It’s been said that ‘Killing the President is easy…getting away with it is the hard part.’ So if you’re doing suicide terrorist attacks, why not?
Theories as to why the President wasn’t included?
My theory…too obivous, and too easy. The last President that was killed in office (JFK), caused a huge swell of support, etc., for the USA in general.
Which also lends credence to the theory that the terrorists ultimate goal wasn’t disablement of the US government or to destory ‘symbols’ (what greater symbol is there than the President?), but either 1) general fear or 2) to kill a lot of people.
Reports seem to indicate that the White House was the original target for the plane that hit the Pentagon and that Air Force One was the planned target of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. So the President may very well have been a target.
But if you’re planning this thing months (years?) in advance, wouldn’t you try to ascertain exactly where the President would be? (Info which is readily available.)
If you’re planning it that far in advance, you can’t rely on where the president might be. You hit strategic targets. A school in Florida is not a strategic target, and not nearly as easy to hit, for that matter.
Besides, the goal of terrorism is usually to instill fear in the populace. Killing the president doesn’t have the same effect on people as killing thousands of innocents.
I think you have a handle on most of it. Killing the President would be a huge shock–and we’d be unified and pissed off. But not necessarily terrified or demoralized.
And what terrorist with any brain at all wants to hear the words “President Cheney is coming for you, and he’s pissed?”