Originally Posted by
prismwiz
The whole point of terrorism is to incite terror within a group of people. I agree with your idea of "the jihadists' intent is to kill Americans" yet this is not the whole intent. The idea of the terrorists is to make people around the world fear them. In reality the 3,000 people that died in the 9/11 attacks are not that many people, the fear that the murder caused upon the other 300million people in the USA is the true goal.
With all due respect - and as I said above - having a few thousand people disappear in flight without a sound would stop people from flying entirely. And that would probably bring down the economy.
Originally Posted by
prismwiz
If I assume my own definition of terrorism as correct an attack on airplanes will not be the most horrific possiblility of a terrorist attack. An attack on a school would be the most horrific.
With all due respect, the consequences of attacking a few schools would pale in comparison to the fallout
from a nuclear attack upwind from a large population center. Even causing a nuclear power plant to get out of control would create a sterile zone that no one could enter for thousands of years. The death of a thousand school kids would be "child's play" in comparison.