Replies

This thought occurred to me today as I was sitting here and seeing nothing happening:

If you put yourself in Osama's shoes, he really has no legitimate reason to nuke the USA. From a strategic point of view he is better off using the nuke(s) he has in Afghanistan.

Keep in mind his REAL objective isn't killing Americans for the sake of killing Americans. What he wants is a Muslim revolution that turns the clock back to the great Muslim expansion of the middle ages. He wants the west out of the Muslim World. He wants to rid the muslim world of the Kings and so forth that generally are friendly to the West. How does he accomplish this?

Well, he knows that the muslims are generally suspicious and paranoid about the USA and Israel. He knows that while they generally will not join together in a jihad because of local differences/interests, they share one thing above all, namely their religion. It has been said many times that this isn't to be a "war" of Islam v. Christianity, although that is EXACTLY WHAT HE NEEDS if he is to accomplish his goal.

How do nuclear weapons accomplish this? Before moving to that analyze the WTC attack. Why did he do something that big? Something that we could not ignore? The only logical Answer is to draw us out. But why draw us out if the military might of the US and the whole world will end up crushing him? Surely he realizes that in the end he can't beat us by simply picking off even thousands of civilians at a time? He needs to get ISLAM moving against the West. Islam won't move against the west unless it sees itself under attack. As it now stands, it is merely arguable that Islam is under attack.

So, he waits till we start dropping bombs. Then he pops a nuke in Kabul, or Kandahar and blames it on the USA.

The Western World sees that this is nonsense and would naturally rally round the USA. The Islamic world, on the other hand thinks that this is typical Western hatred of Muslims. All of a sudden there is a groundswell of Islamic resolve. 1 Billion Muslims say in unison "See they hate us so badly that they indiscriminately nuke innocent afghans. American lives are worth more than Muslim ones. Islamic revolution sparks in maybe one or two countries where American troops are. Ideally Saudi Arabia, but maybe Pakistan.

USA responds by rushing troops hither and thither trying to cope with something that is now out of control. Meantime more nukes go off this time blowing up americans. This one they take responsibility for saying that it is payback. The US is now in an impossible position. Global Armegeddon or retreat.

Just a scenario, but one that has been bugging me. Comments are welcome.

I should add that the reason I think he may be inclined to use them on his own people and blame the USA is that if he has Nukes, transporting them here will be very difficult if not impossible. According to other threads I have read, these weapons require immense maintenance to keep them running including teams of materials people. It would be much more efficient to simply use them there where he can keep the weapons up and running without interference from US military and police forces.

Remember that he has been very good at being unpredictable. Why would he oblige us now and act predictably?

Your scenerio sounds plausible. Yikes, I just heard a AF jet fly at high speed over my house, no sh*t! I know that sound from my years in the USAF.

Ugly scenario, one that I've thought of myself. Given the level of press control in the totalitarian (all variants) Muslim states, a nuke in Afghanistan would of course be blamed on the U.S., even if the radiation signiture is pure Soviet ("acquired" in the chaos of the disintegration of the empire), or Paki.