Wi: John Allen Muhammad had assassinated the President

What if instead of committing the Beltway Sniper Attacks the shooter and his partner had decided to attempt to assassinated President George W. Bush.

What impact would this have on history, the Iraq War and the future of the United States.
 
Well, going by the theory that Cheney was pulling the strings anyway, a dead GWB might not make much of a difference, at least as far as foreign-policy goes. Maybe there'd have been more presidential pardons, since my understanding is that Cheney was pushing for more, but Bush was reticent.

That said, I remember that when Christopher Hitchens was accused of being a chicken-hawk during his Iraq War advocacy, he replied something like "Well, I've had a Muslim sniper prowling my neighborhood for weeks"(in other words, he was already on the front lines). So if JAM manages to take out Bush, that might have some pretty potent propaganda uses for Iraq and whatnot.
 
President Cheyney would be interesting - he leans a bit more to the left on the death penalty and LGBT rights than most Republicans, so that would have some interesting effects.

Colin Powell likely gets the VP slot, and runs in 2004 because Cheyney absolutely wouldn't do more than one term. So yay, President Colin Powell!

Not sure if it butterflies Iraq, but it may well kill the call for peace from President Bush towards Muslims - one of the things Bush never got enough credit for was how immediately after 9/11, he nipped any talk of targeting Muslims as a group in the bud, tempering all the worst firebrands.

With a Muslim extremist and his brainwashed child soldier responsible for killing President Bush? "He offered them peace, and they shot him dead!" Things could get ugly, VERY fast.
 
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