A terrorist attack in the heartland of America could be just as chilling as 9/11 was.
I cite this as a horrible possibility:
An jihadi walks into a day care center in Newton IA or Aberdeen SD.
He's got a bomb vest full of explosives, nail, screws, etc. He blows himself up in a room full of pre-schoolers. Ends up killing 20 or 30 little kids and the adult day-care workers.
In rural America, people may not feel as acutely in danger as New York or DC - but an attack like this would jolt America to the core and make them realize "Yes, these bastards can hit us anywhere - even in small town America".
The repercussions of an attack like that would be beyond belief.
It would certainly be just as tragic, but it couldn't possibly kill as many people, for reasons I stated earlier. And it wouldn't shut down the world's financial markets. And very few al Quaeda members have heard of Newton IA or Aberdeen SD. Osama bin Laden sits in his cave at night thinking about Rockafeller Plaza, not Kansas City.
20 deaths are trivial compared to 3,000. Al Queda does not go in for such penny-ante activities. It is obsessed with destroying NYC and Washington.
Evidence points to another attack on the Sears Tower which was to occur on 911. But that cannot compare to the symbolic value (critical to al Queda) of the WTC and Pentagon.
You are absolutely correct.