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I would think that the only way to deal any type of deadly blow to the U.S. would be for them to hit us with many strikes at once.

I agree.

Frankly I'd think it would be difficult for them to acquire and then to hide enough nukes from radiation monitors etc to deliver a crippling blow to the US ... if we found even one the game would probably be up for their plans. One or two nukes possibly, but not the dozens that would be needed for a truely crippling blow.

Infectious biologicals can be much more deadly than a couple of nukes and much more easily hidden, since they're not possible to detect with external sensors until they're actually released. Plus you might only need a few dissemination points if the agent is infectious enough. That's especially true if you aren't too concerned about losing a few hundred million of your own people in the blowback from the spreading infection and any retaliation that might take place. And I don't think that they'd think that was an unreasonable price to pay. :-(

Many of the people in the Middle East don't truely grasp the size of the United States - many of their countries are relatively small, and even if they do have a significant land area much of it is uninhabitable. I suspect that many of them - even those who have spent a little bit of time here - don't really grasp the size of such an undertaking. There are various family stories about visitors from that part of the world asking about taking an afternoon trip up to Niagara Falls from oh, say, Pittsburgh and being astounded that it was a 450 mile round trip - they look so close together on the map. :-)

" Frankly I'd think it would be difficult for them to acquire and then to hide enough nukes from radiation monitors etc to deliver a crippling blow to the US..."

OBL has/had the $$$ to acquire nukes, no doubt about that. The radiation monitors are in our cities and harbours but I don't think they aren't in international waters (isn't that about 200 miles out?), and it also would be very very difficult to cover USA waters (the 200 miles from shore to international line) totally with radiation monitors. I hope( and suspect) the satellites are scrutinizing all the international waters and not just shipping lanes for the OBL ocean freighters and tugs. Recall that TWA flight that was shot down after take off from NY...there were plenty of folks who saw the missle go up from the area around the Hamptons...but they couldn't verify whether it went from land or a big boat.

Another point is the mentality we are dealing with in this war would be prone to wait until after the 4th or the 22nd or what ever date before really setting a date for attack...they would have the cunning mindset to diffuse our expectations and worries with our assumption that it was all talk and phoney boloney...and they would wait until our guard was down. The first WTC attack was '93, the 2nd 2001. The 3rd might be years down the road (or it might be very soon.)