What would world reaction be to a terrorist attack w/WMD's?

[Leaper]

Ogre made a point in another thread I thought was worth discussing:

Assuming for the moment that “Black Death” refers to some sort of biotoxic or other WMD-scale attack, what can they possibly hope to gain?

I may be mistaken, but I would think that even the world’s most reluctant militaries would scour the planet enthusiastically for al-Qaeda in the wake of a large-scale WMD attack.

Now, I’m sure there would be SOMETHING for them to gain (or, perhaps more important, that they THINK they can gain), including fear, new crackdowns of civil liberties, and recruitment/propaganda value (not to mention favor in the eyes of their version of Allah).

But what WOULD be the reaction of the rest of the world (excluding whatever nation is actually hit) to such an event, whether biological, chemical, or radioactive? Would they be more likely to assist in a global War on Terror, or would it somehow encourage cooperation with the terrorists (hard for me to figure out how, but I figure I should at least provide the possibility)? If the former, how much more likely? Would it necessarily get fence-sitters off the fence, or convince any nation currently helping the terrorists that it’s a bad idea? Or would it cause panic-stricken nations to just hunker down and become armored camps run by martial law, ignoring or condemning anti-terrorist efforts in a futile effort to stay safe and fly under the radar of future attacks?

Certainly, such an event would change a lot. My question is, how much?

[iamme99]

Everyone would be upset. :rolleyes:

If it happened in the USA, we would probably drop a nuclear bomb in the mountains of Afghanistan where bin Laden is supposed to be hiding (just like was going to happen in the TV show 24), taking care of him along with much of Afghanistan, Pakistan and whomever is downwind. So it would be best for Pakistan to find bin Laden and turn him over before anything gets out of hand.

[Declan]

@Leaper

Ogre made a point in another thread I thought was worth discussing:

Now, I’m sure there would be SOMETHING for them to gain (or, perhaps more important, that they THINK they can gain), including fear, new crackdowns of civil liberties, and recruitment/propaganda value (not to mention favor in the eyes of their version of Allah).

But what WOULD be the reaction of the rest of the world (excluding whatever nation is actually hit) to such an event, whether biological, chemical, or radioactive? Would they be more likely to assist in a global War on Terror, or would it somehow encourage cooperation with the terrorists (hard for me to figure out how, but I figure I should at least provide the possibility)? If the former, how much more likely? Would it necessarily get fence-sitters off the fence, or convince any nation currently helping the terrorists that it’s a bad idea? Or would it cause panic-stricken nations to just hunker down and become armored camps run by martial law, ignoring or condemning anti-terrorist efforts in a futile effort to stay safe and fly under the radar of future attacks?

Certainly, such an event would change a lot. My question is, how much?

Depends where the assualt hits. Should it be somewhere in the US , then pretty much some parts of the world are gonna be glowing in the dark. But anywhere else is hard to say at this point. If spain was the recipient of an AL Q strike , then its a safe bet to say that England is gonna be the next target.

So it boils down to where and what sort of attack

Declan