminating terrorism forever. If we have to deploy special forces units and secret operatives then that is what will be done. But no civilian concentrated airstrikes, no invasions and no deployments will take place whatsoever. The terrorists will not win by insiting world war, and we will remain forever on attack as long as just one threat exists to the integrity of any peaceful nation.

Would the world have called us weak? Would the world have supported our hesitation to act militarily? Would the world have acted without us? Would the world be concerned about the absolute truth first? Would the world support such notions that terrorism can not be defeated by massive deployment of troops?

Where would we be today? Would there be the wars? Iraq, Afhganistan? More terrorism inside the States? More terrorism in the EU? Would this approach work?

on the flip side..


What if the United States had actually meant what they said when the words "You are either with us or you are against us" were spoken? What if we had gone in to every country where known terrorists had safe harbor and removed each and every government that denied they had terrorists within their borders? What if we had destroyed countries all over the world in the name of fighting terrorism? What if a new world order had been imposed by the United nations in alliance with Americas fight against terrorism and if you were not with us you would be removed from power?

I like to envision the first scenario. It is more of the opposite than what we see today. Do you think their would be more terrorism? Or less? How about the second scenario. More or less terrorsim?