DBWI: The planned 9/11 attacks were carried out

On September 11, 2001, the country was rocked when 16 men were killed aboard American airliners by undercover FBI agents. Many people were both confused and shocked, the killings forcing the grounding of all domestic flights nationwide. In a speech to a joint session of Congress just ten days later, President George W. Bush told the nation of the planned attacks that were to use American commercial airliners as missiles to attack the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the White House.

As a result, the Department of Homeland Security was created to protect the homeland. President Bush also took a very cautious approach to the wars that took place in the Middle East, not wanting us to get dragged into what looked like a long and drawn out war. As a result, he was re-elected in 2004.

However, what might have been had these attacks been carried out?

OOC: My newest attempt at DBWI after my last two kind of fell flat. I got this idea after reading dw93’s timeline “The Towers Still Stand.”
 
If those attacks were carried out as planned and succeed as intended. The eagle's rage will awaken, and the world will be reminded of its might in very graphic forms.

Mountains and cities will be flattened most likely.

Basically this except with the US military and the Battle Hymn of the Republic:
 
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Despite having no connection to Saddam Hussein, President Bush would have pushed for and might have gotten the invasion of Iraq that he pushed for and failed to get as President. If the Terrorists had been successful, we might have seen a mass invasion of Iraq instead of the peaceful change of leadership that we got in 2005.
 
Despite having no connection to Saddam Hussein, President Bush would have pushed for and might have gotten the invasion of Iraq that he pushed for and failed to get as President. If the Terrorists had been successful, we might have seen a mass invasion of Iraq instead of the peaceful change of leadership that we got in 2005.
Bush 43 invading Iraq due to this, even expanded as the OP suggests?
No chance. He won't consider it even if Saddam raised a sign in Baghdad celebrating a speculative 'successful' terror attack and praised it to high heaven. Rummy and Cheney wouldn't have let him too.
 
What does Iraq had to do with the plot at all?
General ignorance of the average* American concerning geography.

*although to be fair it's really most people in general regardless of the country, the US is just held to a higher standard because of their superpower status and power projection capabilities.
 
If anything, Bush might go to war with the House of Saud, most of the would-be-hijackers were Saudi, weren't they? Looking into Wikipedia, an obscure mujahideen called Osama Bin Laden was determined to have been the mastermind behind the plot, but despite their attempts to do so, neither the Bush or Clinton administrations have been able to locate him since. The current administration seems to have lost all interest on the matter, too.
 
Bush 43 invading Iraq due to this, even expanded as the OP suggests?
No chance. He won't consider it even if Saddam raised a sign in Baghdad celebrating a speculative 'successful' terror attack and praised it to high heaven. Rummy and Cheney wouldn't have let him too.

Totally agreed. Cheney was a cautious man. No way would he have signed off on the foolish neo-con nation building fantasy of converting Iraq into a liberal democracy. Look at this clip from 1992:


 
If this terrorist plot was successful, not only would the US government launch a war to get revenge, but I bet that they'd happily clamp down on several of our liberties in the name of "national security". The feds are always looking for excuses to increase their power.
 
If this terrorist plot was successful, not only would the US government launch a war to get revenge, but I bet that they'd happily clamp down on several of our liberties in the name of "national security". The feds are always looking for excuses to increase their power.

I don't think so. Once everyone calm down after the initial shock, enough people inside the government would oppose such ideas.
 
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