H.W Bush/Dole 1980 (Collaborative Thread)

I'm a bit confused, is the U.S. directly at war with Iraq?

Also I'm going to start posting.

July 7th, 1981: President Bush nominates Carla Anderson Hills to replace retiring judge, Potter Stewart, on the Supreme Court. Women's groups applaud the nomination.
 
I'm a bit confused, is the U.S. directly at war with Iraq?

Also I'm going to start posting.

July 7th, 1981: President Bush nominates Carla Anderson Hills to replace retiring judge, Potter Stewart, on the Supreme Court. Women's groups applaud the nomination.

Yeah, they're still at war right now. But with Hussein's upcoming death, that should change soon.
 
September 24th, 1981: Canadian animator John Kricfalusi announces plans to create his own animated series The Ren and Stimpy Show. Kricfalusi, a disgruntled veteran of Hanna-Barbera productions since 1976, explains that: "Ren and Stimpy will harken back to a different time, definitely. Ya know those old Bob Clampett cartoons that Warner Bros. made in the 1940s, the ones with the really rubbery animation that never stayed consistent? Yeah, that's what's gonna be in my show." He plans to pitch the program to ABC, which is re-organizing its children's programming lineup. Famous animator Ralph Bakshi expresses interest in collaborating with Kricfalusi, who happily accepts the offer, as Kricfalusi is a self proclaimed "fanboy" of Bakshi.
 
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September 24th, 1981: Canadian animator John Kricfalusi announces plans to create his own animated series The Ren and Stimpy Show..

I hope it's less weird and dark this time around. I thought the OTL show was fun, but sometimes it was just too bizarre for someone young and impressionable like myself in the 90s.
 
August 1981: TV producer and writer Norman Lear, upset with pessimistic 80s, decides to create a new show. It's similar to Happy Days, but set in the early 60s and much much more political. After watching an interview with Movie director and screenwriter John Waters, calls him up and asks if he wants to collaborate on the project. Waters agrees completely.
 
October 10th, 1981: Ralph Bakshi announces that he will no longer be collaborating with John Kricfalusi on The Ren and Stimpy Show, stating that he's going to be producing an animated satirical comedy series instead. The show, entitled Bojack Horseman, concerns the life of the eponymous protagonist; an anthropomorphic horse who starred on a Honeymooners-esque sitcom in the 1950s entitled The Neigh-bors, who is now a drunken wash-up. Despite the break up, Bakshi and Kricfalusi remain on amicable terms, with both of them wishing luck to each other in their ventures. Bakshi plans on pitching Bojack Horseman to ABC's rival CBS. Taxi star Danny DeVito is in-talks to voice Bojack, while newcomer Bryan Cranston is seeking the role of Todd Chavez, Bojack's slacker room-mate/best-friend.
 
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July 2nd, 1982: The Rats of NIMH, directed by former Disney animator Don Bluth, based on the children's book by Robert O'Brian, is released in the United States. Impressed, NBC, the only one of the big three without a primetime animated program, contacts Bluth with the idea for a NIMH TV series. That is rejected out of hand by Bluth, but NBC, undettered, offers him carte blanche to produce his own television show. Bluth, dismayed at the state of television animation, agrees.

September 30th, 1982: Nelson Mandela dies in Robben Island, ironically just as the Apartheid government considers moving him from there. Later inquiries reveal he had simply died of natural causes. However, with the Biko murder still fresh in many African's mind, they refuse to believe the Apartheid government, and riots begin to break out.

July 20th, 1983: Due to disappointing shares and a relatively high budget, the BBC formally cancels Blackadder

August 30th, 1984: Dr. Strange, a new Marvel series written by Alan Moore, debuts after Moore concludes his run on the Incredible Hulk. Moore had an interest in the character, both as a fan of Steve Ditko and his interest in mysticism, which he couldn't explore in Hulk.
 
September 28th, 1981: Norman Lear and John Waters come up with the basic idea of their new show, "Hairspray", Set in 1962 Baltimore, it's about 17 year old Tricia Tuddle, a pleasantly plump and happy go lucky girl, who against all odds makes it on to The Chuck Charles Show, a popular music/dance show. It also has a large supporting cast, including Tricia's parents, Edith, and Milton. Tricia's ditzy best friend, Nicki, Tricia's nemesis, Annabelle, and her scheming mother, plus other teens on the show, and of course Mama G, who hosts the show's "Negro Day" segment. Lear and Waters wanted Drag Queen, Divine, to play Edith, but ultimately deemed it too controversial for the time. Divine nevertheless appeared out of drag as racist station manager, Dell Villton, in a few episodes.
 
August 28 1982:Rock band KISS breaks up after Gene Simmons pisses off Paul Stanley over the idea of taking off the makeup for the next album.
 
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Here's the conclusion to the war in Iraq, with a few other tidbits thrown in:

June 13 1981:
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat fires off a few words of harsh criticism against Israel, intensely angered by what he sees as unprovoked Israeli aggression. He even threatens to mobilize troops on the border. The threat is mostly empty since Sadat has worked too hard to gain the friendship of the United States, but his words do more than a little to endear him to Arab states that had been angered by his actions following the Yom Kippur War.

September 10 1981: In a short but intense gun battle, Army troops storm Saddam's palace and take him captive. When the news reaches Bush, he jubilantly tells his staff, “That's it, it's over.” He addresses the nation that evening, outlining plans to keep troops stationed in Iraq until stability can be achieved and a new government put in place. This draws criticism, particularly from the anti-war movement. Noted leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky accuses the Bush administration of having “a colonial attitude that would make Cecil Rhodes proud.”

September 11 1981: In an intense meeting with Nixon, Premier Yuri Andropov conveys Suslov's displeasure with the Bush Administration's plans of continued occupation, temporary though they may be, and reiterates the demand that the Baathist Party continue to rule in Iraq. Even as this discussion is taking place, Shi'ite uprisings sweep Baghdad and other major population centers while calls for democratic elections grow louder.

September 12 1981: After a mob attacks a unit of Iraqi soldiers, they respond violently, and nearly 200 civilians are killed in the following bloodbath. This pattern continues for the next week until the unrest is quelled – for the moment. News of the violence, though sparse, clashes with the Bush administration's efforts to work out a piece with what remains of the Baathist party.

September 14 1981: In an effort to free Hussein, his distant cousin and chief lieutenant Abid Hamid Mahmud leads a surprise attack on the palace with hundreds of loyalist soldiers and dozens of tanks.

September 16 1981: After three days of hard urban fighting, the loyalist forces are crushed and Mahmud is taken into custody alongside Hussein. Bush again takes to the airwaves to reiterate that United States forces will remain in Iraq to see the leadership transition through.

September 18 1981: Saddam's first cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid assumes leadership of the Baathist Party and of the army and formally offers peace to the Coalition.

September 22 1981: Representatives from Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom and Turkey meet in Bucharest with the representatives of al-Majid's new government and Moscow. The meeting is overseen by Romanian Dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu, who has taken the opportunity to flaunt his international prestige and role as a statesman. The accord is fairly straightforward: Iraq will cede some of its northern regions to Turkey, while the rest of the coalition forces will withdraw by the end of the year. In turn, the ruling Baathists will continue to hold power. Neither Israel nor Turkey are happy with the arrangement; Israel does not believe the Iraqis have been suitably punished, while Turkey is unsatisfied with their relatively small gains. However, neither Bush nor Thatcher are committed to a continued occupation (particularly Bush, who is concerned about approval on the home front) and the Soviets are practically breathing fire at this point. The treaty is signed.

September 23 1981: President Bush announces that the war in Iraq is over and that American troops will be home by the New Year. His chief supporters take the opportunity to crow over the success of the mission. “He promised it would be no Vietnam, and he delivered!” Many are shocked by this new model for American intervention; the swiftness of the war and its almost abrupt conclusion have practically cut the legs out from under the anti-war movement, and Bush's ratings subsequently jump. A new found confidence in America's global power and reach begins to take root across the nation and even in the mind of the President himself. As plans for a withdrawal are made, CIA analysts simultaneously plan on the best way for the US to take advantage of the mess that has been left behind...

October 1 1981: Even as America and its allies are preparing to leave, Soviet advisers arrive in Baghdad. Al-Majid has no interest in turning towards the West following the embarrassment of defeat. However, with few options left to him, he concludes that Iraq must draw further into the Soviet sphere for the sake of his own security. Shi'ite militias, almost certainly stirred up by Iran, are beginning to plague the tattered Iraqi army more and more. And then there's the problem of Iran resuming the war. The recent Soviet Intervention in Afghanistant has given him hope that the USSR will be able to protect his fledgling regime from a premature demise.

What al-Majid does not know is how much the situation concerns the Soviet leaders. Moscow is willing to help rebuild the Iraqi military by providing hardware and advisers, but even the slightest prospect of becoming embroiled in another war to prop up an ally has even Andropov worried. However, the chance to draw Iraq deeper into the Soviet fold is too much for Suslov to pass up, and so plans to help stabilize the al-Majid regime and subdue the Shi'ite population move forward.

Also disconcerting to the Soviets is the ease with which the coalition forces were able to defeat Saddam's armies, which had fought using Soviet munitions and technology. Though the Iraqi forces were not especially well trained, the suggestion that the technology of the Warsaw Pact was not on par with their NATO counterparts deeply unsettles Yuri Andropov, who resolves to rectify the problem.

October 3 1981: Saddam Hussein is placed under house arrest. The sentence is indefinite. Out of loyalty, al-Majid is not willing to kill the former dictator, but he does not trust him to run free either. Not only would the US and her partners in the war raise hell, but al-Majid is unwilling to share power. So Saddam stays in prison. With his children killed in the war and his power taken from him, the lonely years of solitary imprisonment within his own home seem unbearable.
 
October 7 1981: Fearing that he will endure a lifetime of suffering under house arrest, Saddam Hussein commits suicide at his home in Baghdad, via cyanide poisoning.
 
October 5th, 1982: PW Botha declares a state of emergency with the riots after Mandela's death. However, this only increases the riots, which turns into outright fighting between security forces and African rebels

January 13th, 1983: PM Botha and Minister of Defense Magnus Malan are both killed in a plane crash, on their way to attempt to rally security forces in the South.
 
October 2, 1981: Bush meets Gore and a few select environmentalists. Discussion is had about the electric train and Bush is pretty much sold on it, and afterwards commissions a feasibility report.

October 8, 1981:
Long-delayed by the war in Iraq, Britain's Defence Secretary John Nott finally releases the 1981 Defence White Paper - Nott would like to make defence cuts in the wake of recession but the war has made him decide that's not yet feasible, and he instead recommends the same budget but redirected towards NATO and non-NATO alliances, which are seen as more likely than Britain-only wars. The Royal Navy, to the irritation of the army and RAF, gets a light hand due to the need to build it back up to strength.

November 17, 1981:The 'Rail Report' comes in, recommending the construction of a Boston-to-DC rapid transit system. Bush also plans a southern railway as well, in order to win over votes from southern congressmen.

December 22, 1981: General Leopoldo Galtieri and his allies stage a coup in Argentina. They plan to use military adventurism to distract the Argentines from domestic problems but the obvious target, the Falklands, is considered undoable - Britain may be withdrawing its one vessel, the Endurance, but the Royal Navy's successes in Iraq have unnerved the junta. It's decided to try sabre-rattling with Chile, while avoiding an outright war.
 
December 31, 1981: President Bush begins penning his State of the Union address for 1982. In his first draft, he states his happiness with Desert Storm's success and emphasizes his continued commitment towards fighting against communism. He also mentions several domestic concerns that he feels deserve recognition.
 
September 9-11, 1981: Violent rioting in Handsworth, Birmingham [as OTL]. Thatcher was distracted with the final end of Desert Storm during the events, leaving Home Secretary Whitelaw to be the public face of the government response. Thatcher's poll ratings slip further, and the opposition sense blood. Shirley Williams of the SDP deliberately targets middle class voters by saying Thatcher "should care about the war over here" (the SDP officially want the causes of riots to be addressed but Williams knew what would get press coverage). Whitelaw, meanwhile, has become very popular with swathes of the public for his hardline law-and-order, making him and Nott two big stars of the party.

October 2, 1981: Two Russian battleships arrive at Iraq, to much pomp and celebration - one, an older model, will be leased to the country to start "a new, greater Iraqi navy". While the US officially is wary, they've privately agreed to allow this as it'll warn off Iran from making a marine attack. (Tehran duly cancels a proposal for a coastal invasion)

November 21, 1981: President Bush proposes the American Rapid Transit Act, which will pledge £6bn for the construction of two high-speed electric rails, one running Boston-DC and one Birmingham-Charleston*. "America will lead the world," he proclaims. Immediately this comes under attack by economic conservative Republicans, who see this as (alternately) suspiciously socialistic, too expensive in the aftermath of the costly Desert Storm, and giving Gore a boost. Senator Dole famously calls it the "Gore-Bush Act". The US motor industry, who were tipped off a few days ago, start openly lobbying. The exception are Republicans from Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina, who want to see how the idea plays with their voters. Bush prepares to lobby hard on this.

November 22, 1981: The Democrat governors of the three states come out in favour of the ART Act: it is an election year next year, and they know this can bring in jobs. Bush publicly hails this as a sign of bipartisan support and privately hopes it doesn't cause Republicans in the states to turn against it. To his relief, Senator Mack Mattingly of Georgia comes out in favour too.


* Full station lists: Boston-New Haven-NYC-Newark-Philidelphia-Wilmington-Baltimore-DC [idea by GuyWhoHearts] and Birmingham-Talladega-Atlanta-Augusta-Charleston.
 
October 8-10, 1981: Iran discusses whether to invade Iraq and install a new Islamic Republic - President Khamenei and General Sharizi are both opposed, believing Iraq is no longer a threat and they don't want to provoke the Soviets, but the clerics of the Supreme Defence Council are arguing that they could sweep the weakened Iraqis so fast that the Soviets won't dare respond, for fear of a second Afghanistan. By the tenth, the pro-invasion faction have won. Nobody is aware that both the KGB and Saudi Arabia have picked up wind of a coming attack.

October 17, 1981: The "Two Nights War". Iran gambles that Iraq is weak enough that a dedicated push would sweep enemy forces all the way to Bahgdad and allow for territorial gains, all too fast for the USSR to respond and clearly the Soviets won't want another conflict while Afghanistan is on. Operation Jerusalem begins at midnight local time on the 17th with an overwhelming strike on Basra. To the surprise of Iran, Soviet forces and jets begin lightning attacks across the Iran-Soviet border which escalates into dogfighting. The Iraqis hold out despite high casualties, having been told aid is en route. Various Gulf states, led by Saudia Arabia, loudly announce they stand with Iraq (though they send no actual aid) and the American line is that the Soviets are "protecting an ally's sovereign borders". By nightfall, Iran has withdrawn and announced a ceasefire.

October 18, 1981: Various clerics, Revolutionary Guard, and ministers who'd backed invading Iraq find themselves 'moved on' by an enraged Supreme Leader. The official line is Iran was attacked first and Shirazi is the hero who fought off the godless Soviets, but the average Iranian is well aware of what happened. The regular forces in Iran are very disgruntled.
 
October 25th, 1981: President Bush announces that he will be initiating a slight defense budget cut, stating: "While there is much progress to still achieve, our mission has become easier ever since last month. I take the safety of our nation very seriously and would do anything to protect it. With our recent gains, the world will respect our capability and we have less to prove. Not to the point where we can sit idly and ignore the very reality of potential danger, but to the point where that potential danger has shrunk just THAT much."

October 31st, 1981: Bakshi begins working on the pilot episode of Bojack Horseman. However, the reading with Danny DeVito goes horrendously and DeVito's promptly fired. Bakshi instead hires comic actor John Belushi, who he feels embodies the character's gruff attitude better. Todd is re-written as a 40 year slacker and Belushi's SNL co-star Bill Murray replaces Bryan Cranston as Todd.
 
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September 13, 1981: Thatcher makes a flying visit to Birmingham and gives a live speech - unfortunately she was tired at the time and accidentally said "Hounslow" instead of "Handsworth" partway through. The gaff is brushed off by most of the locals but is seized on by the media, and Sheila Wright MP comes to national prominence when she thunders to the press about Conservative policies affecting northern cities "and then she can't be bothered to remember our names."

November 24, 1981: Foot reshuffles his shadow cabinet [otl] and gives Sheila Wright the Social Services brief.

December 1, 1981: William Casey proposes a CIA mission to arm and fund the Contras, which Bush approves [as he did OTL] and pledges to protect the CIA from Congressional pressure.
 
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