WI Bush died in 9/11 and the CIA reported Bin Laden was in Pakistan?

What would Dick Cheney do?

  • He would Drone Bin Laden in the Pakistan Military base.

    Votes: 6 14.6%
  • He would send the Black ops team in to kill Bin Laden.

    Votes: 25 61.0%
  • He wouldn't touch him becuase he doesn't want to risk a war with Pakistan.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • He would still go into Iraq like in OTL and dismiss the CIA report.

    Votes: 10 24.4%
  • He would avoid the middle east all together and dismiss the CIA report.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    41
This is the what if: If Bush had been in the pentagon on 9/11 and became a victim in the attack. Then after Dick Cheney is sworn in the CIA reports to him that Bin Laden is in Pakistan in a military base to be given the options of non-action, a unmarked for hire black ops team to clear the base or a drone strike on the building on base Bin Laden was holed up in.

What would he likely do and would the US still invade Iraq?
 
We knew he was in Pakistan so did Pakistan by early 2002 and made a deal with them to let our CIA in and SF as needed to find him. We aren't going to nuclear war with Pakistan, even moreso given parts the government were playing ball.
 
We knew he was in Pakistan so did Pakistan by early 2002 and made a deal with them to let our CIA in and SF as needed to find him. We aren't going to nuclear war with Pakistan, even moreso given parts the government were playing ball.

I am going to ask a question then: why did it take so long to kill him then if Pakistan was helping the CIA and not him?
 
I am going to ask a question then: why did it take so long to kill him then if Pakistan was helping the CIA and not him?

Because one man in a country of 200 million people with a ton of local support and perhaps some ISI friends with one messager connecting him to the outside world is hard to find we had to find the messager to find him.
 
If Bush was killed on 9/11 and the CIA reported Bin Laden was in Pakistan, all bets would be off. We'd most likely bomb everything in the Middle East, paying no heed to civilian casualties or collateral. All that would matter is vengeance. By the end of the campaign, much of the Middle East would be set ablaze, as the United States occupies the entire region to "stabilize" it, but in reality, intends to annex it and seize the oil.

Quite a few nations, chief among them Russia, would be pissed, but most of the world would come to understand that we had no choice. It was either salt the Middle East, or fight a long war of attrition against terrorists, which could lead to something worse (ie ISIS).

Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are occupied by the US. After five years of occupation, the United States releases Iraqi land to Kuwaiti control, Syria to Israeli control, and annexes Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan as members of the Union, known as the Middle Eastern States.

The long-term political consequences include increased tensions with Russia, some embargoes from China that are eventually lifted when the US embargoes the export of food and oil, and long-term unrest in the Middle East against the United States.
 
Dennis Hasslet or Colin Powell

"Just in, sir, Cheney's dead."

"Shit, not Dick..."

"Holy shit, looks like a plane just hit the Capitol. No way anyone in there is still alive. There goes Hastert and Byrd."

"At least the one Democrat is out of the way..."

"Get Powell on the line. We need to talk."

"If I recall, sir, he was with Cheney."

"... then get me -"

"Also with Cheney, sir."

"What the hell was O'Neill doing with -"

"Do you realize what this means, sir?"

...

". . . I do."

"Wouldn't you like to add your name? It's tradition."

"Right, let's start over. . ."

. . .

"I, Donald Henry Rumsfeld, do solemnly swear..."
 
1. I am of the opinion that if we wanted Osama we would have had him.
2. If they got bush on sept 11 the immediate response would have been quite the same, invade Afghanistan. there would have been extreme diplomatic pressure on Pakistan,to hand over Osama and on the Saudis to disavow and weed out extremists or else. Invade Pakistan? doubtful, free hand to move around the country ( with in reason of course ) absolutely. Use of nuclear weapons? no, even if Pakistan refused, the USA would just go anyways.




The USA went bat shit nuts as is. But to get bush you would need a separate squad to get him since he was in Florida that morning. If they knew that bush was at a school and managed to hit it, the outrage would be vicious. would the obvious Saudi ties destroy the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the USA? where ever Al Quada was or was getting funding from would be a target.

Cheney could be possible, but the effort to hit DC would have to be stronger or timed better with the attacks in NYC so as to not raise the defensive bells.
 
Considering Cheney and his antics with the ISA its a real question what he would do. On one hand the loss of a president is going to mean that Americans are even madder then they were after 9/11 so there is a real possibility that the American military is rolled out in force and reminds the entire world of just why you irritate the united states but don't piss them off... Or Cheney does something underhanded or perceived as underhanded and loses that political will. Especially if it comes out that he made a deal with the Pakistani athurities in order to keep the Pakistan china axis stable as a counter weight to the Indians...
 
I am going to ask a question then: why did it take so long to kill him then if Pakistan was helping the CIA and not him?
you can't really say 'Pakistan' as if the national government was a monolithic organization. Pakistan is the poster boy for "The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing'... you have some very sharp divisions in their government between those who want to cooperate with the west (and the rest of the world in general), and those who are really insular and suspicious of outsiders. Not to mention that big chunks of the country are run by local warlords who pretty much ignore the central government as they please. You can truthfully say that parts of the Pakistani government were trying to find OBL while other parts were actively hiding him...
 
Even with a dead President you don't get half of what you wrote. There was no political will for most of that, nor would their be in this ATL.

Indeed, that's a very cynical overreach. Killing Bush in Florida though makes the threat of a mole/traitor far more likely, leading to a lot of potentially scary and hasty policies.
 
What if Dick Cheney was killed too?

That's what I thought but I wasn't sure.



Then I guess Rice would be president.

Dennis Hasslet or Colin Powell

If Bush dies and Hastert dies when Flight 93 hits the Capitol (but the Senate wing is only slightly damaged with the plane hitting the rotunda/house chamber area) and Cheney either dies in one of the attacks or has a heart attack upon hearing that most of his friends and colleagues are dead, the head of the Senate pro tempore is next in line and it's President Strom Thurmond :cool:



OldStrom.png
 
If Bush dies and Hastert dies when Flight 93 hits the Capitol (but the Senate wing is only slightly damaged with the plane hitting the rotunda/house chamber area) and Cheney either dies in one of the attacks or has a heart attack upon hearing that most of his friends and colleagues are dead, the head of the Senate pro tempore is next in line and it's President Strom Thurmond :cool:



OldStrom.png

Hey, if we're going with Thurmond or Rumsfeld, it could be worse. Could be a nice sleazy molestor like Hastert in there. Maybe he'd name Mark Foley to some high position while he's at it.

I'd expect Hastert to follow Bush's administration in many ways, doing many of the same things, before being brought down by a sex scandal of monumental proportions. If it happened before the '04 election, then...
 
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