[HedgeYourBets]

I have previously promised Olivier to put my version of action if I were the President of the United States on 9/11. I've written him a personal message but he insisted we discuss it publically so here it goes:



The right policy for the United States given all the political, military and economic power of the country is to take a very agressive approach. The nation should go on the offensive on each and every available front both externally and internally. The following strategem should be followed:

#1 Identify the enemy

#2 Identify allies, potential allies and non-cooperative regimes

#3 Given #1 and #2 identify the theatre of operations

#4 Given #2 identify ways to deal with non-cooperative regimes
a) Political Action
b) Military Action
c) Economic Action
d) Combination of a-d

#5 Identify political effects and constraints
a) Internal
b) External

#6 Identify and prioratize all the available methods for both internal and external use

#7 Identify economic limitations

#8 Identify political limitations
a) Internal
b) External

#9 Identify military limitations and domestic capabilities


Utilize all the means available given #1-#9 while maintaining the momentum both internally and externally within and outside the country. There comes in you Afganistan, Axis of Evil, War on Iraq, Democracy across the ME, unilateralism, sanctions against Syria, immense pressure on Israel and so on.

I am pretty sure that something like above was what the president came up with. If you, or the world, for a second thought that the US would not engage the Middle East on every possible front in an agressive manner it was if only a dillusion. I am pretty sure all the European governments have realized it. It was only the matter of choice of how to support the US given all the domestic and international limitations. I very sure that when the Bush administration was planning the war on Iraq it was very well aware of the world outcry, of the fact that France (given all the historical precedence) would refuse, of the political responsibility in-front of the American people, of the monetory burden and of the commitment ahead. No matter who would be the president on 9/11 Bush, Gore, Kerry or even Jaq Chiraq (if God forbid he was an American) the sequence of events would be very much the same if only different in the time-frame.