Debate Round table: Why has Al Quaeda not followed up 9/11?

In the two years since 9/11 there have been multiple predictions of devastating attacks, mass Israel-style suicide bombings in America's malls, ball games, nightclubs etc, bombings of various targets, destruction of power stations, hijacking of vulnerable freight airliners, attacks like those on the captured AQ training video, and so on and so forth.

And there has been...

NOTHING.

Zilch. Nada. Betsuni. Nicht.

Why? It would have been so easy, apparently, to carry out such attacks. So why has Al Qaeda rested easy? Why have they not done anything?

All opinions welcome.

Edit: A special thanks to Darth Valdemar of spacebattles.com for posting this thread originally over there (I ripped him off for this thread).

 

Well, if they do it on 9/11 again it'll all be too predictable for the years to come... Britain themselves has got their noses into this situation as well. (damn you Blair you dog follower) So maybe Britain might also see their own fate as well in the (possible) near future.

 

It might just be that their next plan of attack may have already started.

That black-out we had a few weeks back still has everyone stumped. Maybe someone was testing our grids to see what would happen if they go that route.

The last attacks took several years of planning and training to be completed, maybe they are just not ready yet.

OR...........

Maybe, they fear the mighty hand of the US government. Maybe they don't want our military storming in like in Iraq.

There are really no sure answers here---I think they made their points 2 years ago, now its up to how we will deal with preventing such desasters from happening again.

Vic

 

Yeah but save for the anthrax scare, they've been inactive despite several "fear us America, we're going to destroy you" style messages.

 

Bottom line,

If they are going to attack, its just going to happen---there are no mind-readers out there to tell us when it will happen.\


Victor

 

Maybe it's something like the Red Scare, they say it's gonna happen but never does...

Or maybe the CIA pulled the 9/11 attack, and then went to blame it on Al Quaeda... Hey it's a possibilty, Bush could be there real mastermind og the terrorist organization.

 

I think its all America just getting to carried away by fear.But none the less we shouldnt skimp on security.

 

I think there waiting for us to get cocky. Ohh we're the big USA or Ohh Osama is dead we found his mustache then WAM their going to hit us. They may be terrorist but there not stupid. Why make an attack when we're all jumpy and ahhh terrorist! That lady has a nail filer AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! That's why they hid there nukes and bio weapons so well. It's the #3 rule of gaming hold your trump cad till the end.

 

Don't you think the Al-Jazeara TV broadcast network are the biggest terrorists... if they didn't broadcast any Bin Laden speeches and photographs of him then we would know f**k all if he was alive or not, or guess his location. Shut down that broadcast network, peace in the world. Easy as that.

 

Thats like saying if we sweep asbestos under a rug, we'll be immune. -.-

 

I have to agree with Bloodberry, it doesn't matter what one select group of ppl have done in a country but it does not give us the right to take over their country! I'm in American History right now and my teacher gave us an article on the situation in Iraq and i found out alot of stuff. I'll see if i can find it and but a link up. I ended up writting an extra credit paper on the stuff i found out from it. and Neph thank you for pointing out how no one's been doing anything about it. My friends and i have been telling ppl that for awhile and we keep getting told to shut up.

 

Personally-this being more of an opinion-based debate topic than factually based-I believe that considering how much detailed planning went into the first attack and the co-ordination it took, that Al Quaeda just can't handle organizing an attack while at the same time dodging the CIA and American forces.

 

Why should they strike now? We are at the moment in a prepared state, better to save for that rainy day than to waste it for a likely failure.

 

You know, it's almost incredible how well they hid their nonexistent weapons.

Especially since they're DIFFERENT PEOPLE. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Afganistan are not simply three countries that have been mashed together into one terrorist-producing Axis Of Oil.

 

There are a few scenerios that might hold truth to this. One the one hand, they might be trying with all ernesty to carry out another attack because they hate the United States so much. But also, they must know that performing another such high profile attack would envigor the military again. They might wait until all this anti-war sentiment sends this country into political turmoil, then their attack might be met with a weaker degree of retaliation.

Since the presidential election is coming up towards the end of next year, terrorists could also wait until a Democrate is elected. They can work against Bush by killing more in Iraq.

Who is to say that Delta, the FBI and/or the CIA haven't already intercepted a number of attacks? I'm positive there already have been attempts that have been smothered before it could leak out to the press. After all, as was said in Men In Black: The only way these people go on with their happy lives is because they just don't know. (note: that exerpt might be a little off. But it still coverys the same idea).

 

I agree with Legato. To be honest, if I were a terrorist, I wouldn't do anything with US troops stomping around. I believe the US forces are still there (I don't know, I'm not up to date, I just know there's still some in Iraq, so I figure thare's still some there too). Plus everything's reinforced now, it's harder for a terrorist to even do amateur suicide bombings (as I saw on the news today, 5 of them [not sure if they were suicide ones though, I don't pay attention well] but were all kinda unsuccesful, didn't do as much damage as wanted and were classified as amateur). You have to be really experienced and it would take you a long time to pull off soemthing like 9/11 now. Can't do anything with planes considering airports are more careful now. Can't really do much except blow themselves up in a subway car.

Also, i believe those 'warnings' are a load of crock. They're just trying to instill fear on us, telling us to keep on our toes, so they feel superior. it's the way bullies work as well. And any really intelligent being can tell it's probably a load of BS and feel pretty sfae. I'm not saying let your guard down COMPLETLY though. You shouldn't let your guard down for anything really.