You have studied this situation well and yes I too believe this is their plan, and with the help of our beloved elected having done little to stop the enemy advance into our nation, I too see this as a very real possibility.
I would like to be more optomistic but I believe our beloved elected have underestimated the enemy.
"SO WHAT? with the US economy devastated and the country in chaos."
Losing some big cities would not be the end of the US. It would however be the end of the middle east and any other country full of crackpot muslims. Game set and match to them? Hardly.
"So what if they then get nuked, don't you see they still win. What you think rationally as them losing, they see as winning. They have NOTHING to lose we have EVERYTHING to lose."
Exactly, they don't give two *hits about their population, just like how Mao felt about a nuclear war with the West. To them, it is their obligation under the law of the Koran to destroy the infidel. The EU will not be spared from this horror either, particularly France, Spain and England. Most of the people in the West want to duck their heads in the sand like in WWII and hope it goes away. Bush has indeed done a horrible job on domestic issues, but I know that 90% of his effort and energy goes into preventing this calamity, even at his own legacy. Too bad the rest of America doesn't get it...
If 6 or 7 tactical nukes get set off in major US citys, I think the only appropriate action would be to nuke any country that can be proven to have supplied anything that helped.
We can pinpoint where the uranium(?) was produced. That country is toast. We can probably prove where they entered the US from. That country is toast.
If our economy is in shambles, and their economy is in shambles, which do you think will emerge from the shambles first?
If militant Islamics use nuclear weapons, how many countries do you think will immediately oust, or imprison, or mobs will kill ALL Islamics, citizens or not?
There will be targets destroyed. It's only a matter of how big and the time.
In a country such as the USA, at present day, with the liberties we allow, with the border as porous as it is, it's only a matter of time till terrorists take out some target rich environment in some fashion.