[WarSlut]

If there are 3 or 4 Arab-looking men on one flight... oops, I left the lights on in my car. I'll catch the next one.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think they're going to take out 4 million Americans with hijacked jets. I don't think they're going to take out a million Americans on any day in our lifetimes. I just think they'll keep coming, a plane into the Sears Tower here, a truck bomb into a federal building there, a suicide bomber in a mall on Black Friday, and on and on and on. This is how they seem to wage war. Death by a thousand cuts. The four million number they're putting out there is probably just a lofty ultimate goal, like driving Israel into the sea. It'll never happen, but they'll sure as hell die trying.

[Washington-Husky]

I tend to agree with you (albeit from the standpoint of one of those who just doesn't know). I think we may end up going the path of Israel, being subjected to hit and run terrorist attacks that could go on for years. I think a really "big" attack could force a retaliation that would be unacceptable to the Arab world (such as the flattening of Mecca), so I fear the operatives, whoever they may be, will simply stick to pin-prick attacks which, though messy and demoralizing, won't necessarily cripple us totally as a nation. We'll survive, but we won't be the "good old U.S.A.".... we'll simply be the U.S.A.

[gg188]

Don't get me wrong, I don't think they're going to take out 4 million Americans with hijacked jets. I don't think they're going to take out a million Americans on any day in our lifetimes.

911 was devastating to the airline industry. Were there another round of similar hijackings and divebombings, the impact upon the economy would be beyond catastrophic. Scaring people off of airplanes for weeks or months AGAIN would have a domino effect on the world's economy. Actually, slowly destabilizing the world economy probably suits their purposes better than a quick, large-scale hit that could (though admittedly probably wouldn't since we are such self-hating wusses in the U.S.) provoke mutual destruction.