Quote:
Originally posted by jseal
Silentsoul,
Keep in mind that what you or I may think of as an American icon may not be what an Arab Muslim may think of as an American icon.
The attack on the WTC towers was not the first time they had been targeted. Six people were killed and more than a thousand injured when a van exploded in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center in 1993. Americans were then faced with the task of trying to pronounce and remember Arabic names like Mahmud Abouhalima, Ramzi Yousef, Nidal Ayyad, and Amad Mohammad Ajaj. It was comic.
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/wtc93.htm
Additional bombings would occur with the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, a Hard Rock Cafe in South Africa, and others.
As I recall, back in the early 1940s another militant group opened a rather large can of whup-ass on the U.S. (“day of infamy” and all that), and followed it up with some additional attacks on U.S. interests in the Philippines. America seemed to pull through that, although it did take 3 years or so.
While a one-two punch on the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge may indeed have made a complete shambles of the U.S., I think many of the residents of Marin County would have found some way of coping. Granted, the property values may have declined, what with the loss of tourists to Muir Woods, but hey, that’s what insurance is for, no?
Oh yes, in re the top two U.S. tourist spots: actually, Los Angeles is the #2 destination. San Francisco is #5
http://tinet.ita.doc.gov/view/f-200...25.234204.15738
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First, when I said top two tourist spots, I was speaking more in the sense of actual addresses and shit instead of county's and regions.
Second, I have never been to san francisco so I obviously don't know the roads around there. However, the bridge is 2-3 lanes wide in each direction handling tens of thousands of vehicles every day. By simple numbers, having to relocate all of those vehicles would mean a nearly constant traffic jam.
Third, the previous attack on the WTC in this sense of the word doesn't really matter. When someone parks a van in a basement filled with explosives, the best they can hope for is a total colapse of the entire building. In that type of attack the size of the building is directly related to the number of casulties. Flying a passenger jet into building requires a bit more planning.
I'm not exactly sure of the altitude that the planes were at but it takes quite a while for a person to gain their bearings, even in a familiar place when looking at it from above. True, the twin towers are fairly distinctive but in the middle of a city.
I'm not saying that the twin towers weren't a good target, just that the statue would have been a better one. I'm also saying that the statue would have been deemed too great a loss by that whole shadowy super evil group or whatever. Hence, because the statue was too great a loss and possibly because of the previous attacks, they chose to attack the towers.
Oh, and lil, writing a whole the U.S becomes a third world country overnight because of all this is a good idea. I think I might try it.