I would ask all Freepers to engage in a little role playing.Begin Here....AlQuaeda manages to get a small nuclear device across the Rio Grande River and arrives in Houston,Texas. The detonation is located in the Shell Refinery area near the ship channel. Several hundred thousand Americans are killed. Our response is .......? Does this country have the intel or clarity of purpose to stop this war in a moment of time with massive punishment to all nations which harbor islamofascist hatred of America. Are we going to continue to nibble around the edges, sacrificing America's blood and treasure? Will political correctness continue to paralyze us as a nations preventing the leadership from acting on clarity of purpose. What say you?
start a separate 'thread'......'What If....'.....
:-)
The question you pose shows you have much more insight into our difficult position than the "nuke mecca" crowd. We are bound by our principles, and those principles do not condone reprisals against non-combatants.
Should your scenario take place, I think the only obvious change you will see is our transformation into a much more Israel-like society. I also think there will be a serious upswing in subversion activities around the world, something on par with the practices of the old USSR, but those will be invisible for the most part. The recent death of Arafat is probably a good model of what those activities would look like to the public.