Bush Invades Iraq after 9/11.... ignores Afghanistan

What if Bush claimed Osama bin laden was being hidden in Iraq with Saddam's help and invaded there immediately after 9/11. Afghanistan is not even part of the equation in this time line. Bush uses the attacks as an excuse to go after Saddam while leaving the Taliban in control.

What happens now? Osama is left scratching his head going WTF while the world now supports the overthrow of Saddam.

I remember reading that Rumsfeld actually proposed this because Iraq would be easier to attack. Don't know if it was true.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
The Talebans would openly tell everyone that Osama is in Afghanistan, and that was not a big secret before. Everyone knew it. Bush wouldn't get away with it.
 

Hendryk

Banned
It would send a strange message to say the least: kill thousands of American civilians, and the US government won't even pretend to be interested in you. It'll just leave you alone while it goes after a more interesting target.

At least in OTL the Bush administration made OBL a high-priority target for a few months. That is, until Bush declared in a press conference in 2002 that he wasn't all that concerned about him after all.
 
Bush and his ilk get kicked out of office. Say hello to President Thurmond or Stevens or Byrd. (I forget which...)
After all, back in 2001, Dan Burton called Bush a dictator for his interference into a congressional investigation. And, even with the deferential media, it would be hard to deny that Bin Laden was in Afghanistan. (Unless he was in Pakistan or Indonesia as some say...) Even Fox News would have at least one voice opposed to said war. (Scott Ritter, ex-UN Weapons inspector. Fox had him as a commentator for a while...until they refused to air him due to his knowledge of Iraq's lack of WMD.)
Finally, the Iraq invasion might go worse. While Bush would have more forces to go in, it wouldn't be likely that many countries in the region would cooperate.
 
It would send a strange message to say the least: kill thousands of American civilians, and the US government won't even pretend to be interested in you. It'll just leave you alone while it goes after a more interesting target.

Come to think of it, that's a brilliant way to deal with terrorists. If you follow that strategy every time, then no terrorist can ever hope to influence you, because you are guaranteed to respond with a non sequitur.
 
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