[Numbers Guy]

Saving 3,000 Americans working in the Pentagon and World Trade Center buildings would have been a "bad outcome?" I think it would have been the least bad of all outcomes.

Of course it would have been the least bad . . . but suppose we did have "indications" that they were headed for buildings? Not firm indications, but pretty strong hints.

And suppose Bush gave the order and our fighters intercepted the jets and shot them down?

Don't you think Bush would have caught holy hell about the decision to shoot down those planes? People would say "yes, they had been hijacked, but they probably just wanted ransom, so why kill the hostages?"

The administration would come back with information indicating that the planes were headed for major buildings.

So we'd hear, "that *could* have happened, but we don't *know* that. Besides, who's to say they could have accurately directed a plane into a building anyway?"

Frankly, Bush would have gotten fried by the media and the Democrats if the planes had been shot down. We just didn't visualize a plane being used as a weapon in that way, and without an example of it actually happening, the press, the Dems, and many in the public would have gone bananas.

[ladyinred]

Oh you are so right. The media would have had a fit and the RATs would never stop berating Bush and he would be up for impeachment if that had taken place.
Having said that, I think in the future, this might have to be done, and if the media and rats use it against him, so be it. This is war, something this country doesn't seem to understand.