If TSA had caught them during check-in, very likely nothing would have happened. Groups of people boarding four distinct planes with concealed weapons get stopped. The whole plan is unravelled by investigators, and in the end peopole will write op-ed pieces about "How stupid were they? They knew they'd be caught!"
Without 9-11 actually happening, the whole event is pretty much overlooked. The conspirators are convicted and locked up (would they even get the death penalty?), the trial gets a few days of headlines but for the most part Americans and the wider world go about their business.
The Iraq invasion is butterfly'd away and probably Afghanstan too, while the US mainland remains untouched there's no real public support for such drastic measures - you can argue that the Bush Administration might still use the WMD spectre or find other excuses for invading Iraq, but without the post-9/11 bloodlust they'll be much harder to sell to the American people. Al-Qaeda probably gets some missiles thrown at them and maybe special forces are sent in to pick off the leaders, but Bush's first and maybe only term is otherwise fairly quiet on the foreign policy front.
The evidence is that the Bush admin higher-ups were clueless or willfully negligent about al Qaeda.
OTOH I think it was perfectly clear that Bush intended to attack Iraq--not with a commando raid here or there but regime change by massive force of American arms.
Oh come now people you know the rules.
If it's a Republican (especially Bush) it's evil
If it's a Democrat they never do anything wrong.
Rules of the room <smirk>
Howard Dean wins in 2004.
So the world is better in more than one way.
Quoted for accuracy and fairness. Of course, since the major source for that quote also said that Iraq destroyed all their WMD in 1995, it means Bill Clinton broke the law in a more serious way than lying about sex with Monica.It was the official policy of the US Government since 1998, under Clinton not Bush, that the Iraq Liberation Act passed 360-38 in the House and by unanimous consent in the Senate, signed by Bill Clinton:
"Iraq admitted, among other things, an offensive biological warfare capability, notably, 5,000 gallons of botulinum, which causes botulism; 2,000 gallons of anthrax; 25 biological-filled Scud warheads; and 157 aerial bombs. And I might say UNSCOM inspectors believe that Iraq has actually greatly understated its production.... Over the past few months, as [the weapons inspectors] have come closer and closer to rooting out Iraq's remaining nuclear capacity, Saddam has undertaken yet another gambit to thwart their ambitions by imposing debilitating conditions on the inspectors and declaring key sites which have still not been inspected off limits.... It is obvious that there is an attempt here, based on the whole history of this operation since 1991, to protect whatever remains of his capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction, the missiles to deliver them, and the feed stocks necessary to produce them. The UNSCOM inspectors believe that Iraq still has stockpiles of chemical and biological munitions, a small force of Scud-type missiles, and the capacity to restart quickly its production program and build many, many more weapons.... Now, let's imagine the future. What if he fails to comply and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route, which gives him yet more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction. And some day, some way, I guarantee you he'll use the arsenal.... " --President Bill Clinton, 1998
Oh come now people you know the rules.
If it's a Republican (especially Bush) it's evil
If it's a Democrat they never do anything wrong.
Rules of the room <smirk>
The passengers on the last plane fought and it went down short of its target. What if the others had done likewise ?
You've got the 'clear & present danger', you've got hijacked jets, but they crash into open country or suburbs rather than Twin Towers or Pentagon...
If TSA had caught them during check-in, very likely nothing would have happened.
After 9-11, the security is reaching Checkpoint Charlie level, which makes crossing over a gigantic pain in the butt, and I don't even bother going over anymore - however, I digress.
The passengers who fought did so because they knew the hijackers were on a suicide mission, having heard about the twin towers attacks. Before 9/11, most people thought of hijacking as "make headlines with your demands and fly to Cuba/Algeria/wherever".