The lesson of Katrina is that following the destruction of even a moderate sized city, it might not be economically possible or even desirable to rebuild immediately.
“I’m not sure that losing even a major city would send the entire economy “into a tail spin” — at least not in the long term.”
I was under the impression that 9/11 took a heck of a lot of spending and creativity to keep the economy from floundering and businesses from collapsing.
A deeper more focused, yet wider ranging body blow could slam our economy to a point where there wasn’t enough bench depth to stop the tailspin down.
A deep powerful ripple coupled with massive evacuation from damaged and contaminated areas with long term infrastructure damage and more contaminated communities downwind could create a refugee problem much worse than New Orleans.
Are you kidding? If either D.C. or say Chicago were hit with somthing big, killing a million people, most in this country would be heading for the tall grass, hunkering down, no vacations, and for the most part the only things that would be purchased would be survival supplies for a long time. Many wouldn't even go to work for days or even weeks.
Things would change in a slit second. Our economy would be belly up for many years to follow. The mood of many people would be hostile and legitimately so.
Two big questions would immediately surface. What would our leadership do about it, and after 1 million dead, would the borders of our country become secure, and would we finally get serious about immigration reform and who we allow into our homeland.
If it was discovered these terrorist had entered this country illegally through Mexico, or even legally, flying in in first class, this administration would implode, and the anger and outrage would be of historic proportions.
It would - because it would be accompanied by a threat that another unnamed city will be destroyed soon by a bomb already in place unless Islamist demands are met. That uncertainty would set off a mass exodus from American cities and lead to incredible economic dislocations, as few would be willing to stay behind and do the work necessary to keep infrastructures operational. Federal martial law would quickly follow.
New Orleans is a transfer station from ship to barge and ship to rail. That capability was not lost, so NO is effectively as operational as before: no net loss.
Three nukes, real ones not these backpack firecrackers or quasi-nuke dirty bombs, would take any country down for a century.