Quote:
Originally posted by NoSoup
Agreed. I am saying that the attack on the WTC was more for symbolism, if they simply wanted to cause death and destruction, (sticking with my earlier example) they could simply walk into a chemical plant, take a high powered rifle, and shoot one of the tanks. Or, they could take a truck with explosive and drive it in... or place a small charge on the tank...
I believe that although many civilian lives were lost, they aren't just doing their darndest to kill as many people as they can (like the media portrays) but specifically attacking symbolistic targets - with the intent to get their message across, not just necessarily kill Americans.
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There are far too many fail safes in modern chemical plants for that to happen.
Terrorists like the symbolism because it portrays the image of fighting a noble fight. To spread terror they need to kill. The more they can kill the more terror created.
Let's look at some other examples. Richard Reid and his shoe bomb episode, killed no one so no real terror created. Had he succeeded, no doubt air travel would have plummeted even further.
Let's look at the Washington DC sniper. The first attack or two, scary yes but not exactly terror inducing. Attacks 3, 4, etc, etc, etc, the terror builds as the body count increases.
Let's look at the bombing of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie Scotland. Pretty high death toll but it didn't cause much terror and didn't really impact air travel or the economy. Plane bombings were expected and the death toll wasn't beyond what we hear about in any "normal" air crash.
The first WTC attack. Inconvenienced a lot of people as many television stations were knocked out and there was a fair amount of damage but no significant death toll. No real terror and only a moderate amount of outrage.
The attacks of 9/11 combined several things to induce terror. One, they were widespread with multiple targets. Two, they were successful. Three, they killed thousands of people. Four, they used a seemingly harmless and very common means (air transport) to inflict the damage. Had they not killed thousands would the terror have been the same? I doubt it.
Why do they want to gain nuclear, chemical, or biologic weapons (assuming the stories are true)? Is it simply for symbolism or is it to kill lots of people?