My Worst Nightmare

"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb, but doesn't have an air force."

   - William Blum, American activist writer, editor

I've read this NewsMax story at several sites over the past few days, but reacted only mildly because I've seen so many similar warnings in the last couple of years. In a nutshell, the article states that those in the know are becoming increasingly concerned that al-Qaeda will "mount a devastating attack aimed at disrupting the (U.S.) political process." We've heard these types of warnings before, haven't we? The sky is falling, the sky is falling...yeah, yeah, I hear you; now go away and let me get back to my nap, my gardening, or whatever.

We have become somewhat numb to alerts such as this, and I was certainly headed down that path until I ran across this piece in USA Today. As I read through it, and thought about the NewsMax story, I began having an ugly premonition:

"Suicide attackers armed with hidden explosives that can weigh as little as a cell phone pose a serious threat to the nation's aviation system despite billions being spent on new efforts to tighten security, according to more than a dozen members of Congress and security consultants."

For those with the will to do it, and al-Qaeda operatives certainly have the will, it would be no great challenge to sneak a small amount of plastic explosive onto a commercial airliner and bring it down. Russian authorities believe this is what happened recently when two of their planes were destroyed by explosions in mid-air:

"The bombings of twin flights in Russia last month began a wave of Chechen attacks that have killed hundreds, including the takeover of a school that killed 335 people.

Russian authorities say that two women boarded the flights with explosives. The women had been detained by police when they reached the airport and were turned over to security officials, but the airport security chief let them go, according to Russian news reports.

The two flights disappeared from radar within seconds of each other. All 90 people aboard the two planes died.

It's not known how the women got the explosives aboard, but other Chechen suicide bombers have strapped them to their bodies. Only a small amount of explosives would have destroyed the planes."

Take a few minutes and read the entire article if you want a sobering education about how poorly equipped our airport security forces are to deter threats where plastic explosives are the weapon of choice. It's scary, and makes me very nervous about flying anywhere on a commercial jetliner.

My premonition is this. Suppose on the morning of November 2, 2004, a hundred or so al-Qaeda types attempt to sneak explosive devices onto a hundred or so heavily traveled flights here in our country. Let's say half of them are successful and bring 50 aircraft down within hours of each other. Let's say there are 200 people on each of these flights. That's 10,000 deaths, for I doubt that anyone would escape. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue? I can't. It's unfathomable to me, but it would probably be worse than most of us can imagine.

Al-Qaeda keeps saying they're going to hit us really hard, and when they say that we tend to think in terms of another 9/11 or maybe the detonation of a nuclear device in one of our major cities. Perhaps they've read Sun-Tzu and that's what they'd like us to think so that we're not being watchful in the places where they plan to hit us.

Bombs and al-Qaeda go together like gin and tonic. If there's one thing they know how to do, it's how to make and use explosive devices. Replicating the Russian tragedy fifty times over in the U.S. would be easy for them compared to hijackings or finding and using a nuclear device. And the carnage would be greater than on 9-ll. That's my nightmare.

Hopefully, I only have an overactive imagination, but the scenario I've painted doesn't seem to me to require too much imagination. Let's hope and pray that I'm wrong, that the sky really isn't falling, that we can go back to our chores and not have to worry about something like this happening. I must admit, however, now that I've begun thinking about it, I'm going to have a difficult time putting it out of my mind.