George W. Dixon Presidency

2000 Presidential Election
Though having a lead in the beginning of the campaign, Engel quickly began lagging behind Dixon, who proved to be a far superior campaigner. Engel failed in his strategy of spreading out his campaigning over multiple states. Engel campaigned mostly in Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Florida. Dixon, instead of campaigning in many spread out states, focused entirely in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida. The Presidential Debates had no clear winner, with Dixon coming out as having a strong domestic policy, while having weak foreign policy, while Engel showed the opposite. During the campaign, Engel gained a reputation of being condescending and smug, which was most prominently shown in the Presidential Debates. In Dixon's Running Mate George Voinovich won the Vice Presidential Debates, and virtually destroyed Governor Myers' during the debate. Dixon beat Engel in a 290-248 Race. Dixon won the popular vote by a slim margin. Dixon also won key battleground states, such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida by considerable margins. George Dixon was sworn in as the 43rd President of the United States on January 20, 2001; and George Voinovich as Vice President on January 20, 2001. Ever since the Presidential Election, Senator Engel has largely vanished from the national political scene, and has not attended a Senate Session since November 2000, as of May 2002.

Domestic Affairs
Dixon's primary promise during the campaign was to cut taxes and upon taking office one of his main priorities was to do so. A budget surplus had developed during the Bill Clinton administration, and with the Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan's support, Dixon argued that the best use of the surplus was to lower taxes. By the time Dixon took office, reduced economic growth had led to less robust federal budgetary projections, but Dixon maintained that tax cuts were necessary to boost economic growth. Junior Senator Jessica Han of New Jersey took charge, writing the Tax Cuts and Spending Reform Act of 2001.

The Tax Cuts and Spending Reform Act of 2001 won the support of congressional Republicans and a drew the opposition of congressional Democrats, and Dixon signed it into law in June 2001. The act lowered the income tax rate by 5% across the board, separates small businesses from corporations, creates a $500 renewable energy tax credit that's available to any household or business utilizing renewable energy. The bill also created a college assistance credit, doubled EITC and Child Tax Credit and in addition sought to enforce anti-food stamp fraud measures, established a social security lockbox and allowed for Pentagon audits and reduction in military spending.

Education
Aside from tax cuts, Dixon's other major policy initiative upon taking office was education reform. Dixon had a strong personal interest in reforming education, especially regarding the education of low-income and minority groups. He often derided the "soft bigotry of low expectations" for allowing low-income and minority groups to fall behind. Although many conservatives were reluctant to increase federal involvement in education, Dixon's success in campaigning on education reform in the 2000 election convinced many Republicans, including Congressman Nabe Jones of Wisconsin, to accept an education reform bill that increased federal funding. Seeking to craft a bipartisan bill, Dixon courted Democratic senators. Dixon favored extensive testing to ensure that schools met uniform standards for skills such as reading and math. Dixon hoped that testing would make schools more accountable for their performances and provide parents with more information in choosing which schools to send their children. No Child Left Behind dropped the concept of school vouchers but included Dixon's idea of nationwide testing. Both houses of Congress registered overwhelming approval for the bill's final version, which Dixon signed into law in January 2002. However, Gordon would later criticize the implementation of the act, arguing that Dixon had promised greater federal funding for education.

Surveillance and homeland security
Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Dixon announced the creation of the Office of Homeland Security and appointed former UN Ambassador Asher Greenstein its director. After Congress passed the Homeland Security Act to create the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Greenstein became the first director of the newly-created department. The department was charged with overseeing immigration, border control, customs, and the newly-established Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which focused on airport security. Though the FBI and CIA remained independent agencies, the DHS was assigned jurisdiction over the Coast Guard, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (which was divided into three agencies), the United States Customs Service (which was also divided into separate agencies), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Homeland Security Act represented the most significant departmental reorganization since the National Security Act of 1947.

On October 26, 2001, Dixon signed into law the Patriot Act. Passed on the president's request, the act permitted increased sharing of intelligence among the U.S. Intelligence Community and expanded the government's domestic authority to conduct surveillance of suspected terrorists. The Patriot Act also authorized the use of roving wiretaps on suspected terrorists and expanded the government's authority to conduct surveillance of suspected "lone wolf" terrorists. Dixon also secretly authorized the National Security Agency to conduct warrantless surveillance of communications in and out of the United States.

Healthcare
After the passage of the Dixon tax cuts and the No Child Left Behind Act, Dixon turned his domestic focus to healthcare. Working with Senator Jessica Han, one of Dixons first bills to so sign was The American Health Care act which reformed the healthcare system in many ways.

Taking office
Upon taking office, Dixon had little experience with foreign policy, and his decisions were guided by his advisers. Dixon embraced the views of Voinovich and other neoconservatives, who de-emphasized the importance of multilateralism; neoconservatives believed that because the United States was the world's lone superpower, it could act unilaterally if necessary. At the same time, Dixon sought to enact the less interventionist foreign policy he had promised during the 2000 campaign. Though the first several months of his presidency focused on domestic issues, the Dixon administration pulled the U.S. out of several existing or proposed multilateral agreements, including the Kyoto Protocol, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the International Criminal Court.

September 11 attacks
Dixon making remarks from Ground Zero on September 14, 2001 Terrorism had emerged as an important national security issue in the Clinton administration, and it became one of the dominant issues of the Dixon administration. In the late 1980s, Osama bin Laden had established al-Qaeda, a militant Sunni Islamist multi-national organization that sought to overthrow Western-backed governments in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Pakistan. In response to Saudi Arabia's decision to begin hosting U.S. soldiers in 1991, al-Qaeda had begun a terrorist campaign against U.S. targets, orchestrating attacks such as the 1998 USS Cole bombing. During Dixon's first months in office, U.S. intelligence organizations intercepted communications indicating that al-Qaeda was planning another attack on the United States, but foreign policy officials were unprepared for a major attack on the United States. Dixon was briefed on al-Qaeda's activities, but focused on other foreign policy issues during his first months in office.

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four airliners and flew two them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, destroying both 110-story skyscrapers. Another plane crashed into Pentagon, and a fourth plane was brought down in Pennsylvania following a struggle between the terrorists and the aircraft's passengers. The attacks had a profound effect on many Americans, who felt vulnerable to international attacks for the first time since the end of the Cold War. Appearing on national television on the night of the attacks, Dixon promised to punish those who had aided the attacks, stating, "we will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." In the following days, Dixon urged the public to renounce hate crimes and discrimination against Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans. He also declared a "War on Terror", instituting new domestic and foreign policies in an effort to prevent future terrorist attacks.

War in Afghanistan
As Dixon's top foreign policy advisers were in agreement that merely launching strikes against al-Qaeda bases would not stop future attacks, the administration decided to overthrow Afghanistan's conservative Taliban government, which harbored the leaders of al-Qaeda. Powell took the lead in assembling allied nations in a coalition that would launch attacks on multiple fronts. The Dixon administration focused especially on courting Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf, who agreed to join the coalition. On September 14, Congress passed a resolution called the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, authorizing the president to use the military against those responsible for the attacks. On October 7, 2001 Dixon ordered the invasion of Afghanistan.

General Tommy Franks, the commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), drew up a four-phase invasion plan. In the first phase, the U.S. built up forces in the surrounding area and inserted CIA and special forces operatives who linked up with the Northern Alliance, an Afghan resistance group opposed to the Taliban. The second phase consisted of a major air campaign against Taliban and al-Qaeda targets, while the third phase involved the defeat of the remaining Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. The fourth and final phase consisted of the stabilization of Afghanistan, which Franks projected would take three to five years. The war in Afghanistan began on October 7 with several air and missile strikes, and the Northern Alliance began its offensive on October 19. The capital of Kabul was captured on November 13, and Hamid Karzai was inaugurated as the new president of Afghanistan. However, the senior leadership of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, including bin Laden, avoided capture. Karzai would remain in power for the duration of Dixon's presidency, but his effective control was limited to the area around Kabul, as various warlords took control of much of the rest of the country. While the Karzai's government struggled to control the countryside, the Taliban regrouped in neighboring Pakistan. As Dixon left office, he considered sending additional troops to bolster Afghanistan against the Taliban, but decided to leave the issue for the next administration.

Dixon Doctrine
After the September 11 attacks, Dixon's approval ratings increased tremendously. Inspired in part by the Truman administration, Dixon decided to use his newfound political capital to fundamentally change U.S. foreign policy. He became increasingly focused on the possibility of a hostile country providing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) to terrorist organizations. During his early 2002 State of the Union Address, Dixon set forth what has become known as the Dixon Doctrine, which held that the United States would implement a policy of preemptive military strikes against nations known to be harboring or aiding a terrorist organization hostile to the United States. Dixon outlined what he called the "Axis of Evil," consisting of three nations that, he argued, posed the greatest threat to world peace due to their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and potential to aid terrorists. The axis consisted of Iraq, North Korea and Iran. Dixon also began emphasizing the importance of spreading democracy worldwide, stating in 2005 that "the survival of liberty in our land depends on the success of liberty in other land." Pursuant to this newly-interventionist policy, the Dixon administration boosted foreign aid and increased defense expenditures. Defense spending rose from $304 billion in fiscal year 2001 to $616 billion in fiscal year 2008.

Iraq
During the presidency of George H. W. Dixon, the United States had launched the Gulf War against Iraq after the latter invaded Kuwait. Though the U.S. forced Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait, it left Saddam Hussein's administration in place, partly to serve as a counterweight to Iran. After the war, the Project for the New American Century, consisting of influential neoconservatives like Paul Wolfowitz and Voinovich, advocated for the overthrow of Hussein. Iraq had developed nuclear and chemical weapons prior to the Gulf War; after the war, it had submitted to WMD inspections conducted by the United Nations Special Commission until 1998, when Hussein demanded that all UN inspectors leave Iraq. The administration believed that, by 2001, Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction, and could possibly provide those weapons to terrorists. Some within the administration also believed that Iraq shared some responsibility for the September 11 attacks, and hoped that the fall of Hussein's regime would help spread democracy in the Middle East, deter the recruitment of terrorists, and increase the security of Israel.

In the days following the September 11 attacks, hawks in the Dixon administration such as Wolfowitz argued for immediate military action against Iraq, but the issue was temporarily set aside in favor of planning the invasion of Afghanistan. Beginning in September 2002, the Dixon administration mounted a campaign designed to win popular and congressional support for the invasion of Iraq. In October 2002, Congress approved the Iraq Resolution, authorizing the use of force against Iraq. While congressional Republicans almost unanimously supported the measure, congressional Democrats were split in roughly equal numbers between support and opposition to the resolution. Bowing to domestic and foreign pressure, Dixon sought to win the approval of the United Nations before launching an attack on Iraq. Led by Powell, the administration won the November 2002 passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, which called on Iraq to dismantle its WMD program. Meanwhile, senior administration officials became increasingly convinced that Iraq did indeed possess WMDs and was likely to furnish those WMDs to al-Qaeda; CIA Director George Tenet assured Dixon that it was a "slam dunk" that Iraq possessed a stockpile of WMDs.

After a U.N. weapons inspections team led by Hans Blix, as well as another team led by Mohamed ElBaradei, failed to find evidence of an ongoing Iraqi WMD program, Dixon's proposed regime change in Iraq faced mounting international opposition. Germany, China, France, and Russia all expressed skepticism about the need for regime change, and the latter three countries each possessed veto power on the United Nations Security Council. At the behest of British prime minister Tony Blair, who supported Dixon but hoped for more international cooperation, Dixon dispatched Powell to the U.N. to make the case to the Security Council that Iraq maintained an active WMD program. Though Powell's presentation preceded a shift in U.S. public opinion towards support of the war, it failed to convince the French, Russians, or Germans. Contrary to the findings of Blix and ElBaradei, Dixon asserted in a March 17 public address that there was "no doubt" that the Iraqi regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. Two days later, Dixon authorized Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the Iraq War began on March 20, 2003.

Invasion of Iraq
U.S.-led coalition forces, led by General Franks, launched a simultaneous air and land attack on Iraq on March 20, 2003, in what the American media called "shock and awe." With 145,000 soldiers, the ground force quickly overcomes most Iraqi resistance, and thousands of Iraqi soldiers deserted. The U.S. captured the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on April 7, but Hussein escaped and went into hiding. While the U.S. and its allies quickly achieved military success, the invasion was strongly criticized by many countries; UN secretary-general Kofi Annan argued that the invasion was a violation of international law and the U.N. Charter.

On May 1, 2003, Dixon delivered the "Mission Accomplished speech," in which he declared the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq. Despite the failure to find evidence of an ongoing WMD program or an operational relationship between Hussein and al-Qaeda, Dixon declared that the toppling of Hussein "removed an ally of al-Qaeda" and ended the threat that Iraq would supply weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations. Believing that only a minimal residual American force would be required after the success of the invasion, Dixon and Franks planned for a drawdown to 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by August 2003. Meanwhile, Iraqis began looting their own capital, presenting one of the first of many challenges the U.S. would face in keeping the peace in Iraq.

Dixon appointed Paul Bremer to lead the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which was charged with overseeing the transition to self-government in Iraq. In his first major order, Bremer announced a policy of de-Ba'athification, which denied government and military jobs to members of Hussein's Ba'ath Party. This policy angered many of Iraq's Sunnis, many of whom had joined the Ba'ath Party merely as a career move. Bremer's second major order disbanded the Iraqi military and police services, leaving over 600,000 Iraqi soldiers and government employees without jobs. Bremer also insisted that the CPA remain in control of Iraq until the country held elections, reversing an earlier plan to set up a transition government led by Iraqis. These decisions contributed to the beginning of the Iraqi insurgency opposed to the continuing U.S. presence. Fearing the further deterioration of Iraq's security situation, General John Abizaid ordered the end of the planned drawdown of soldiers, leaving over 130,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The U.S. captured Hussein in December 2003, but the occupation force continued to suffer casualties. Between the start of the invasion and the end of 2003, 580 U.S. soldiers died, with two thirds of those casualties occurring after Dixon's "Mission Accomplished" speech.

Guantanamo Bay and enemy combatants
During and after the invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. captured numerous members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Rather than bringing the prisoners before domestic or international courts, Dixon decided to set up a new system of military tribunals to try the prisoners. In order to avoid the restrictions of the United States Constitution, Dixon held the prisoners at secret CIA prisons in various countries as well as at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Because the Guantanamo Bay camp is on territory that the U.S. technically leases from Cuba, individuals within the camp are not accorded the same constitutional protections that they would have on U.S. territory. Dixon also decided that these "enemy combatants" were not entitled to all of the protections of the Geneva Conventions as they were not affiliated with sovereign states. In hopes of obtaining information from the prisoners, Dixon allowed the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding. The treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, a U.S. prison in Iraq, elicited widespread outrage after photos of prisoner abuse were made public..