Would your opinion on Bush would've been different if......

[Shaka_Khan]

.....there was no 9/11 and no war in Iraq?

https://gma.yahoo.com/bill-clinton-h...opstories.html

Hours before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, former President Bill Clinton told an audience in Australia about his missed chance to kill attack mastermind Osama bin Laden, according to audio released this week.

Clinton was speaking at a business meeting in Melbourne when the topic turned to terrorism.

“I’m just saying, you know, if I were Osama bin Laden ... He’s a very smart guy. I spent a lot of time thinking about him. And I nearly got him once,” Clinton said in the audio, which was recorded by former Liberal Party head Michael Kroger and aired by Sky News.

“I nearly got him. And I could have killed him, but I would have had to destroy a little town called Kandahar in Afghanistan and kill 300 innocent women and children, and then I would have been no better than him.

“And so I didn’t do it.”.....

My impression on Bush prior to 9/11 was that he was more focused on his domestic agenda. He seemed to have a hands-off policy when it came to international conflict issues such as in the Middle East and the civil war in an African country that I can't remember. It was soon after 9/11 that his policies went through a dramatic change. When we note that most of the criticism and jokes on him were on Iraq or influenced by that situation, I get the feeling that the opinions on him would've been totally different had 9/11 never happened.

I can't blame Clinton. I remember the accidental missile attack on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. It was accidental in that the US didn't know that it was a Chinese embassy. This was a major setback for Clinton. I remember the reaction of the Chinese and the other people, and I understand why. We might say that Clinton should've killed Bin Ladin when he had the chance, but without the knowledge that 9/11 would happen, I too would've hesitated on that decision.

I don't know how the economy would've been. I hear that the costly war in Iraq worsened the economy that was already stagnating due to the numerous dotcom companies that went belly up.

[Papewaio]

Please explain how Saddam Hussein who was on the Al Qaeda hit list was helping Osama Bin Laden.

Even with the shonkiest of low grade evidence used to justify WMD in Iraq there is still none showing Iraqs involvement in 9/11.

[Gregoshi]

I had hopes for Bush when he was elected. He had a reputation as governor of Texas as being able to work with both parties to reach consensus on legislation. I voted for him in hopes he would do the same as president - the parties working together rather at each other's throats. Alas, 9/11 completely changed and defined his presidency. I still wonder every now and then if Bush would have been a better president (and viewed as such) had 9/11 never occurred.

[Ironside]

A lot of the bad stuff from Bush was predicted before 9/11.

The Onion article about Bush from jan 2001 got pretty much fullfilled.
Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

The neocon, the religious tendencies, "the private sector is the solution to all problems" and "tickle down" ideas were there from the start.

[HoreTore]

No.

He was still a reagonomics fanatic. Bastard.

[a completely inoffensive name]

No Child Left Behind was a disaster. Medicare Part D was a disaster. He vetoed laws to promote stem cell research and to include sexual orientation under hate laws. He withdrew US support of the Kyoto Protocol.

He was a shit president even you leave aside the foreign policy. Literally the worst the US has seen since the 1920s.

[Greyblades]

Of course the biggest sin Bush made was making an unrepentant meglomanic psychopath his vice president.

[Shaka_Khan]

Please explain how Saddam Hussein who was on the Al Qaeda hit list was helping Osama Bin Laden.

Even with the shonkiest of low grade evidence used to justify WMD in Iraq there is still none showing Iraqs involvement in 9/11.

I never said that Saddam Hussein was. I know that Bush used 9/11 under false pretenses. What I meant was that Bush wouldn't have been able to invade Iraq without those false pretenses. Hence, I believe that his presidency would've been different had 9/11 never happened.

[Ironside]

I never said that Saddam Hussein was. I know that Bush used 9/11 under false pretenses. What I meant was that Bush wouldn't have been able to invade Iraq without those false pretenses. Hence, I believe that his presidency would've been different had 9/11 never happened.

Different yes, but they would probably try to invade anyway. And accept lower popular ratings, since it would be a short war and most things would fix itself quickly as long as Saddam falls. And then the popularity would rise again. If everything goes according to plan, but why shouldn't it?

It was very much a point in the neocon agenda.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Please explain how Saddam Hussein who was on the Al Qaeda hit list was helping Osama Bin Laden.

Even with the shonkiest of low grade evidence used to justify WMD in Iraq there is still none showing Iraqs involvement in 9/11.

Quite true. Even at the height of the effort to build support for the attack on Saddam, nobody in the Bush administration was arguing that he'd played a role in the 9-11-01 attacks. Even the Bush administration noted that al-queda had no more than a token presence in Iraq (OBL really thought SH was part of the problem and certainly would have targeted him eventually, any "connection" betweeh AQ and the Hussein's regime was a token to minimize OBL's desire to act immediately against him). The war was sold on Iraq refusing to honor all of the particulars of the agreement at the end of Gulf One and on WMD's -- and the evidence for the latter was never evaluated critically because it was an easy way to get support for a power move that a cadre within the Bush43 admin wanted to do all along.