What do you think they have planned, if this information is accurate?
Playing for the red team here, what has struck fear into the west not including the actual 9/11 events. School shootings.
It was always topping the news, and hit us where it hurts: Our kids.
Think of what 10 or 20 groups of 4 or 5 guys could do if they attacked schools full of kids simultaneously across the country. It would bring our society to a standstill. People wouldn't let their kids go to school for quite a while, and even if large amounts of police/Guardsmen were mobilized to protect our schools, how could children learn under an umbrella of fear.
I remember when I was about 10, a cult in my hometown had threatened to kidnap children to an informant, and threatened all kinds of crazy crap (My dad was one of the detectives on the case), and they locked all of us in our school with chains and locks on the doors that day (good thing there was no fire). We were terrified, we could see the panic on the teachers faces, and it spread like wildfire. Imagine what would happen if you were a kid again, knew schools had been attacked, and it was covered all over the news. Disruptive would be the very least description I could think of.
I hope I'm wrong. But we are up against a ruthless, capable enemy here who has GOT to be thinking best bang for the buck at the moment. What else could be easier from their point of view?
Everyone seems to be focussing on the "Nuclear power plant" or "Bio/Chem weapons or water supply" type attacks, and forgetting the most basic rules of war. The simplest plan is usually the most effective. It would be no great loss of manpower to Al-Q, and a HUGE kick in the balls for us if they proceeded with this type of attack. Hell, even institutes of higher learning would be a legit target from their point of view, and again, against unarmed and unprepared targets, they would have their way with them untill enough police/military assest could show up and stop them.
With each passing major holiday without a strike, I'm personally getting more and more nervous, to the point of being up at these types of hours thinking about this crap.
Anyone else jittery too?