Why has America escaped the terrorists?

[Lusankya]

Personally I'm somewhat surprised that they're not attacking targets that will screw up our way of life more. If I were a terrorist leader, I'd send people to blow up all of the sewerage treatment works in America, expecially those serving the largest cities. Now that would be more effective than holding up the public transport system for a day.

[Knife]

Hero complex. Your aren't the shinning Paladin of Islam for blowing up the infidel's toilets, rather you get to be a hero for blowing up their buildings and large symbols.

You're right, there are any number of targets out there that would either inconvience and/or hurt us more than what these ass hats are doing, yet the press coverage and the water cooler talk (or what ever the lingo is in the ME) wouldn't be there for small hits like that.

They'd be fighting a more effecient WAR but not necessarily a better PR WAR.

[Darth Wong]

I really hope I am not tempting fate here, but is anyone else surprised that America has not seen a major attack since 11th September? Considering the ease that terrorists seem to have attacked England I am puzzled as to why the Great Satan has not seem equally terrible attacks. Are the zealots content with killing American soldiers? Or can we expect an attack sooner rather than later in NYC, Boston etc?

Divide and Conquer. Oldest military strategy in the book. Divide your enemy, and strike at the weakest or most accessible point. It's really not that revolutionary or confusing.

[FSTargetDrone]

Personally I'm somewhat surprised that they're not attacking targets that will screw up our way of life more. If I were a terrorist leader, I'd send people to blow up all of the sewerage treatment works in America, expecially those serving the largest cities. Now that would be more effective than holding up the public transport system for a day.

Or if you simply wanted to freak people out you'd, say, send a True Believer into a shopping mall at Christmas time with an explosive belt or a few easily-obtainable automatic weapons. Heck, send a dozen similarly-equipped martyrs-to-be to several major malls, all over the country and see what happens. Or any other sort of public space with lots of people and little-to-no security. County fairs, outdoor concerts, churches, temples, movie theaters, anyplace like that.

That's the sort of situation that concerns me the most, more than attacking sewage plants or power stations, which (hopefully) have at least some sort of rudimentary security, and strange people would be presumably more noticable. Situations like the one I mentioned above don't seem to need a lot of imagination or sophistication. And it's not like this would be some kind of unprecedented occurance. We've all seen or heard of suicide bombers throughout the Middle East attacking people in shopping areas, tourist locales, etc. That this sort of thing hasn't happened in the US is somewhat surprising to me.

[Johnny Ipcress]

I'd have told my allies "Shut up, it was one guy, not worth the deaths of millions". They fucked up by escelating the situation for no real fucking gain. I mean hell, germany was at least trying to get resources when it started WW2. WW1 started because a terrorist assisinated a duke.

That's a ridiculous thing to believe.

[Ender]

I'd have told my allies "Shut up, it was one guy, not worth the deaths of millions". They fucked up by escelating the situation for no real fucking gain. I mean hell, germany was at least trying to get resources when it started WW2. WW1 started because a terrorist assisinated a duke.

That's a ridiculous thing to believe.

Well gee, that's a stunning rebuttal. You do realize that something mroe then trite comments are expected from you here, right?

[Johnny Ipcress]

Well gee, that's a stunning rebuttal. You do realize that something mroe then trite comments are expected from you here, right?

I don't want to give you a frigging history lesson. Besides, this isn't the thread to do that in. I'm merely telling you that there's more to it than what you said but I would have though you'd know that.

And anyway, from what I've gathered here, the ability to make trite comments seems to be the most praiseworthy attribute one can have.

[TimothyC]

Or if you simply wanted to freak people out you'd, say, send a True Believer into a shopping mall at Christmas time with an explosive belt or a few easily-obtainable automatic weapons. Heck, send a dozen similarly-equipped martyrs-to-be to several major malls, all over the country and see what happens. Or any other sort of public space with lots of people and little-to-no security. County fairs, outdoor concerts, churches, temples, movie theaters, anyplace like that.

Shades of "Teeth of the Tiger". Some one around here said it best with "The Best way to come up with way to kill lots of people is to read Clancy".

[Darth Wong]

Well gee, that's a stunning rebuttal. You do realize that something mroe then trite comments are expected from you here, right?

I don't want to give you a frigging history lesson. Besides, this isn't the thread to do that in. I'm merely telling you that there's more to it than what you said but I would have though you'd know that.

Obviously, you don't understand the fucking rules. Either back up your claims or shut the fuck up, moron.

And anyway, from what I've gathered here, the ability to make trite comments seems to be the most praiseworthy attribute one can have.

Keep that smarmy shit up and you won't have any abilities at all here.

[Kettch]

Either way ... feeding a substantial percentage of your nation's youth into a meat grinder because you're all too full of pride to admit you fucked up was the kind of stupidity you'd like to see come around much less than once a century.

And what would you have done, genius? How exactly did whoever 'fuck up'?

I'd have told my allies "Shut up, it was one guy, not worth the deaths of millions". They fucked up by escelating the situation for no real fucking gain. I mean hell, germany was at least trying to get resources when it started WW2. WW1 started because a terrorist assisinated a duke.

Actually, Duke Ferdinand was an excuse. There was a very real possibility of a negotiated peace or of a Limted war could have occured. The inevitability of the defense pacts is overstated, especially in terms of Serbia.

In fact Chief of the General Staff Moltke had been trying for years to instigate a war against Russia. Germany was paranoid Russia was attack once industrialized to the point that it could not be defeated. But the saber rattling Kiser Wilhelm II kept twarting the high command's plans.

Essentially WWI was a preplaned war by the Germans tacked on to the Serbia - Austria local war.

For a good explaination see:
Europe's Last Summer : Who Started the Great War in 1914?
by David Fromkin

I don't know how to dress my links or use the Preview button, so a mod had to fix this for me

[The Duchess of Zeon]

The German High Command WAS subordinate to the Kaiser and the civilian administration, and their war planning was irrelevant unless it was put into play, and it was only the blundering of the government which allowed the war to proceed--when combined, of course, by the half-assed endeavours of the Russian government. The "Germans were the aggressors" canard is ludicrous considering how the situation played out. We know as a fact that the Kaiser was attempting desperate last-minute diplomacy with the Emperor Nicholas the whole time that the armies were mobilizing, and it was more the fault of the Russian high command that the Germans felt they had no choice but to go to war than anyone else. Pan-Slavism was the bugbear of the Russian monarchy which destroyed both it and the Old Order of Europe. WWI was ultimately caused by it and by the general incompetency of the Russian regime.