So, former-German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, is reporting that immediately following 9/11, George Bush considered using nuclear weapons againt Afghanistan in retaliation.
I seriously doubt that.
First, war planning includes literally every eventuality, weapon, and outcome when the Pentagon war-games different scenarios. That's not the same as "considering" nuking somebody.
Second, we would never nuke a country simply because a terror group operated against us out of their country. If the Afghan government had sponsored it, planned it, and executed it, then yes, nukes would definitely have been seriously considered, though I'm not sure we'd have used them even then.
Lastly, overreaction is always a possibility when 3,000 civilians are murdered in cold blood in such a spectacular way. Fortunatly Bush didn't overreact, he invaded Iraq a year later instead. We can argue about the wisdom and outcome of that, but overreaction isn't something normally associated with US military policy and it wasn't a factor in Bush's handling of 9/11 retaliation.
6 comments:
"...Bush didn't overreact, he invaded Iraq a year later instead."
I'm curious, Ed. What was the connection between 9/11 and Iraq that causes you to call the U.S. invasion of that country "9/11 retaliation"?
Isaac, you missed the part where I was facetious. Obviously Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, the Afghan government had nothing(directly) to do with 9/11, but Bush had to do something as the American people were damanding that somebody pay the piper, so the next best thing was to invade Iraq and depose Saddam.
Was Saddam a suborner of international terrorism against western interests? Probably.
Did he finance 9/11? No.
Was he a bad enough dude that nobody would complain if we got rid of him in the process of exorcising our 9/11 demons? Not really.
That's all I'm saying.
Let me get this straight. In retaliation for 9/11 the U.S. devastated two countries, killed untold thousands of innocent people, wounded and maimed even more, and displaced still more, none of whom had anything at all to do with 9/11, and you STILL think that Americans are an exceptional people and that America is a light on a hill?
FOr the most part, yeah.
We didn't state that going into Iraq was our stated revenge for 9/11, but we as a nation needed to kick the shit out of somebody over there, and Saddam was a bad enough character to be the right guy for the job.
When I ran across the trailer below, I couldn't help but be reminded of Ed's tolerance of, if not support for, America's many foreign interventions.
Why They Hate Us
A frequent theme nowadays is “Why do they hate us?” meaning why does so much of the world detest the United States. The reasons given are usually absurd: They hate our freedom or democracy. They hate us for our cultural superiority. They hate us because we are wonderful.
No. Actually the reason is simple if unpalatable. They hate us because we meddle, and have meddled. They hate us because we are the most murderous nation on the planet. They hate our insufferable smugness.
Actually Isaac, I agree more with the reasons you gave than I do with the ones with which you credited me.
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