AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY (from Gregg Easterbrook's Easterblogg)

The New Republic Online ^ | April 9, 2004 | Gregg Easterbrook

[TheMole]

Washington, April 9, 2004. A hush fell over the city as George W. Bush today became the first president of the United States ever to be removed from office by impeachment. Meeting late into the night, the Senate unanimously voted to convict Bush following a trial on his bill of impeachment from the House.

Moments after being sworn in as the 44th president, Dick Cheney said that disgraced former national security adviser Condoleezza Rice would be turned over to the Hague for trial in the International Court of Justice as a war criminal. Cheney said Washington would "firmly resist" international demands that Bush be extradited for prosecution as well.

On August 7, 2001, Bush had ordered the United States military to stage an all-out attack on alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan. Thousands of U.S. special forces units parachuted into this neutral country, while air strikes targeted the Afghan government and its supporting military. Pentagon units seized abandoned Soviet air bases throughout Afghanistan, while establishing support bases in nearby nations such as Uzbekistan. Simultaneously, FBI agents throughout the United States staged raids in which dozens of men accused of terrorism were taken prisoner.

Reaction was swift and furious. Florida Senator Bob Graham said Bush had "brought shame to the United States with his paranoid delusions about so-called terror networks." British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused the United States of "an inexcusable act of conquest in plain violation of international law." White House chief counterterrorism advisor Richard Clarke immediately resigned in protest of "a disgusting exercise in over-kill."

When dozens of U.S. soldiers were slain in gun battles with fighters in the Afghan mountains, public opinion polls showed the nation overwhelmingly opposed to Bush's action. Political leaders of both parties called on Bush to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan immediately. "We are supposed to believe that attacking people in caves in some place called Tora Bora is worth the life of even one single U.S. soldier?" former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey asked.

When an off-target U.S. bomb killed scores of Afghan civilians who had taken refuge in a mosque, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Aznar announced a global boycott of American products. The United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn the United States, and Washington was forced into the humiliating position of vetoing a Security Council resolution declaring America guilty of "criminal acts of aggression."

Bush justified his attack on Afghanistan, and the detention of 19 men of Arab descent who had entered the country legally, on grounds of intelligence reports suggesting an imminent, devastating attack on the United States. But no such attack ever occurred, leading to widespread ridicule of Bush's claims. Speaking before a special commission created by Congress to investigate Bush's anti-terrorism actions, former national security adviser Rice shocked and horrified listeners when she admitted, "We had no actionable warnings of any specific threat, just good reason to believe something really bad was about to happen."

The president fired Rice immediately after her admission, but this did little to quell public anger regarding the war in Afghanistan. When it was revealed that U.S. special forces were also carrying out attacks against suspected terrorist bases in Indonesia and Pakistan, fury against the United States became universal, with even Israel condemning American action as "totally unjustified."

Speaking briefly to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before a helicopter carried him out of Washington as the first-ever president removed by impeachment, Bush seemed bitter. "I was given bad advice," he insisted. "My advisers told me that unless we took decisive action, thousands of innocent Americans might die. Obviously I should not have listened."

Announcing his candidacy for the 2004 Republican presidential nomination, Senator John McCain said today that "George W. Bush was very foolish and naïve; he didn't realize he was being pushed into this needless conflict by oil interests that wanted to seize Afghanistan to run a pipeline across it." McCain spoke at a campaign rally at the World Trade Center in New York City.

[Thebaddog]

What is this jive?

[Criminal Number 18F]

Satire.

I particularly liked the line about "thousands of special forces." It actually was about 120, peak, before the taliban fell...

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Lily4Jesus]

plain stupidity

[GeronL]

Kathleen Parker did it first, now everybody is taking turns. =o)

[WOSG]

As opposed to

Plane Insanity

which is what the real 9/11 was.

[jnarcus]

It is exactly what WOULD have happened had Bush responded to his PDB of August 6th with a preemptive strike to prevent Sept 11th which is what all the morons are screaming about now. What is really frustrating is that Bush and his people seem to be incapable of answering the current attacks and act as if everything is wonderful and fine. The coming election is so very important and all he can focus on seems to be more goodies for the illegal aliens swarming across our borders. If you are the praying type I would recommend some hearty prayers of great urgency

[swilhelm73]

So now the Democrats are trying to make the blame for 9/11 a campaign issue, and stick it on Bush.

When 9/11 actually happened there was alot of anger directed at Clinton, across the board. Closer to the time frame, people remembered that Clinton had ignored the terror threat, and that the Democrats screwed around both with the election and Bush's appointments of National Security staff to spite him.

The Democrats at the time argued that we shouldn't be pinning the blame on anyone; no one could have seen it coming and we needed unity in the face of a foreign threat.

Clinton had been a joke in regards to foreign policy, as even his admirers would admit - at least then.

Now that memories have faded a bit though, we see the Democrats using their media tools to try and reverse their previous claims.

Bombing an aspirin factory and lobbing a few cruise missiles was the perfect reponse even though it had no effect. Further, while they oppose the Patriot Act now, these Democrats argue Bush should have managed to pass it before 9/11 over their certain objections, and while they oppose Bush's preemption strategy, they believe he should have developed his preemption strategy pre-9/11.

[Hun in the sun]

"Satire"

Yeah, so blame the canadian jews for 0911...
Here is the evidence:

http://www.lyricscafe.com/c/cohen_leonard/first_we_take_manhattan.html

...guess we should begin to block the Berlin
airspace *right now*....

Hun

[The Raven]

ping