Really, where are they? It has been more than three years! Not that I am waiting for them. I am not saying that there is no threat of terrorists striking again, be it in the US or any of the other nations that the terrorists believe are “infidels”. It has been 3 years since 9/11. Doesn’t the average American mind wonder what the terrorists have been doing all this while? Ok, the airports have been made secure, and I cannot carry nail clippers and have to put my shoes in a box to be x-rayed at airporst, but I am sure there is still a lot more wanting in security measures in several other areas. Trains, subways, malls, parks, buildings etc etc. Agreed that an attack on any of these is not going to generate destruction anywhere near the scale of 9/11, but I also believe that terrorists in general do not spend too much brains trying to ensure that they hit only “big” targets. Terror attacks in general follow a pattern of continuity. Terror attacks need to continue to occur at a certain minimum ferquency for them to have any significant impact. So, the question is - Why has there not been even a single attack anywhere in the US at all, not even a tiny weeny one?? How come the federal authorities have not been able to even catch or unearth a single “real” plot being hatched anywhere? The terrorists are not all dead or gone. We continue to witness their “martyrdom” on a regular basis in the Palestine-Israeli conflict. I cannot believe that the US borders have been made so well secure that the terrorists and/or their sympathizers have found it absolutely impossible to manage, or even try to manage, to smuggle even one bomb laden individual terrorist into the US! Considering the fact that despite the heavy security measures imposed by the Israeli authorties, who in fact “expect” them all the time, those same human bombs still continue to manage to infiltrate into their opponents territory. So, how come not even one can make it across into the US? Look at all the other nations that have similar problems - Israel, India, Russia - nowhere have the terrorists gone on a three year unilateral holiday! How come the terrorists that attacked the US are so different that having hit once they decided to go on an extended vacation which has until now lasted over three years? Are they really there? My question pertains to the way the 911 attack has been used to strike terror in the minds of Americans and most ironic is the fact that the true force behind this operation of creating terror and fear has been the US administration and not so much the terrorists themselves. I think this has been one of the biggest game where an entire population of a nation has been suckered at the most ridiculous level and are getting ready to be suckered again by a bunch of conniving, hypocritical, selfish capitalists!
America’s not the only target. Since 9/11, there have been Al Qaeda-related attacks on (or on symbols of) Spain, the UK, Australia, the House of Saud, and Jews in general. There’s been no break in terrorist activity. As for another attack in the US - why bother, when the shockwaves of 9/11 are still being felt?
I am aware of the attacks in Spain and in Saudi Arabia. But I am not aware of any attack in the UK or Australia. Could you please point them out? And how many? Why so few compared to attacks in Israel and Chechnya for example? I also do not think that “shockwaves of 9/11 are still being felt” all around the world as is being made out. IMO it seems to be more of media hype in the UK and the US, for the obvious reason that these, and in addition Australia, are the self declared torch-bearers in this “war on terror”. I do not think I am wrong in assuming that the the main target of the terrorists, after Israel, is the US, for two reaons - one the support it extends to Israel and second that its troops are present on Islamic soil. That being the case, their strategies and energies are expected to be concentrated on harming the US, either on US soil or its assets abroad. My question is, that is not happening. Three years is too long a lull for terrorists who have demonstrated their unenviable ability of organizing and successfully carry out such co-ordinated multiple attacks on US soil.
Al Qaeda has not struck within the United States because he wants George W. Bush to remain president. Bush’ policies are great for al Qaeda recruitment.
Hell, if Cheney and Hastert can say terrorists want Kerry, I can say they want Bush.
“…because bin Laden wants Bush to remain…” :smack:
That’s why I said against symbols - as in the Istanbul and Bali bombings.
In Israel it’s partly because of widespread sympathising among Palestinians with the activities of terrorists, and partly due to the close proximity of Israeli targets making attacks easier. Chechnya is an anarchic place, making the prevention of terrorism impossible.
I meant that they’re still being felt within the US. And in any case, you can hardly argue that the world’s economy has fully recovered over the past three years.
What would they gain from launching a few more smaller attacks on US soil. Sure it might make Joe Shmoe’s life in the US scarier and make us give up some more freedoms for security, but I think Al-Qaeda’s focus is primarily in the muslim world and it only cares about what goes on here in-so-far as it effects our policy towards Israel and the greater Middle East. As 9/11 really affected our foreign policy as much as any smaller, infrequent future terrorist attacks are likely to do(whether in ways Osama was happy with or not is a debate for another thread), launching more attacks in the US would be a waste of resources, especially when there are infidels for them to blow up much closer to home.
After all, I think most of the American Public upon which Osama had much of his hopes pinned, is likely to see people getting blown up in the US as a good reason to interfer in the MidEast more, while seeing our people get blown up in the MidEast is more likely to convince us to bring the boys home and wash our hands of the whole situation.
GorillaMan I have generally appreciated your answers in GD section.
I know why the terrorist strikes in Israel have been higher. Palestine and Israel have been in conflict for a very long time. Terrorist attacks in Israel is not a new phenomena at all. Assuming what we have been given to believe is true, that the terrorists want to harm the US, then it follows that the US and its interests should be the predominant objectives for the target of attacks. Why then have they not carried out attacks expressly on such US owned tagets in the last three years? The attacks on Istanbul were in retaliation to Turkey’s support to the US. The attack on Spain was in reaction to its support to the US. The attacks in Saudi Arabia have been for its support to the US in allowing US soldiers on its soil. So many attacks on “supporters” but not a single one on a primary US target?? For three years? Not even an botched attempt?? Isn’t that rather mysterious?
To those who say that Bush is going to benefit from ObL and that the terrorists will strike in such a way as to help Bush, do you really believe that, or is it more of a tongue in cheek argument? Seriously, if ObL was to get caught just before the election, or another attack happened just to scare the US voters into re-electing that dumbass, wouldn’t the coincidence become so glaringly apparent so as to actually become actually counter productive for the Bush strategists. And if that really is considered as a serious possibility by the left, shouldn’t the Democrats be trying to caution the American public of the possibility of such a ploy being played by the Republicans, or would that be considered anti-national and slanderous. Isn’t that a little weird? People are aware of something but it cannot be said openly in election rallies, or whatever they call it in the US.
Why not? They already did:
Or, to summarize:
- Bush pisses off Muslems worldwide
- Al Qaeda sees ranks grow from pissed-off Muslems
- Al Qaeda wants “four more years!”
There remains the possibility that we may see an attack timed to affect elections (as was the attack in Spain).
However, I expect that if such an attack were to take place here, it would have the opposite effect of that seen in Spain. Instead of tossing out the ruling party, we’d likely have a rally-round-the-flag effect here, and four more years of Bush.
Just to clarify, I think this is a good example of the misconception I was talking about. While I’m sure that Osama would love to see the US go down in flames, I don’t think that he has any misconceptions about the liklelyhood of us giving up and disolving the union any time soon, even if he is able to field a 100 9/11 attacks, and so I think that this part of his “mission plan”, that he wants to hurt the US just for the sake of hurting us, is quite overstated. He wants us out of the Middle East so that he can overthrow the gov’ts we support, most especially the Saudi royal family and Israel. This is in contrast with the Palestinians, many of whom (or at least many of the violent ones) actually want to destroy Israel and retake the Palestinian homeland.
Whatever they had thought of gaining out of 9/11, or actually whatever they think of gaining by terrorist attacks anywhere.
Did 9/11 really have any effect on US foreign policy? I don’t think so. At least not in terms of what the Islamic radicals wanted. The US still supports Israel as much as it did before 9/11.
Are you trying to say that ObL knew of the invasion of Iraq and that he would get more “infidels” to kill closer to home? I don’t think so. And secondly, not taking into account the beheadings and slayings of foreign civilians, it wouldn’t be entirely appropriate to ascribe all killings and attacks in Iraq to terrorists. What we are witnessing there is more of an insurgency and guerilla war against foreign occupiers and their supporters, than real terrorism. It is not uncommon to see suicide bombings in insurgent operations carried out by extremists.
The terrorist all ate Mcdonalds Happy meals ?
Or maybe the whole thing about radical Islam spreading across the globe is just a bunch of propaganda. Maybe they aren’t speading anymore than Skin head, racist, Aryan, Christian radicals. Maybe the religeous overtones in this administration have something to do with the propaganda. Or maybe GeeDubya was right and God is on Americas side. We need an “Ask the terrorist” thread.
Do you really believe that? I may agree that it would be really really difficult, almost impossible even for AQ to launch a 100 9/11s. But for the sake of discussion, assuming that it did happen, do you really think the American public would not force the administration to change its policies in the ME, which quite a large part of the American people as well as most of the world agrees, are not entirely fair in the first place.
Sorry bad analogy. My point was that Osama isn’t trying to destroy the US as the Palestinians are trying to destroy Israel, as he surely knows he couldn’t do that even if he launched many more huge attacks.
As for what he would gain with many smaller attacks, I think your wrong in thinking he would gain “whatever he thought he would gain with 9/11”. 9/11 embroiled the US in two wars in the Middle East, solidified anti-US sentiment in the muslim world, gave Al-Qaeda a prominence it never gained from earlier attacks, led to US troop withdrawls from Saudi Arabia, etc. etc. I have no way of knowing which of these were intended consequences and which were miscalculations, and as I said before, thats an arguement for anoter thread. What I am pretty sure of is that if buses and trains start blowing up in the US, even though these actions would certainly “hurt the US”, they’re unlikely to lead to less involvement in the middle east by the US and could very possibly lead to more.
Very true. Has there ever been a war in which we have ever had less of an idea of who our enemies were and what they wanted. Hitler at least had the courtesy to write a book about what he wanted before going to war.
But if that assumption is wrong?
So why attack the British embassy and a British bank?
Your evidence is …? AFAIK, Madrid is one of the outposts of the ‘rightful’ Islamic territory claimed by many Islamists.
George Orwell wrote one that’s sccarily applicable to much of the ‘War on Terror’.
Coffee.
Doughnuts.
What did you think?
At least in Saudi. We had a drive-by with automatic weapons and a grenade last Friday. Nobody got hurt and (as usual) the terrorist assholes got away clean.
Regards
Testy
Evidenty being a terrorist, like being the President, is hard work. 