"what do you think he would have done specifically at that time"
For starters....
Declare war.
Attack al Qaeda (& their backers the Taliban, and Pakistan's CIA, the ISI) in Afghanistan, in Pakistan... wherever they may be hiding.
(In other areas, where they are perhaps not hiding... but may be considering looking for support and succor --- for example, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, etc., etc. --- speak quickly and probably privately with ALL of their leaders. Explain that they are to turn these people away, turn them out, take sufficient actions to be effective at ripping out any internal support systems that may be in place... or we will act independently to achieve this, and to disadvantage them too... because our declaration of war [it being a 'non-state actor' who has attacked us] ALSO is directed at ANY STATE THAT SIDES WITH THOSE WHO ATTACKED US.)
Then, after al Qaeda is demolished to the greatest extent that is possible from military & police actions *alone*, no doubt many American foreign policy decisions will be revisited in the fullness of time, and changed or 'right-sized' to make sure that America receives the very best possible permanent solution to such threats. (And, as cost/effective as possible, considering that we still face lots of other threats, as always. It's a tough old world out there.) |
