What would YOU do?

Okay folks! I am giving you all the power to go back in time and become our beloved President Bush just days after the 9/11 attack! What would you do?

Actually, this is more of a current topic on how you would go about the war on terrorism and securing our borders and try keeping civil liberties respected as best you can. I give you the power as Mr. or Mrs. OR Ms. President to dictate how we should go about making sure our citizens are secure.

Let me start off to get the topic going, I am really curious and excited to see what everyone who wants to participate comes up with!

ON A SIDE NOTE:
This doesn�t need to be nearly as long as my example I just noticed how long this is because I got a bit carried away. I could probably punch another 2 or 3 pages in here but I�m cutting myself short so you all don�t get bored by the time your halfway through it!


President Build319:

SECURING OUR BORDERS:
Terror threats unfortunately can come in from anywhere within and at our borders, I believe our weakest links ARE our borders and this is the most important thing to secure.
1) Start pressuring the Mexican Govt. to patrol more frequently and in return help provide economic stimulus to keep more immigrants wanting to stay home and work for a living in Mexico.
2) Canada is the newest refuge for political runaways for a large portion of the Middle East and is allowing more and more people into their country without much scrutiny or background checks. We would need to confer with the Canadian officials and allow them to give us information on possible �persons of interest� along with accurate and constant ratios of the influx of incoming refugee�s. The border is also very porous just like Mexico and it needs to be secured by BOTH countries to insure safety and information on who is going into our country.
3) Major overly expensive excruciating overhaul on ALL US ports and tracking of cargo worldwide coming into the United States. This would entail creating port checkpoints far offshore before the actual cargo reaches the US. All ships need to check in and have the Cargo accounted for along with all crew members. If cargo is labeled as suspicious it can be investigated miles away from the US coast which will provide a barrier of safety. Since all cargo cannot be hand searched when the cargo reaches the actual US port it will have to be scanned by machines to identify density changes in each container. This would ensure that anything that missed the first line defense can be possibly diffused here before the cargo reaches its intended destination. All shipping into the United States MUST be registered through the port authority and the US must have clear notification of all ships status, size, cargo and employees on ship before they ship out to the US.

WAR ON TERROR:
1) Take care of Afghanistan first before moving to any other area of possible interest and need. This country is in turmoil and needs a much greater focus by the US since we did blow it up. Now if I were the Prez I probably would have focused my attention here and here alone as far as a mass troop deployment.
2) Triple the size of human intelligence officers around the globe and have people infiltrate any hostile organizations to determine if a threat is imminent or if they are just a bunch of people who like to complain about other countries. Some people may not like this but it at least requires someone to assess the possible threats before they may arise.
3) Tactical deployment of troops in needed areas but more importantly trying to stimulate the economy of starving countries and help bring the people up to reconstruct some of these areas. If Palestinian militants had plenty of jobs they would be a lot less worried about trying to blow themselves up so their family could get 30k when they actually had an opportunity to make that money themselves and still live. Obviously this would require a b*tch slap to Israel since they have never helped the situation. It would require sanctions on them if they failed to comply with a true cease fire.

WAR ON IRAQ AND/OR HOSTILE STATES:
1) Information warfare. The peoples support is the true key in inciting change in a govt. that is abusive. In Iraq, for example, we could have interfered with there TV Networks had operatives in the country teaching these people that there is another and better way to live and a place where you don�t have to worry about looking in the wrong direction in fear of getting shot by someone with power.
2) Support the resistance. Once you get the people ready for change we can give the training in to inciting a coup d�etat. As long as we are willing to support the people unlike the mistake we made back in Gulf War I where we just packed our bags and left which led to a massacre of many Iraqis trying to over throw the Saddam regime. We need to be big brothers more than bullies. If we need to overthrow a country, do it with information and let the people make their choice.
3) Do everything we can on a global scale, showing the world that we are not here to destroy but help. I believe this would be an efficient, albeit slow, way to insure the longevity of our country and our way of life.


No process is easy but being able to bring people up and actually give them hope will be our best defense of all.

Edit: Changed topic name since no one was reading this

[edit on 7-8-2004 by build319]