How should have Bush responded to 9-11?

Answer 1

Release better information than the 911 Commission provided which now is almost referred to as fiction. Taken better care of first responders and insisted that precautions be mandatory b4 anyone was allowed on site. Gotten better security faster on aircraft before 9-11. Threats were known but not acted upon. Organized FBI< CIA and agencies which failed to work together and communicate prior.
You can Monday morning QB this thing til pigs fly but the results are still the same. What we learn from it is vital. We all hear reports of the American recruited terror cells already here in the US (after the death of al Queda top guy recently).
I can't expect to guess how the current President could have done anything different. I don't have the security clearances he does. Speculate, risky at best promotes an under tone of discontent when America needs to be United. We need to support our leaders and therefore support our troops. I believe they go hand in hand.

Answer 2

Some people who win the lottery end up wasting it, simply because they never earnt it.

Bush with 9-11 was the same. Here the world mourned. Middle eastern students of mine who families had been killed by American bombs were in tears. Whatever Bush could ask for, he would be given.

During the gulf war his father acted the great international statesman. He formed a coalition unlike any seen before. Whether you agree or disagree with that war, the way it was conducted was in many ways a model for international cooperation for the security of soveriegn states.

Bush, with his crony government wasted the opportunity given to them. Iraq is the worst example, but other things can be seen as well. Forced reditions (kidnapping suspects) torture, illegal imprisonment have done little to really deal with this problem.

Whatever is done in such a situation, it should have been an international and unified one, using and strengthing the tools of international government. Instead 9-11 has made international bodies weaker, making the need to terrorism as a means of pursuing justice more important.

9-11 has mostly been forgotten because it was one incident in an ongoing battle. The number of innocent people killed in somewhere like Iraq far outweighs the death toll from that terrible day.

Answer 3

He should have politely excused himself, too bad if the tykes are disappointed, and gone to some bunker, wherever the President goes at a time like that and took command as commander-in-chief. Even aboard Airforce One he could have done something. Apparently it was several hours before he was heard from. Yes, there are concerns for his safety, and rightfully so. But, that should not keep him out of the loop for so long. This is not entirely his fault. Hopefully we learned from it and measures have been put into place so the President, whether Bush or any other, would be in better touch with the world.

Answer 4

His initial response...to come out and bolster the spirits of the nation was correct. And his vengeance plan in Afghanistan was also correct. I don't believe that anyone had any problem with how he responded to 9/11 itself...I believe that the problems began when he deviated from the course and neglected the justice for those lost on 9/11.

Answer 5

I would've liked to see a combo Marshall Plan-Truman Doctrine for the middle-east. Real infrastructure investment, specifically targeting women and practical, not theological teaching. We could certify countries like we do with narcotics source countries, to peg dollars to metrics of progress.

Answer 6

He should have gone after the people responsible with everything he had instead of starting a pointless war in Iraq.

Answer 7

He should have left the classroom quickly and politely, gotten himself to a command center as expitditiously as possible, and put himself in a position to make decisions. That video of him sitting there and reading the children's book is going to haunt him forever, as his subsequent decision to attack the wrong country based on faulty reports of Weapons of mass distraction will.

Answer 8

He should have used it as a pretext to engage the military as the oil companies own private muscle in order to steal other nations oil reserves, and additionally, as a way to roll back the Bill of Rights and begin to inflict fascism and a police state upon the American underclass.

Well, at least that's what he should have done from the perspective of the super-rich.

Answer 9

One line of thinking is that he could have issued an arrest warrent for Bin Ladin, then tried to understand why the terrorists hate us soo much, so we could have open dialogue with them.

Answer 10

Learn to read. So he can read the exit sign.