Posted on 08/29/2006 11:26:35 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy
MAYBE IT'S because I know I have to catch a transatlantic flight on Sept. 11. Maybe I'm just too fond of "What if?" historical questions. Whatever the reason, I can't get over how quickly the world has moved on since the exposure of the Heathrow bomb plot. Ever since the revelation that a terrorist ring intended "mass murder on an unimaginable scale," I've been finding it all too easy to imagine what it would have been like if the plotters had succeeded.
We cannot assume, for obvious legal reasons, that the suspects who were charged in London are anything other than innocent, as they themselves maintain. Nor should we speculate about those who haven't yet been released or charged. So let us merely hypothesize that some young British Muslims really were plotting to assemble bombs out of liquid-based explosives and iPod-shaped detonators and to detonate them aboard multiple transatlantic planes. Suppose it had happened yesterday. Imagine yourself, in a parallel universe, turning on the radio and hearing the following bulletin:
"Five passenger aircraft have blown up in midair and crashed into the Atlantic. The planes — believed to be operated by American Airlines and United Airlines — left this morning from Heathrow Airport, bound for the United States. There are no reported survivors."
Such a calamity would at once have been dubbed "8/27." But the political consequences would have been very different from those that followed 9/11.
Five years ago, the world reacted with astounding unanimity. "Nous sommes tous Américains," wrote Jean-Marie Colombani in Le Monde. Londoners felt an intense empathy with New Yorkers.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.google.com ...
If they'd succeeded, then there would be another concerted effort to bring Muslims back into society... more opportunities, better housing, greater understanding...
A bit over the top even given the tendency of our less reputable newspapers - the NY Times, for one - for spinning everything into the theme of the moment. The focus is, and should be, on the perpetrators, not the victims, and "those responsible" are the bombers.
Mind you, I've always been a bit suspicious of people who drink warm beer and play baseball with only two bases, but that's just me...
That headline would never happen. Each one would have been reported as a midair malfuction. Later, it would have been revealed that the center tanks of each had exploded due to to being empty.
I doubt that the answer would be much different for American Muslims--if answered honestly. There is a tipping point where the percentage of the Muslim population relative to the whole is large enough for the hostility to be put out into the open instead of being concealed. I would say Britain has reached that point.
"What if the Heathrow Bombers Succeeded?"
This is the question I have been asking. Since the plot was foiled no one is outraged. These idiots just attempted killing thousands of innocents, yet no one is upset. We should respond to these attempts as if they had succeeded. What if someone aimed a shot at your head and missed by an inch? Since they missed I guess it's no big deal right?
As the Washington Times editorialized, "We shudder to think," what the NYTs would have done had they been tipped off prior to the arrests. WE SHUDDER TO THINK.
If those in-flight bombs did go off and 10 jets plummeted into the Atlantic, Bush, Israel and the war in Iraq would have been blamed.
I really hadn't thought about what effect a successful plot would have had on US-Brit relations, and the author's predictions could well have come true. But BadAndy's right - what if the NYT had leaked the investigation?
While Bush might be blamed by some loudmouths, such an attack would probably increse support for his policies among the general population.
In the UK, it would be the end of PC and the end of Blairism.
of course the democrats would blame Bush, after all Biden was just out blaming Bush becuase the terrorist were thwarted.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said Monday that Democrats shouldn't shy away from pointing out Republican failures on national security.
"If anything is shown by the British uncovering the plot on the airliners, it's simple -- we are not protected," Biden said.
Well, Biden is THE expert on "simple"...
I disagree on both of your conclusions... but I hope you're right.
If this had happened, we would have immediately been no evidence of a link to terrorism.
Which would be technically correct, since the evidence would be at the bottom of the ocean.
Then we would be told that Islam is a religion of peace.
If this had happened, we would have immediately been told that there is no evidence of a link to terrorism.
"Five passenger aircraft have blown up in midair and crashed into the Atlantic"
Now why in the world would you blow them up over the atlantic when the only thing below you is water??
If I were a terrorist I would blow them up while getting ready to land, thereby causing huge amounts of damage on the ground as well. Imagine 10 airplane crashes into the heart of major cities. Now ther's a plan.
>>Now why in the world would you blow them up over the atlantic when the only thing below you is water?? <<
From what I understand, the informant who foiled the plot said that they were going to blow them up over the ocean, so that the method used (liquids diguised as sports drinks) could not be discovered.
"What if the Heathrow Bombers Succeeded? "
Bush would have been blamed by the world for not sharing information with British intelligence.
True.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.