Jacob1983

After watching the first four episodes of the new season of 24, it really made me think about terrorist attacks. Ever since 9/11 happened, I have always wondered and worried if we ever will have another terrorist attack on American soil. I certainly don't want it to happen but it is possible. America has been spared from terrorist attacks since 9/11 but I just wonder if we will have another terrorist attack.
What do you think? Do you think it will happen in the near future or is it years or decades away from happening? What places would be the most likely targets in America? Do you think it would be worse than 9/11?

On 24, the terrorist attacks were happening everywhere. There was one in San Antonio in the storyline and that really shocked me.

Btw, this thread isn't about Bush or John Kerry. It is clearly about whether you think a terrorist attack will happen on American soil again.

elisheva

Well, they've happened in other countries since September 11, including in "safe" Western countries like Britain and Spain. It's likely. I'm sure there have been attempts that were thwarted or that fell through..it's quite possible that Al Qaeda or another group will try again.

Jacob1983

I was talking about when and where you think the next attack will be on American soil.

Spain and Britain are western countries? How is that? They aren't even located in the western hemisphere.

elisheva

I was extrapolating from other incidents in other Western countries (terrorist attacks have happened in other Western countries since 9/11, there's no real reason why they shouldn't reoccur in the USA). And Europe, etc are generally considered to be part of "Western civilization." (It's about history/culture more than geography, really.)

There's a quick summary on Wikipedia:
If you want, you can peek at the rest here - Wikipedia's actually pretty useful; I use it a lot to brush up on stuff or get a quick review of a topic.

Lexis

As horrible as it is, I think there probably will be other attempts to attack America and one of those might succeed. What's that phrase? We need to be lucky all the time, the terrorists only need one successful plot.

mild toxicity

I'm sure there will be another terrorist attempt. It's pretty much a given. People seem to forget that there are loads of terrorist groups located within America. Any one of them could easily strike at any moment with absolutely no warning. Security wouldn't be expecting them, so it probably wouldn't even be very difficult.

Regardless, this "War on Terror" will do nothing to stop terrorism. Even if USA-based terrorist groups don't attack, eventually some foreign terror force will launch a successful attack. Do I think it'll be as severe as 9/11? Not particularly. But I don't know, so I'm not about to jinx it.

TheAngel

Western Europe my friend. The location of the hemispheres does not reflect naming of geographic regions.

Of course, I believe I will live to see a US city destroyed with a nuclear weapon. Did you know that only one in ten ship cargo containers are checked? I promise you it will be a port city. Also, when the Soviet Union collapsed, huge numbers of nuclear warheads and nuclear information was lost, sold to the highest bidder, so anyone in the world can find out how to make nukes and may even have the technology already put together for them as long as they have the cash.

Besides, we suffer a number of terrorist attacks from within the US, the Oklahoma City Bombing, the Unibomber, and a number of others. It doesn't just come from people outside the US.

sunnykerr

I was just gonna say... A terrorist attack on the United States doesn't even need to be from an outside source. Historically, there's been more terrorist attacks commited by U.S. citizens than otherwise. ETA: On U.S. soil. There's been more terrorist attacks on U.S. soil committed by U.S. citizens.

As for whether I believe it will happen again. Of course. I certainly don't wish it, but it has been happening in Spain and the U.K. It has happened in Africa, on U.S. embassies. So why not in the United States? As has been pointed out, it's not like Homeland Security is actually securing the homeland. Cargo shipments go unchecked. Arabic translators get fired for being gay. They go through the trouble of listening in on phone conversations from... whatever, "bad countries"... but they don't hire enough translators, so the backlog is huge to the point of rendering the whole excersize moot.

And, lest we forget, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita proved that there is currently no cohesive organization of any kind to serve and protect the U.S. population. So, yeah, I don't know how anything's ever going to prevent another attack on U.S. soil.

quaist

Well, yes, I do think that there'll be terror attacks in the future again. And it's pretty likely, that they'll place the attack on a building/spot where they can make sure that they kill as many people as possible, again.

That's exactly why I don't understand the US government. A "War on Terror" is a paradoxon itself. Usually, terrorists and their groups don't operate openly, and they don't only operate in one country. As mentioned before, they can be everywhere and anyone, even your friendly seeming neighbour. Everybody who knew f.e. some of the 9/11 terrorists would acknowledge that - sometimes even their own parents didn't know anything about their obsessions.

But the fear that Bush has spread particularly after 9/11 doesn't do anything about it, except frightening the civilisation. Of course, it would be great, if a "War on Terror" could be won, but that's not the truth. We don't really know the enemy, where he's located etc. In fact, it's a battle against an unseen person.

chicah

I think there'll probably be a new terrorist attack. The war on terror is getting America new enemies all the time, people who maybe disapproved of America are now hostile.
I don't know if it'll be as big as the 9/11 one, it's hard to say. But let's just hope that the government acts to prevent it this time, if they're warned.

sunnykerr

That's another excellent point. Keeping the White House administration entirely out of the equation (as much as possible anyway)... there's a real problem with the basic concept of this War on Terror. It's being waged according to the Cold War model: In whatever new country "evil" pops up, that's where we fight.

But it simply doesn't work that way. I think we can all agree that al-Qaeda is an enemy. But it's not one that has a country. It's in Indonesia just as much as it's in Afghanistan.

The other thing of course is that it's not the only enemy. Especially not if "terror" is the paradigm we're applying to define what an enemy is.

And there's probably no way around being afraid in a situation such as this one, but being afraid of a singular, artificial, enemy is pointless. The Iraqi people aren't terrorists. Arabs aren't terrorists. Muslims aren't terrorists. Just like the fact that Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist does not mean that white men are terrorists. Or that meth addicts are terrorists. Or that Republicans are terrorists. Or that members of the NRA are terrorists.

Justwatchin'

That could be majorly depressing as I live in Virginia and we have Newport News Shipyards and several naval air stations...but, my feeling is this...it's extremely easy to get yourself into a panic thinking about terrorist attacks, global warming and nuclear attacks...personally I want to be as optimistic as possible, be as happy from day to day as I can...it is what it is...

sum1

Is that statement meant to be for real?
The war on terror has already stopped plenty terrorist attacks. People seem to be very happy to forget the terrorist attacks that have been stopped. Like the plot to blow up ten planes flying from Brirtain or the plot to blow up the Sears tower. There are plenty more such attacks that have been stopped. The war on terror has achieved a lot.

ceilirose

The "War on Terror" is really just a marketing phrase for many reasons.

If there are any gains to be made on terrorism it will be done through investigative work (via intelligence agencies, police, etc.) which is basically how the British learned about the potential for explosives in liquids.

Sure the US and other countries will suffer terrorist attacks in the future. I don't think anyone thinks otherwise. The ports in the US are pretty much unprotected - it would be very easy to stage an attack at any one of those places.

Jacob1983

Why is it implied that I'm stupid because I don't think that Britain and Spain are Western countries?
I just don't see how you can call them western countries when in fact they are not even in the western hemisphere.