What If the 9/11 Attacks Had Not Happened?

Yahoo Voices ^ | Sept 11, 2012 | Mark R. Whittington

[Marcus]

What if the attacks of 9/11 had not happened? The point of departure, as it is termed in alternate history, is the death of Khalid Sheik Mohammed sometime in the late 1990s, before he developed the plan to hijack airliners and fly them into buildings.

The history, thus far, of the 21st century would have been vastly different. Besides the World Trade Center still gracing the skyline of New York City, the invasion of Afghanistan would not have occurred. Iraq likely would not have been invaded either. Almost 10,000 Americans, dead on 9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror, would be left alive, as well as hundreds of thousands of Muslims. Over a trillion dollars, expended on war, would have been available for other priorities.

[RWB Patriot]

Facts cannot be altered by a wish, but they can destroy the wish maker.

[Izzy Dunne]

Assuming that the short-circuiting of the 9/11 attacks do not result in a later, perhaps worse attack happening later

Such "what-if" games are universally pointless.

You can make all kinds of different choices at many many points along the way and get to any place you want.

[rurgan]

on 9/11/01, Islam gave us a clue about what they are really up to. We already forgot the lesson.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

One thing for sure.. this book would have never been published.

Triple Cross: How bin Laden's Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets, and the FBI--and Why Patrick Fitzgerald Failed to Stop Him

.. and maybe this one would have been published

Triple Kudos: How bin Laden's Master Spy Was stopped By the CIA, the Green Berets, and the FBI

[Buckeye McFrog]

Government would have continued to grow bigger, more bloated and more “compassionate” under George W. Bush. Free from the concerns of “homeland security” he would have repeated his Medicare drug program writ large.

Then in 2004 he would have been defeated by Howard Dean or someone when the public decided that a Democrat could do that kind of government better. We’d be many more steps further down the path towards European Social Democracy even than we are today.

[OneVike]

A much better question to ask is what would the world look like without Islam, which would also answer Yahoo's question.

[TonyInOhio]

What if the attacks of 9/11 had not happened?

You mean, what if Bill Clinton had killed Bin Laden when he had the chance?

[Retired Greyhound]

9/11 was going to happen no matter what. Perhaps it would have been a different date, but we were bound to be attacked.

Al Qaeda was at war with us, even though we weren’t at war with them.

So...had 9/11 not happened on 9/11, we would have continued whistling past the graveyard, kicking the can down the road until we were eventually attacked. Everything thereafter would have been largely the same.

This article is a great example of how liberals choose to deal with realities. By playing “what if”.

[Retired Greyhound]

Gary Condit would have continued to be the lead story in the news.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Eventually that world will become reality.

Sooner or later they will push the Russkies or ChiComs too far, and Mecca will become a field of green glass.

[Verginius Rufus]

What if 9/11 had happened earlier, when Clinton was President? He would have done a great job emoting with the victims' families, but probably would have just dropped some bombs on Afghanistan. Whether Gore would have had a better chance at winning in 2000 would have depended on whether another attack took place before November 2000.

If 9/11 had never happened, and the US had never invaded Afghanistan or Iraq, Saddam Hussein would have continued his nuclear arms program and might have succeeded in dropping nukes on Israel by now.

[OneVike]

One can only wish, but by then they would have infiltrated America enough to replace the vast majority of our cathedrals and churches with Mosques as they are in the process of doing in Godless Europe.

[Nowhere Man]

It's hard to say, you let loose a lot of "butterflies" that will change history. I like "what-if's" since I like to read "alternate history."

I know he went over some of this in the article but here goes:

The World Trade Center will still be standing of course as well as a field in Shanksville will most likely be ready to be harvested about now. A friend of mine, his stepfather will still be living, barring natural causes and/or other events. Osama bin Ladin might still be alive unless he succumbed to kidney disease.

Here is where the "butterflies" make it tough but I'll go on with my take.

I'd say the election of 2004 would have been won by Bush, I assume the opponent would by John Kerry, it seemed like it would be his turn. Most likely Saddam Hussein would still be ruling Iraq and if he passed on, it would most likely go to Qusay, his second son. The Taliban would still be in Afghanistan. We might have have to lob a cruise missile to Iraq from time to time. Of course, the people that died as the result of the wars will still be alive and/or passed away from other reasons. Pat Tillman would have gone to have a successful NFL career, as of 2012, might still be playing if not newly retired and serving Fox as a commentator.

The election of 2008, well, tough to say. Without the financial burden of the war, would the financial crash of 2008 happen? Tough to say but maybe with the unspent resources, it could have been handled better to a softer landing. Katrina in 2005 would have been dealt with better too. I do say without the war, I doubt Obama would have an issue to run on. He'd still be in the Illinois State House, a U.S. Senator or causing some trouble being a street agitator. I'd say it would be a Hillary/Dodd vs. McCain/Romney race and I would say McCain would have squeaked by assuring a 3rd term for the GOP. I would see a mild recession but by 2010, we'd pull out of it. 2011, might have seen health issues where McCain might have had to resign, leaving Romney as POTUS.

2012? Hmmmm. Electionwise, Romney for the GOP, I can see him picking Ryan in this alternate timeline. The Democrats, well, Maybe Vilsack/Bayh. Due to the better economy, Romney/Ryan is ahead of Vilsack/Bayh 48/44 but it's too close to call.

I would still see the southern border as a thorn in our side with the illegals coming in but I think the huge scandal of "Fast and Furious" would have been butterflied away. The Middle East in other places would be much the same prior to 9/11, there would have been no "Arab Spring." Europe, maybe without the wars in the Middle East, some of the financial problems can be averted but you'd still have economic problems in the PIIGS, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, with Greece still being the worst.

This is barring of course that Al Quaida would not have pulled another and/or worse attack. Iran would still go on with the atomic missile program but I wonder how a stronger Iraq would affect them, that is tough to say. If Iran would hit Iraq with a nuke, we might have Saddam/Qusay calling US from help, but I'll assume the status quo.

How's that?

[Nowhere Man]

Gary Condit would have continued to be the lead story in the news.

Yeah, I remember that, for some reason, I had a picture in my mind of Condit getting down on his knees and saying, "thank you, God" after 9/11 happened. Later on, he might have still been deemed innocent but it would have been a rougher ride. IIRC, shark bites and overraged little league players were big news too.

[Nowhere Man]

If 9/11 had never happened, and the US had never invaded Afghanistan or Iraq, Saddam Hussein would have continued his nuclear arms program and might have succeeded in dropping nukes on Israel by now.

Hmmm, forgot to take Iraq's nuclear program into account but I think we would still try to strong arm them. Assuming it does go on, we could be facing an India/Pakistan situation with Iran/Iraq.