The idea behind the book

Anyone on the web has heard of 9/11 so I'll say little about that. One thing that surprised me was that it did not start WWIII. Perhaps it is simply because the victim was the United States.

That a nation with an aggressively proactive survival mentality would get over it was formulated by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani: "... we're going to come out of this emotionally stronger, politically stronger, and much closer together as a city, and we're going to come out of this economically stronger, too."

I am not convinced the same could be said were the situation reversed.

And in fact, America and the world have come out of this extremely well, so far, relatively, if you’re not Iraqi. For those whose hackles are crackling with electricity, read on...

Imagine the consequences of different suicide bomber crashing elsewhere. The Vatican was alarmed (see The Pope in Winter, by John Cornwell, p.209, paperback edition, ISBN: 0141020717), as were, I imagine, Buckingham Palace, Disneyland and even, I joke not, the Eiffel Tower. These too would be relatively trivial.

Let your imagination run wild.

BushAndNorad notwithstanding, I think we can accept that, pre 9/11, someone flying into a building with a planeful of passengers and fuel was barely conceivable. Or, for the more cynical, viewed from an insurance point of view, affordably low-risk.

After the attack, I seem to remember reading the Pentagon inviting film-personalities, script-writers and so on to work on terrorist catastrophe scenarios. Perhaps they did, and perhaps we can all sleep safely now. But in case they missed out on one or two...

The basic plot

An American pilot intentionally crashes his jet into the main mosque of Mecca, killing or wounding over a million people. Jihad is declared. Within 24 hours, Muslims have crystallised (is this the right word?) the licence to kill infidels permeating the Qur'an, attacking Christians everywhere - Pakistan, Syria, the Philippines, the Emirates, France, Germany, Sweden, Canada - spilling over to anti-Semitism, anti-Israel, anti-Sikhism, etc. In the Sudan, southern Blacks are exterminated, ethnic violence flares in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and so on. A (insert country here) suicide bomber hijacks a plane and crashes into (insert totem here), etc. The wave of violence spreads, for reasons to be seen, to Japan-China-Taiwan-Korea, to Russia and miscellaneous satellites. For economic reasons, there is no reason to assume it will stop until?...

I start with an individual American's vengeance attack on a Muslim shrine. I do not know where it will lead. The point is to generate real emotions, real opinions, and real engagement. I don’t imagine the book will solve any world problems, but if it can keep us attuned to some of the surprises, then perhaps together we can find ways of avoiding them.

What next

The plane has crashed and burst into flames. X,000 (need some techies here to provide information about 747s: KIAS, MGTOW, airspeed, etc. Know anyone?) litres of fuel have exploded and destroyed the entire mosque and almost everyone inside.

What would happen next? Firstly, word of mouth. Riots in the city. Riots in other Saudi cities. The Jiddah Hilton gets ransacked, guests are thrown from windows. A missionary is burned alive. The news spreads around the planet as countries wake in their respective times zones. More riots - where? What happens on the Palestinian-Israeli fronts? What happens in Algeria, Lybia, the Philippines, Malasia, Bradford?

Then the videotaped recording Abe sent to the news agency gets released, sent simultaneously to four major news agencies: American, British, Saudi and Pakistani. Repercussions? The story would become a cyber-tsunami. Riots would break out all over the globe. Churches would be invaded and congregations massacred. Necessarily, it would spill over, through accident or design, to other religions. "Abe": Jewish-sounding name, that... How long before revenge comes flying back?

What next?

Plot suggestions

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