Why has there been no repeat of 9/11?

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You keep underestimating those guys. You truly think they will go at ya the same way? They won't. You can bet all your chips on it!

My guess would be (in case they want to re-send a message they have already delivered) sea ports. Wide, wide open opportunities.

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To clarify, by "Repeat of 9/11", I meant a major terrorist attack in the US. I did not mean specifically hijacked airplanes.

[Cyrus]

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To clarify, by "Repeat of 9/11", I meant a major terrorist attack in the US. I did not mean specifically hijacked airplanes.

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Which is why, in terms of game theory, the terrorists now have the upper hand in their confrontation with the United States. The terrorists have "announced" that no rules whatsoever will be respected and that no one and nothing is outside their target list. And, at the same time, they delivered a hit that "confirmed" both the veracity of such a threat and their ability to carry it out.

The United States, therefore, is theoretically obligated to guard everything against everybody!

(Its response? Send the army thousands of miles away to finagle a regime change. Tsk tsk tsk.)

[Cumulonimbus]

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Why has there been no repeat of 9/11?

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Because the government hasn't needed to start another war just yet. I won't discuss it here, so keep all questions and flamings in that thread.

[AceHigh]

The reason that al quaeda hasn't attacked is the next attack will have to be bigger than the last one to resonate with the Arab public. Otherwise it will seem as if they are losing ground rather than gaining it.

So they are biding there time and fighting more important battles (to them). Remember there audience is the Arab public, they can never defeat America militarily or overthrow it government and that's not there objective. This isn't Palestine vs. Israel where the objective is something tangable like land. This is for the hearts and minds of muslims and the terrorists are looking to win arabs not hurt American civillians, per se.

Which do you think would impress Arabs more, getting the US out of Afghanistan and/or Iraq, or knocking down a major US landmark?

[ACPlayer]

You really think 9/11 was about impressing the Arabs?

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You really think 9/11 was about impressing the Arabs?

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Partially - Remember, al Qaeda's goal is political and social dominance IN the middle east. Part of that requires they win over the hearts and minds of the people - making the people believe their agenda is necessary in the region. If the people do not believe attacking the United States and killing thousands of people was justified, the terrorist's cause and political sway loses all its worth. The Arabs too looked on 9/11 with disgust. This is the main reason our extremely violent and aggressive response to the attacks will not work - it will not win over the moderate Arabs - this is key to our winning this war.

[Myrtle]

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The reason that al quaeda hasn't attacked is the next attack will have to be bigger than the last one to resonate with the Arab public. Otherwise it will seem as if they are losing ground rather than gaining it.

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Not quite, methinks. It has to be more frightening and more destabilizing to the general US populus than the last one.

Use your imagination....It could be numbers of things, and I agree with you that they are biding their time to decide what it will be.

[ACPlayer]

Why bother?

We have tied ourselves in knots, wasted billions on Iraq, they have our full attention, we are gutting the American system of true freedoms without help from them.

So, if you were bin ladin why bother? He got us all wound up and now he can just watch us fall all over our own feet.

[xpokerx]

Please provide some examples to back up this "post".

Show me why the money spent on Iraq has been wasted. I will show you people voting in free elections as proof it's not being wasted, can you counter that in any sane way?

Show me how we are "gutting the American system of true freedoms". Last I checked I can do MORE than I could do pre-9/11. But lets simply repeat what others say because we don't like Bush.

I can't believe that people equally believe that Al-Qaeda has CHOSE not to attack and that we are fighting a successful campaign. NEWSFLASH there have been NUMEROUS incidents of international, Al Qaeda sponsored terrorist attacks since 9/11. NONE in the US, whom Al Qaeda has INSISTED is thier number one enemy. To believe that the war on terror is NOT the reason they have not attacked is so incredibly ignorant that I am sickened that people who know how to spell choose to believe that it's in fact Al Qaeda's decision NOT to attack that is the reason for the lack of attacks.

[jester710]

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Last I checked I can do MORE than I could do pre-9/11.

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I am very interested to know what exactly you're talking about here.