But we never find out exactly whodunnit.
This negates the entire MAD principle. Firing from the shadows works against the USA.
You pose a great question: who exactly should we nuke if a small nuke goes off in Long Beach in a Liberian freighter with a Philippino crew and Norwegian captain and containers from 20 nations?
Who exactly will we nuke if smallpox breaks out in 20 US cities at once?
I think that the strategic thinkers are moving (in the background) towards a Blame Bagdad strategy. (You can see how we are narrowing the anthrax source down to them.)
We need to nuke somebody if one of the two above attacks occurs, and Bagdad's annhialation would serve as our last warning to the rest of Islam.
There also appears to be a strong contingent in DC that wants to just get back to business as usual. they seem to think that we dropped some bombs so we should now just end it. Thus they float that tired old bogeyman some "Right Wing Nuts" are doing the Anthrax. The fact is that such an explanation does not even come close to passing the smell test. (puns intended)
We need to nuke somebody if one of the two above attacks occurs, and Bagdad's annhialation would serve as our last warning to the rest of Islam.
IMHO we are already at that time where we need to nuke someone becuase the bio-warfare threshold was crossed. Bagdad makes a whole lot of sense for this and it would serve well as a lesson to others. However, if we as a nation wait for a million, ten million or twenty million dead that option may well not be enough to save us.
As to China I am certain OBL has factored them and Russia into his plans. There is a whole lot of uncomfortable history there for him to deal with and they are geographically a whole lot closer than the USA. Short term I am certain he will not go out of his way to antagonize China. russia is having its problems with Chechneya which is directly tied to OBL.
As you say he is playing a game of chess.
Stay well - Stay safe - stay armed - Yorktown