I Don't Read New York Magazine...

... and this is why.  Asking the question "What if 9/11 never happened" in and of itself is ridiculous... asking that question only five years after the fact is insulting to those who are still suffering the aftermath.  But lets get to the crux of this article.... the real reason for it.  An opportunity to bash Bush...again.

Yet if a war against Islamofascism was unavoidable, the same can’t be said of the other war in which we’re currently, tragically, ensnared. Although many of the neocons in George W. Bush’s administration had long nurtured fantasies of invading Iraq, 9/11 was the sine qua non for the transformation of those dreams into policy. Without the specter of the gruesome atrocity at the World Trade Center, Bush would likely have been unable to induce either Tony Blair or Colin Powell to support him and his doctrine of preemption—and without the complicity of those two, his designs on Baghdad would almost certainly have been stalled in their tracks.

Did you catch the term "neocons"... like that?  How about this...

—it’s difficult to conceive of what Bush’s legacy would be in the absence of 9/11 and its fallout. Rampant profligacy? Record deficits? Slavish fealty to the rich? Quite possibly, all three. Or perhaps, as historian Douglas Brinkley offers , Bush would have defined his administration by taking up the challenge presented by another disaster, Hurricane Katrina: “Rather than standing on the rubble at ground zero with his bullhorn,” Brinkley says, “Bush would best be known for standing on some waterlogged roof in the Ninth Ward.” Or perhaps he would have gone down to defeat in 2004, a 9/11-free election centering on domestic affairs, in which the Democratic candidate, therefore, wouldn’t have been John Kerry but John Edwards or Dick Gephardt—or Al Gore.

Al Gore????.... yeeesh.

But they don't stop at just President Bush..... they throw in a bit of Rudy as well...

Erase 9/11 and the local political scene would be similarly transfigured. Rudy Giuliani’s bank account would be much diminished—and his presidential prospects would be nonexistent.

...and top it all of by calling Leiberman a "putz".  OOPS... that's "a miserable, deluded putz".  Sorry, my mistake.

All of this under the premise of "marking the 5th anniversary of 9/11".  Bullshit.  It's nothing more than another liberal wacko using the anniversary of our nation's greatest tragedy to spew his hatred for this country.

Lisa

Comments

[Lee]

Lisa...I disagree with every conclusion you make in this post.
Every one!

[HC]

Lisa just because one thinks we would be better off if we never invaded Iraq does not mean they hate this country.

Just because one thinks we would be better off if bush lost the last election does not mean they hate this country.

Just because one thinks we would be better off if 911 never happened does not mean they hate this country.

And yes Lisa the NeoCons were looking for a way to sell the invasion of Iraq before 911.

[Chris]

I would love to discuss the political ramifications had there been no 9/11 but I'm still trying to figure out why it is "an insult" to ask the question...

Seems to me this is the typical kind of crap spewed by Republicans. Anyone who questions anything and comes to a different conclusion "hates this country..."

And while the political landscape definately changed because of 9/11 the average American didn't change the way they think or the way they live or the things that they believe are important. We didn't do this because of an absence of leadership at the top and that is why today we aren't any safer than we were before 9/11.

[Matt Hurley]

For the love of all things sacred and holy......

When people say that the dar left that has hijacked the Democratic Party don't get it...this is what they are talking about.

Don't let your blind hatred for President George W. Bush excuse the absolute absurdness of the premise of the question: If 9/11 hadn't happened Bush wouldn't have won re-election. That is politicizing our nation's worst tragedy to an absurd degree.

The uber-liberals on this site really make it difficult to come over here and know that I'm reading Two Babes nd not Daily Kos...

[Lisa]

This article was not an unbiased discussion answering the question. It was an attack on Bush and those who support him and the war in Iraq. New York Rag used the anniversary of this nation's greatest tragedy, in the name of "marking it", to launch said attack.

It ain't rocket science folks.

Matt....you're reading Two Babes... remember, we have an open door policy, unlike most other blogs, conservative or liberal. That's what makes us the Babes.

[Matt Hurley]

Chris: "Seems to me this is the typical kind of crap spewed by Republicans. Anyone who questions anything and comes to a different conclusion "hates this country..."

ME: Seems to me, this is the kind of typical crap spewed by Democrats. Anyone who understands the nature of the enemy MUSt be one of dem dar crazy neo-cons out to blow up the world. YEEEEEE-HA!

Uhh...no. I understand the nature of the enemy we face. And no matter how much wishing of wishes will change what happened on 9/11...so why ask the question in the first place? Unless somebody has invented a time machine that I hven't heard about, the only reason for asking this question is to bash Bush...I got better things to do.

Lisa: "you're reading Two Babes... remember, we have an open door policy, unlike most other blogs, conservative or liberal. That's what makes us the Babes."

ME: Well, you know...sometimes...it is hard to tell. That's all I'm saying... :)

[Drewsmom]

HC, 9/11 happened, what will it take to get the left in this country to take this seriously.
You're gonna get us killed.
Yeah, sometimes I think I am reading Kos or Demoncrat Underground.

[Chris Sears]

9/11 happened. We had been at war with Islamo Facists for a long time, but we chose not to fight back.(THUS 9/11!!!from what UBL stated!) Each time they engaged us, we retreated. How sad for us! How NOT like our brave history.

Spend time deciding what would be if History had not happened??? Who the hell does that? OH... the writers of this!

[kyle]

Leave it to the NewYork magazine to turn it in to a bush thing.
Lisa, hears another reason to not read the NewYork magazine, any one that thinks Al Gore is a good politaion is out of there dam mind.

We need another "man" like slick willy klinton who just decides to attack other countries like Yugoslavia without any provocation. Now there is a manly man. and Hillbillary let him do it too. There's balls under that bush.

As far as asking questions, that is not the problem. Asking intelligent questions in an honest quest for the knowledge is quite another thing from what Lee and HC do. They blindly hate and detest, as do many others in this country, anything and everything that does not dovetail to their skewed world view. Given further that neither of them and not many of the uberliberal leftists out there have ever gotten off their asses and truly gotten in the arena, or bothered to learn much of anything about the enemy we face, really diminished their value to the discussion. I like to be informed before I participate in a discussion, so I can actually contribute something of value to it. Screaming this stupid shit about Bush stole two elections, and bush staged 9/11 and on and on and on, is just mentally retarded, but it is funny as hell to normal folks.