What if 9/11 was worse?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I was just reading about the Saddam/Al-Queda link and got to thinking after this quote:



Quote:

"More recently, and eerily, a July 21, 2001, commentary in the Iraqi publication Al-Nasiriya praised bin Laden: "In this man's heart you'll find an insistence, a strange determination that he will reach one day the tunnels of the White House and will bomb it with everything that is in it."



I thought....God, what if they actually succeeded in destroying the White House or the capital on 9/11? I know what happened was horrible....thousands dead, two magificent buildings gone, the Pentagon damaged, the plane PA....but this just seems worse. At least we had a fully functioning government. What if the President and vice-president had been killed? Or most of the congress.....or BOTH? What if chemical weapons were used and say, 300,000 were dead in NY?



I know, I know...."what if". But, I have to wonder...would our response have been different? Would someone have figured out it was Bin Laden in Afghanistan and ordered a nuclear assault as a last resort defense measure?



Seriously, those people on the plane in PA may have saved the world. Unless it was shot down....which I think it may have been. The mere sight of the White House in flames may have produced a massive, desperate, take-no-prisoners response.



Thoughts?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    I kinda wonder that too. Who knows? Remember that initial jolt we all got when we saw the trailer for "Independence Day"? The White House and the Capitol building exploding? That was just a silly movie and it still made you go "yeowch...ugh!".







    Real life? It would be a massive, full-tilt freak-out session, I'm sure.







    I hope something like that never happens. I suppose 9/11 was the closest we've been. I remember how it all felt that day and stories of a "car bomb at the State Department" and other premature "holy crap!" scenarios.
  • Reply 2 of 15
    Perhaps you should read Tom Clancy, SDW. I believe he already wrote about that. Executive Orders was it?



  • Reply 3 of 15
    what if they'd hit WTC at 11, instead of 9. how many stories have you heard of people who were on the way to work when it happened.

    when i saw the towers go down i thought 10, 000 dead, at least.
  • Reply 4 of 15
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Yeah, was it "Debt of Honor"? I can't remember. A jumbo jet crashes into the Capitol during a Presidential inauguration, I believe.



    Hey, after 9/11, things like that are no longer in the realm of spy fiction and Bruce Willis movies.



    If you would've said to me, on September 10, what all was going to happen the next day, I would've laughed in your face and told you to get a grip...and to quit watching so many silly action movies.







    Now? Hey, had those people not stormed the cockpit and that plane made it to D.C...







    After what happened in Manhattan and at the Pentagon, is there any reason to think that the White House or the Capitol couldn't have been an intended target?



    EDIT: oh yeah, maybe the Clancy book was "Executive..." something, now that Shawn mentions it. I can't remember.
  • Reply 5 of 15
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Didn't Clancy's The Sum of All Fears have an A-bomb going off in Baltimore? Granted, it was german anarchists or neo-nazis or both in the movie (that makes no sense but neither do movies), but 3 mil dead in that scenario? In any case, it's hard to imagine the reaction around here, or maybe I don't want to.
  • Reply 6 of 15
    Quote:

    Originally posted by pscates

    EDIT: oh yeah, maybe the Clancy book was "Executive..." something, now that Shawn mentions it. I can't remember.



    I'm not sure either.



    I only remember that "Executive Orders" began where "Debt of Honor" left off.



  • Reply 7 of 15
    enaena Posts: 667member
    I don't think it would be so bad---I think we'd recover along the same lines as the WTC. However, if they took out a port or two on either coast there we would be in serious shite.



    At the end of Debt of Honor a pilot pile drives a 747 into a joint session of congress.



    Ouch.



    Executive Orders was about an ebola attack. Funny, it doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore.
  • Reply 8 of 15
    giaguaragiaguara Posts: 2,724member
    what if the planes crashed in harlem? or out of manhattan, in poor peoples residental areas instead? what if the terrorism attacks were in rio / santiago / other big but not too $$ed south american city (at least the size of london though) or in cairo? if it was in cairo, how many people would they have needed to kill to get the same kind of media attention? 100 000? more?
  • Reply 9 of 15
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mulattabianca

    if it was in cairo, how many people would they have needed to kill to get the same kind of media attention? 100 000? more?



    Well, if it were American tourists in Cairo probably only a few dozen would have needed to have been killed for the kind of media attention '9/11' received here in the States.
  • Reply 10 of 15
    jcjc Posts: 342member
    it could have very easily been 10X worse if it had happened later in the day. New york is not a morning town. Only a small percentage of the people were at work. if the buildings were full the stairs would have been so packed that almost nobody would have got out and the death toll would have been astronimical.
  • Reply 11 of 15
    giaguaragiaguara Posts: 2,724member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JC

    it could have very easily been 10X worse if it had happened later in the day. New york is not a morning town. Only a small percentage of the people were at work. if the buildings were full the stairs would have been so packed that almost nobody would have got out and the death toll would have been astronimical.



    or if it was in a poor residential zone a couple of hours earlier when most of the people were still sleeping?



    besides NYC is a 24 7 city..
  • Reply 12 of 15
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mulattabianca

    or if it was in a poor residential zone a couple of hours earlier when most of the people were still sleeping?



    You mean like Bhopal India? Well then DOW Chemical would still be a thriving business rather than a hunted criminal.
  • Reply 13 of 15
    aquafireaquafire Posts: 2,758member
    Could have been worse..?

    I thought about it all day..& yes it could have been much worse..



    Yeah.....Bill Clinton might have been still President....

    Remember Mogadishu ?

    With him in charge, the Taliban would still be in Afghanistan.

    Saddam would be virtually unpregnable.

    Al-Queda would be going from strength to strength,

    & all these guys might expect for their murderous terror would be a few cruise missiles...if any.

    .Jihad & suicide bombers, carrying WOMD would increasingly be seen as an effective tool while the US would slide further down the slope of dithering and fear of blood.



    By the way, I'm no Bush fan either, but somehow trying to "understand" these terrorists while they do 9/11 shit just makes me want to puke.

  • Reply 14 of 15
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mulattabianca

    what if the planes crashed in harlem? or out of manhattan, in poor peoples residental areas instead? what if the terrorism attacks were in rio / santiago / other big but not too $$ed south american city (at least the size of london though) or in cairo? if it was in cairo, how many people would they have needed to kill to get the same kind of media attention? 100 000? more?



    That is totally off-topic. It also cheapens what happened. 9/11 was the worst terrorist attack in history. If they crashed into a poor area or something not as big, it wouldn't be as bad. You may not like to hear that, but it is true. The death toll would be lower, and there would not be as much symbolic damage.



    It's not even worth discussing your point.
  • Reply 15 of 15
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    Oh, and SPJ:



    I know the order of succession. Once again your preference for condescending is shown.
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