A more likely scenario is the so called dirty bomb, conventional explosives mixed with radio-isotopes. The ingrediants are cheap and readily available by theft or purchase. While the immediate death toll may not reach that of even a crude nuke, it would spread panic, overwhelm emergency resources and have a lasting and costly effect on the area where it was detonated....thus the ideal terrorist weapon.
I think the reaction of the US public to that kind of attack would exceed that of 9-11. There would be demands for action. Likely responses would be finally tightening US borders, the wholesale rounding up and deporting of Arab nationals and I would expect to see some vigilantee action targeting mosques and Arab assets in the US. For once Arab embassies would be burning. The perpetrators if caught would NOT be given a TV trial in federal court, but would face military tribunals and very likely relatively swift execution.
US military responses would be limited unless the terrorists could be linked to a specifc country like Iran. Should that be the case, I would see an all out bombing campaign to flatten that country.
The UN will do nothing and the Democrats and MSM would be blaming Bush for letting this happen.
So, AlQaida uses its Philipino contingent, and what are we going to do?
Your whole post made sense to me. And I would add that the terrorists would probably love to pull this off before Bush leaves office. I don't think they would get quite the sense of satisfaction if they did it while Hillary was in office.