Posted on 09/24/2006 3:54:25 AM PDT by Hadean
Setting off ten, or a hundred, 1-2kT nukes would do nothing of the sort. It would cause 60 days of disruption, and (hopefully) seriously piss us off, but that's about it.
Even 7-10 real nukes (like, 100kT and up), which AQ does not have and cannot get, would not "destroy America".
It would put a serious hurt on Pakistan, though.
Why wait till it happens? In law, a threat is an actionable offense.
We are very close to being like France politically. Why are we waiting for it to happen?
If there was such a thing as suitcase nukes, Al Qaida would have already used them.
If they had them they would have used them already.
Pardon me? NY and DC also have Americans living in them. ~And my family in both..
On the other hand, maybe the top Moo's have figured that one out, and they intend to go after second-tier, red-state cities that give the Republicans some of their best ballot boxes. Cities like Dallas, Fort Worth, Indianapolis..... but that's a short list, I admit. Cities tend to be full of needy "client" voters who vote straight-ticket Democrats, so I don't see how Osama could do himself much good, striking at a city center full of Democrats.
Alternatively, he could try to bag more Republicans by going after city-centers full of office workers who have rightward tendencies in their voting patterns; i.e. they vote in the suburbs but work downtown. But an attack like that would still involve attacking a city center and thus striking at a center of Democratic support.
It's like that old saw about "a neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged". Anything like this would tend to galvanize all but the squishiest, topsidiest, ivory-tower-infestingest Democrats into "Killthemooslimcrats". I agree with you, this move is a loser for Bin Laden in the States, and so he's got to be playing to another audience, for other reasons.
I think he wants to become the guardian of the shrines and overrun Western Europe -- he keeps moaning about the Moors' loss of Spain -- so this would be a leadership bid within the Umma, one-upping the House of Saud and making them look like nothing ("I nuked America -- what have you done for Islam lately?"), and leading the Moslem world on a demographic and/or ideological and/or terroristic assault on the West.
I don't think he's really thought out the next move after that. He seems not to believe that we would really do anything after he nuked us -- that we'd all be cowering in our houses or something.
This almost stinks exactly like the "aids infected phone booths" or "gas station butcher" emails that go flying around once in a while
Plus over the last 30 years we've had a migration of business to the suburbs. In the Philadelphia, for example, there are far more office buildings along the Route 202 corridor to the north of the city, than there are left in Philadelphia's center. The middle class is mostly in the dispersed suburbs as well.
Dont' ya' know the repubs would do such a things to fear monger the american public? /sarc.
Well...maybe they just finally got them?
Well, my life is filled with an old boy scout motto...
And I won't let DENIAL come between my family and certain death, if I can help it.
http://www.millennium-ark.net/News_Files/menu.nuke.html
Action: Al Qaeda stages 9/11 attack
Result: United States liberates Afghanistan & Iraq
Action: Al Qaeda stages nuclear attack on United States
Result: United States liberates Iran & Syria
Al Qaeda knows the writing is on the wall for Islamic Nations with Bush in command.
Therefore, the logical alternative would be to stage something that would sweep the liberals into power, just like they did in Spain.
I purport that Usama & Company will try to discredit the Bush Administration which will result in a Democrat sweep in November. Look for something to happen in Iraq.
Im no longer buying into these terrorist big mouth scare tactics. Fear is no way to go through life.
That would pretty much gut slash the American democrat party..
Then the War on Terror could get serious..
Laughable.
Thanks for stating my sentiments. You want to yell NTSA (Not This Sh#$ Again!) because someone is selling a book or pimping their blog by yelling this, BUT the real warning is going to get lost in the chatter...
I thought he was dead.
There was a prediction some years back that a leader in a light blue hat/beret/helmet would be the one to launch the most devastating, successful attacks agains the USA. With access to a lot of the US infrastructure, a UN envoy would have perfect cover for setting up our destruction.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.