What if the 9/11 terrorist attacks had never happened and the 'War on Terror' had never been declared?
What if the 9/11 terrorist attacks had never happened and the 'War on Terror' had never been declared?
Never happened in the sense they never organized them, or they were intercepted? Because, if it's the latter, there may still be something akin to the War on Terror (not in the current extent, thought).
The US went into debt in August 2001, per the CBO. 9/11 had nothing to do with that.Before 9/11 George W. Bush had quite the ambitious set of plans for his term in office, though at the moment I can't remember off the top of my head.
At the very least you wouldn't have the debt sky rocket as it did. Which is nice.
Iraq might still happen actually, regime change in Baghdad had been a policy of both the Democrats and GOP even before 9/11; so I see something happening eventually.
5. George Bush is not reelected for a second term.
6. Obama never becomes President. Another Democrat would have been chosen instead.
Partly, although I could see Saddam co-operating with the UN eventually, but only once he can sell it to the Ba'ath party and his own people that it is his idea.1. No invasion of Iraq and Saddam remains in power until death. The US bases in the region still remain today with Iraqis dying by the thousands each year because of the UN sanctions. The poor country gets screwed even without a war.
I think this will actually remain unaffected. Sub-prime mortgages were not a repercussion of 9/11, they were a repercussion of unchecked greed.2. The global recession is greatly reduced in scale.
Again unlikely. Maybe a bit lower, but I don't think you can directly attribute oil prices directly as a response to US/UN actions post 9/113. Fuel prices are dramatically lower than OTL.
Agreed but for different reasons. The Economy is still going to tank as mentioned above, however, the Arab Spring came about partly from seeing previously "undefeatable" dictators being toppled and covert support, (as I understand it), from interested parties. In this situation, you have two out of three OTL conditions existing for the Arab Spring, but you don't have the defeat of Saddam Hussain to show the vulnerability of dictators.4. No Arab Spring. Without the poor global economy's impact on fuel and food prices in the Third World, this is not going to as big an impact. All of the leaders of these countries would still be in power.
Possibly, if he doesn't have his mantle of "Wartime President" to fall back on, he could well be out. I think Bush would be a single term president, if the Democrats can find a credible candidate. Maybe the circumstances would bring one forward?5. George Bush is not reelected for a second term.
I don't think there's much, if any basis for this, unless you consider Obama's rise to the presidency soley due to Bush having a second term.6. Obama never becomes President. Another Democrat would have been chosen instead.
Stupid is as stupid does, and DPRK have more stupid than they know what to do with. I believe that DPRK had been developing nuclear weapons with the help of Pakistan for a good few years before this.7. North Korea does not develop nuclear weapons in 2006.
I have to agree with this, but it would be a very quiet covert black op, manual observation followed by a drone strike, something of this nature, or as Clinton did, just throw a few Tomahawks into the Afghani desert and see what happens.8. Osama Bin Laden attempts an attack elsewhere. Perhaps he downs a plane with a bombing. The US still might send military forces after him in Afghanistan.
Assuming no big attacks happen Bin Laden would probably still be alive today. We would treat him like we do drug lords or non-Islamic terrorists: a threat, but not something to go to war over. Of course al-Qaeda would probably not be as big, and ISIS would probably not come into existence, so they would be less of a threat.
It would be interesting to imagine more attention devoted to Enron. Actually, the number of corporate failures and scandals were mounting even before 2008. Perhaps only the war kept it from becoming the story of the decade earlier than 2008.
What effects would that have?