I was watching T.V tonight and watched a show before 9/11 happened. It was about how the Saudis were showing the U.S a demand for a peace initiative for Israel, and I was thinking how our lives were so different. I can’t place my finger on what kinda feeling it was of pre 9/11 but I wonder, what would of happened if 9/11 was just another day of the year? How would things be now?
I know Iraq and Afghanistan wouldn’t of been invaded/liberated, but what other things would of happened?
A 9/11 attack was inevitable to happen at some point. Our security would be even laxer than it is now. If not the WTC, then bridges, or federal buildings, or something.
Obviously, politics would be a lot different. I’m not sure if it would be easier or harder for Bush - I’d imaging a lot harder for Bush, but harder to a lesser extent for Kerry as well.
I know Iraq and Afghanistan wouldn’t of been invaded/liberated, but what other things would of happened?
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Some would argue that the PNAC was going to invade Iraq anyway, and 9/11 just gave them an excuse to move it up on their schedule. Just saying, some would argue that.
Relations with China seemed pretty low, and there seemed to be this ‘lull’ in world affairs like some sort of stagnation, its kinda weird but thats the feeling I have on it. More likely less world attention on world affairs such as terrorism.
But in my OP I meant to describe Al Queda as not being as powerful as it is, just like another one of those countless organisations which muslims declare ‘jihad’ but in a more bark than bite sort of thing.
I reckon hatred for Bush would of been more like the disdain for Carter, ineffectual and too forceful on issues where a good amount of care was needed (e.g Aids, trade tariffs, Saudi and Palestinian situations)
Well, we wouldn’t be substituting “of” for “have.” 
Seriously, though, I agree with Zagadka that I’m not sure it’s realistic to speculate on such a thing. Long before 9/11, terrorism was a fact of life, and something along its lines was inevitable. We should be glad that we didn’t start thinking of these things because of a nuclear strike or something.
Bushco was planning on going into Iraq by any means neccessary. So this war would be going even without 9/11.
They were planning it pre 9/11.
Maybe if Bush wanted Iraq he would of done it more in the style of like what happened in Afghanistan.
Don’t forget that the first attack on the World Trade Centers was intended to cause damage of the magnitude that happened on 9/11, but it thankfully did not destroy the whole tower.
Even with that, we had the U.S.S. Cole bombing, the American Embassy bombing and other acts of terrorism around the world against U.S. related targets (the Marine barracks in Lebanon comes to mind,) but our leaders have ignored the issue of Arab Islamist terrorism because of our connections with the Saudis.
The power of 9/11 was not the number of people killed; it was the surprise of the attack, the fact that it caught the whole country completely off guard. Terrorism up until then was something that happened in the world outside, not inside the borders of the safe and secure U.S.
It also underscored the fact that it doesn’t take much to throw this country into an economic and political tailspin. Imagine if an Iranian or North Korean nuke was smuggled into Manhattan on a freighter (or even detonated right in the harbor.)
Just try to imagine what would happen to this country if the island of Manhattan was destroyed. Your stocks would be worthless, for one; many major corporations would be defunct, the damage would make the Great Depression child’s play. It would be an utter nightmare.
And it would be easy to do!