What would have happened had UA93 crashed into the Capitol as the hijackers planned? Was anyone still in the building? (I would think probably not.)
What would have happened had UA93 crashed into the Capitol as the hijackers planned? Was anyone still in the building? (I would think probably not.)
An even stronger reaction than OTL, maybe...
As it was, OTL there was actually serious talk in some quarters of unleashing the nukes on al-Qaeda for a couple of days after 9/11. If the Capitol is wrecked, expect those calls to be even fiercer and more vehement (though I still don't expect that they'll actually be used), and expect the gloves to come off totally when we go into Afghanistan. In short, if anyone thinks we went berserk for a while after 9/11 OTL, it's going to be nothing compared to TTL.
We both know it's not likely, but would it have been possible for Al-Qaeda to be nuked in the aftermath of 9/11 if the Capitol is destroyed?
Side question: Had Congress been evacuated from the Capitol?
Another side question: What would become Congress' new home?
One more side question: Would the Capitol have been rebuilt to essentially the same pattern as before, or would they come up with a completely different design like they did for the WTC?
As to that last question, absolutely yes to rebuilding on the original pattern. I think anyone who suggested anything different would have been run out of town on a rail with a nice tar-and-feather coat, at the least.
I'm not sure - there will be timelines of the day available on the net to check this point - but I think that the Capitol had been evacuated by the time that it'd been worked out that something had gone seriously wrong with UA93.
There are a number of auditoriums and other structures around town that would provide suitable temporary meeting space for Congress, so a couple of them would probably be appropriated for the purpose. Also, I'm pretty sure that the Congressional office buildings (and the Library of Congress, not to mention the Supreme Court) wouldn't be too badly damaged by debris, so they'd continue to be used in the interim.
I do have the firm opinion that rebuilding the Capitol would be an absolute top priority, money no object, so it'd certainly be back in business by this time TTL.
But what about my first question?
Would the Capitol have been rebuilt to essentially the same pattern as before, or would they come up with a completely different design like they did for the WTC?
Zero chance. There is nothing in Afghanastan at the time that would warrant a nuke. The the #$@$%% had scampered off before 9/11 because they expected backlash.
In short, if anyone thinks we went berserk for a while after 9/11 OTL, it's going to be nothing compared to TTL.
And if the US retaliates for a terrorist attack, even one that didn't really claim any more victims than 9/11 did IOTL (assuming the Capitol was evacuated in time) with a nuclear attack, we should also expect that the international counter-reaction would be something else entirely.
After a nuclear strike in Afghanistan, the European public opinion for example would turn instantly against the US. Not to say anything about the Middle East. And God forbid if it was followed by an invasion of Iraq... The OTL anti-war demonstrations would have been very minor compared to what would be seen ITTL.
Bush wouldn't wait for the UN to invade Iraq which would probably increase public support as it became a bit of a farce.
The run-up to the Iraq War was indeed a farce, but that had more to do with the actions of the Bush Administration than the UN or its weapons inspectors like Hans Blix. Of course that has only become apparent later.
Kinda random but when I was a child in 2002 me and my dad built Tora Bora with wooden blocks and pretended to bomb it with toy airplanes and tanks.Tora Bora?
Bartlett said:"You kill an American, any American, we don't come back with a "proportional response". We come back with total disaster!"