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Your #13,520:

I've been thinking about how much damage such attacks might cause. Almost anything they can attempt can be mitigated. Possible hits against CentCom and NSA no doubt face tremendously daunting security layers. Radiological attacks against ports might result in the contamination being washed away into harbors during the clean-up. Chemical attacks against population centers face wind and airborne dilution.

Biological attacks come in two classes: anthrax spores and viruses. The viruses would be more harmful, but both would have the potential to really slow down our economy. I'm not saying anything new here. But retaliation in kind against such attacks would not have to be "official," or ever made known. The plagues would spread, so any bio plan could backfire for the terrorists in a really big way.

Destroying the WTC with box-cutters did not seem feasible on 9/10/01, then the next day it happened. Now they're saying that they can destroy an entire city.

Maybe a radiological bomb could render an important part of a population center or a financial center uninhabitable for some years or decades. But without a high-yield nuclear detonation or some Tesla weapon, they probably can't destroy an entire city.

And if Russia and China are sharing such devices with the jihadists, Dr. Rice knows that all of the Cold War doctrines would still be in effect; and so does our President.