Gulp. I drive under that bridge every day. And I’ve thought the same thing…
I think I’ve mentioned this before…
If you really want to hurt the federal government drop the bridge across the Potomac. The Legion Bridge, Roosevelt Bridge, Memorial Bridge, 14th Street Bridge and the Wilson Bridge.
Take them out and more than half the federal workers can’t get to their jobs. The NoVa folks can’t get to the federal district and the MD/DC defense workers can’t get to the Pentagon.
It would take months to unsnarl that.
Here’s a related question:
Why do we think that terrorists will strike on holidays, anniversaries, etc.? Have we seen any evidence that they will? Has any attack ever been on a major holiday?
I’d go for a target that had NOT been hit before. The world already knows how New Yorkers and Washingtonians and the people of a small town in PA would cope, and people there KNOW that they can get through almost anything, although it would suck to have to do it again.
Someplace like the Effiel Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Buckingham Palace, or (my worst fear) simultaneous suicide bombers in ten or more major malls around the US and Canada. Now THAT would crimp the economy a bit.
Whatever attack that may occur, it is sure that someone will have expected our authorities to have forseen it, or to at least have connected the dots in time to prevent any loss of life.
Since this thread hasn’t been locked down for speculating (and a moderator has popped in to move it), I guess I’ll post what I would do if I were tring to get into the mind of a terrorist that’s already lost their entire family in a war and is willing to give their life:
Terrorists seem to go for a couple of things in their attacks. 1) Media coverage; 2) instilling fear in the general populace of their enemy; 3) a lot of disruption with cheap tools and careful planning (ie, bang for the buck); and 4) they WANT their enemy (us) to hate them for the outrageous acts of terror they perform.
So round up a dozen guys that can drive an 18 wheeler. Load the trucks up with explosives and drive them into elementary schools. Needs to have timing down to the hour or so before the government and local police catch on and spread the word. Spread these attacks out over the country, mostly in middle-sized towns but include a big city or two so nobody knows what kind of place is safe for their kids.
Yeah, I know this idea is sick, but it’s the kind of thing that is almost assuredly written down as a plan of some sort at a terrorist planning site. If the willing suicide bombers have already lost their kids to war, what problem would they have with killing the innocent children of their enemy?
This satisfies all of what I listed above about what terrorists are after: 1) the media will be all over this; 2) parents will be scrambling to get their kids out of school and not know when it’s safe to let them go back; 3) lots of parents stay home with their kids to ensure their safety and do not go to work…it has the added disruption of police or government agents stopping every truck for days/weeks checking driver IDs and trailer contents so they’ve disrupted the trucking lines as well; and 4) most of the US will surely hate the perpetrators of these acts with a firey passion since they attacked the general populace and their children. I go on the assumption that there is nothing a terrorist won’t consider or do to gain their goals.
Yeesh, I’d hate to see the day that this ever came about. Both of my kids are in elementary school. You want to instill fear in me? That would probably do it for a while.
Mods, please delete this if you think it’s too over the top. This is something that’s been nagging at me ever since 9/11.
(Nervous glance) Hey, be careful when you’re giving out these ideas. The terrorists aren’t as creative as you think. Hell, 9/11 was just a ripoff of a Tom Clancy novel.
The Hollywood sign?
I don’t know whether to put a smiley after that or not. Granted, if a plane rammed the Hollywood sign, it would just fall onto Mulholland Drive, which is not a major artery. But it might cause a brush fire into the bargain, and lord knows, those are hard to contain. A lot of wealthy people’s houses would probably be taken out. And the film industry, with its portrayals of sex and unveiled women, and its paeans to American soldiers, is probably one of the many things Al Qaeda resents about us. Studios can be rebuilt and producers replaced ;), but destroying the Hollywood sign would at least be a major dis.