Exactly what would be triggered by...

[Ani Yun Wiya]

Another attack on US soil?

[Spoon]

1. If you mean in reference to the election,

there are two schools of thought. One would be that the electorate would feel "let down" by the Bush admin, and vote Kerry in (like Spain). Others feel most would rally around the flag (and the president), like after 9/11. It's hard to say - there should be a poll on this.

[radfringe]

2. bush* campaign is straddling the fence

on one hand you had bush* running around saying we are safer -- then you had Ridge running around yelling "terra terra terra" --
now you have bush* saying we are in "great danger"

so which is it? are we in great danger or are we safer?

every terralert and/or terrattack is a reminder that bush* has failed miserably

[fishface]

3. "Ignore that little man behind the curtain"

Wizard of Oz

[necso]

4. Hard to say, but a serious attack might have serious effects.

Politically, people could go one way or another. It is hard to say exactly which way the herd will run when it is panicked -- except away!

The speculators will panic and the economy will suffer. Whether it will be better or worse than post-911 is impossible to judge.

We have nothing left militarily, so in the short term we could do little. I suppose that we could bomb somebody, but a major invasion will take many months to prepare for.

The people, of course, will react badly and the admin could use the opportunity to enact a bunch of horrible stuff. (Probably you can take this as a given.)

Hard to say what the timing of an attack might be. AQ has evidenced a number of contradictory desires and influencing the election (attacking before) could emerge as their goal. This might be contrary to their best interests (keeping * in office), but these guys are big on crude symbolism.

But then again, AQ also wishes to do something even bigger than 911 and this is to some extent a timing/opportunity thing, so perhaps they will await their best opportunity.

Any attack, large or small will not be good for the country. If it keeps * in office or just gives him a good chance to do more harm, then it will be a disaster. Perhaps AQ is not too deluded to realize this and will take their chances.

PS. There are any number of possibilities for an attack besides AQ. A serious, successful attack would have similar results. But there are other possibilities that might have significantly different ones.

A "foiled" attack might well give * a boost, without significant adverse consequences (except politically). An attack that clearly fails of its purpose or succeeds on only a very small scale -- think Anthrax attacks -- might also give * a boost without too great consequences --- except for ruthless exploitation by *&Co.