DBWI: What if Flight 93 doesn't hit the Capitol on 9/11?

TheKinkster

Banned
Was just wondering what people think...what if the attempted passenger revolt on Flight 93 had either been successful or forced the hijackers to crash the plane before reaching the Capitol. How would our lives, if any way, had been different without those pictures of the Capitol Building as flaming wreckage?
 
Well, Bush probably wouldn't have extended the afghan war into Iran.
Also, he wouldn't have wasted taxpayer money on that much nicer one that was built over the ruins.
 
Another thing, there wouldn't be mandatory "Flying Licenses" which are exactly like driving licenses. Can you imagine how that would have been received if the Capitol was not attacked?
 
Also, he wouldn't have wasted taxpayer money on that much nicer one that was built over the ruins.

So you'd rather have had Congress work out of that hotel for all eternity? How was rebuilding an entire branch of our government a "waste" of money?

At least now it's bigger. I, for one, hope those foreign conspiracy theorists ARE true and that we add a couple more states in the near future, wherever they may be.
 
How was rebuilding an entire branch of our government a "waste" of money?
Oh christ, not this again.
The capitol itself wasn't the waste.
The waste was stuff like the moving sidewalks, the murals, the statues, and the fact that it was something like five times the size and twenty times the total cost (adjusted for inflation) of the old one.
And have you seen the bathrooms in that place?! How they got that thing built without a media shitstorm I'll never know.

Another thing I thought of: Boehner doesn't make that offhand comment about the gay page that died and isn't forced to resign.
 
Well, I'm guessing that a lot of the talent (although I use that word loosely) in Congress would have survived, and maybe been able to prevent George and the Bushies from wreaking havoc with our civil liberties. There is no way the PATRIOT Act could have passed if the Democratic leadership hadn't been reduced to an injured and emotionally broken Hillary Clinton. Those pictures of her at the Capitol, still in her bandages and crying, make me well up to this day...
 
Well, we did get a nicer and larger capitol building out of it. It has a mix of modern and classical architecture in it, and there is more room to adjust the size of the House of Representatives.

President Hillary Clinton's attempt to increase the size of the House of Representatives following the 2010 Census almost worked, but it lacked support. I'm sure that without the destruction, something like that would have never been tried.

I like though how they kept parts of the ruins up as part of the memorial, the shelled out House of Representatives chamber they have in D.C. really hit me hard when I visited it, and the new capitol a little further East of the original site really gives it an emotional feel.
 
As a tourist....

I have to ask who thought putting a shopping mall on the ground floor was a good idea? I suppose it was a little ironic when, on the same day the McDonalds near the main entrance opened, a Russian conglomerate announced their takeover. CNN had it right - 'Russian occupation of the Capitol'

As for what if? Might have been interesting if the uprising succeeded, but who would have flown the plane after the crew were killed. If it didn't end up in a field, then it could've ended up piling into the White House or even shot down by F16s.
 
I have to ask who thought putting a shopping mall on the ground floor was a good idea? I suppose it was a little ironic when, on the same day the McDonalds near the main entrance opened, a Russian conglomerate announced their takeover. CNN had it right - 'Russian occupation of the Capitol'

Shopping mall? More like gift center. The new Capitol is *huge* so they need something to fill up the space. I do enjoy the Capitol Museum in the Hastert Wing.

And the McDonalds is part of the Capitol Food Center used by legislators, lobbyists, *and* tourists. Although you don't see much of the 541 legislators these days, like you did when they opened it.
 
Yeah, but it's that fancy colored glass. From the inside you only see a really cool mural, yet from the outside you can see straight into the upper floors (and the Liberty portrait on the top four floors). Check it out on Google Earth or Capitol.gov.

Let's not kid ourselves though. The Capitol doesn't really need luxurious offices for 700 people. And four entire floors devoted to the leadership from both parties? What do they do with all those rooms?

Thankfully, they kept the building shorter than the Washington Monument, thanks to that big '05 uproar. But the "flag tower" off the East Wing is just 1 inch shorter than the Monument, and technically slightly higher above sea level, I believe.
 
To be honest, I kind of love the new Capitol, it really get across a feeling of grandeur and power that the stodgy old building never quite did for me. That being said, the similarities between our Capitol and the Kremlin (especially after the Kremlin's renovations in '08 after Zhirinovsky's landslide victory) are eerie,
 

Geon

Donor
New Capitol Building

Frankly, I think the architecture of the new capitol building is in a word -- terrible. In trying to appeal to the classicists and the neo-modernists the people who "restored" the building did neither! What was wrong with simply rebuilding the old building as it was? Was it too hard for the government to follow the restoration route?

In addition, I am concerned this new building portrays Congress as more elitist and less in touch with the people. Recent demonstrations in Washington, D.C. and other major U.S. cities have driven home the fact that Congress is not that popular with the people now. The fact that a recent study said it would have cost less to rebuild the building in its historic form rather then the new travesty has only added to the problems.

On another note, what do some of you think of the assertion recently made by some news commentators that if the Capitol had not been hit the hunt for bin Laden would not have been as vigorous. Some of them have said that the destruction of the Capitol really galvanized the search for the man which as we know culminated in him and many leaders of his organization being taken out by a Predator missile strike in November of 2007.

Geon
 
On another note, what do some of you think of the assertion recently made by some news commentators that if the Capitol had not been hit the hunt for bin Laden would not have been as vigorous. Some of them have said that the destruction of the Capitol really galvanized the search for the man which as we know culminated in him and many leaders of his organization being taken out by a Predator missile strike in November of 2007.

Geon

Garbage. Bush was an awful president, getting us into Iran and all, but he was going to hunt down and kill Bin Laden after 9/11, no matter where the planes hit. To be honest, I'm surprised it took as long as it did.
 
I remember walking through "Fortress Washington" when I was there last year. The bastions and AA batteries built around the place are more creepy than the building itself. the thing that annoyed me the most was that I must have been searched like three times, because I looked like an Arab. I'm German and Cook Islander lol It took almost an hour to get into the Museums it was ridiculous, how many guards do you need!?
 
Yeah and there wouldn't be a Military Police force in Washington as we all have dealt with. I mean it's like Italy, cops with machine guns!
 

BlondieBC

Banned
I remember walking through "Fortress Washington" when I was there last year. The bastions and AA batteries built around the place are more creepy than the building itself. the thing that annoyed me the most was that I must have been searched like three times, because I looked like an Arab. I'm German and Cook Islander lol It took almost an hour to get into the Museums it was ridiculous, how many guards do you need!?

I am most disappointed by the rose bushes planted around the AA batteries. I guess the thorns are a softer, prettier way to build a fence around the batteries. The socialist and hippies are going to ruin this country. I would prefer to see massive stone barriers around the guns. Heavy stone architecture makes me feel safer.
 
I would prefer to see massive stone barriers around the guns. Heavy stone architecture makes me feel safer.

Make it into a castle? Well, it would certainly show everyone who's in charge.:p
 
Top