9/11 expanded to Europe

What happened on the 9th of November?

9th of November is, for good and for bad, reserved as "Germany Day". :p

It's the day when the last emperor abdicated in 1918, the day when the Nazis burned down synagogues across Germany in 1938, and the day the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. ;)
 
attacking Pakistan would be a very complex problem

Although NATO would certainly have Indian support as permanently removing that problem (from the Indian perspective) has got to be something that they would be in favor of.

The problem however is that Pakistan is a nuclear armed state, and has considerable Chinese support (as Pakistan is a second front against India).

Which is why the US is presently being very careful on how it handles Pakistan even now.

Iran would be the worst of Afghanistan and Iraq. Huge numbers of fanatics (not the whole population, but sizable numbers of them), a better military, a much larger space to have to deal with, and it has considerable support in Palestinian areas and in Lebanon and already supports a terror network aimed at Israel (which could be retasked obviously). On the plus side, the logistics are easier once Bandar Abbas is taken. But very complex nonetheless.

Somalia would require lengthy nation building.. but the military task is easier, fewer troops would be required than either Afghanistan or Pakistan, and logistics are the easiest of all. Kenya would be happy about it, and it would certainly make dealing with Al Quada in Yemen easier. It would also make the task of potentially going into Sudan easier too (Egypt blamed Sudan for harboring terrorists operating in Egypt, Clinton fired a few cruise missiles into Khartoum as well). Of all the choices, it would probably be the easiest sell too. Plus of course there is all of the unsettled business there from the previous US effort to settle things down in Somalia that ended with "Black Hawk Down"

Probably would have been better for the Somali people, their neighbors and the world in general too if NATO had gone in there in 2003 instead what actually occurred.
 
Britain: Parliament Building. 10 Downing. (Both Government). SIS Building. (Military). Buckingham Palace. (Symbollic). One Canada Square (Economic).

France: Seat of the European Parliament. Luxembourg Palace. Palais Bourbon. Élysée Palace. (Government). Eiffle Tower (Symbollic.)

Germany: Reichstag. German Chancellery. (Government). Commerzbank Tower. Euro Tower. (Economic). Brandenburg Gate (Symbollic).

Italy: Quirinal Palace. Palazzo Montecitorio. Palazzo Madama. (Government). The Vatican City (Symbollic).

Spain: El Palacio del Congreso de los Diputados. Palacio del Senado. Moncloa Palace. (Government). Palace of Zarzuela. Royal Palace (Symbollic).
 
Well if they hit Buckingham palace, there's a chance of killing the Queen. Whatever you think of the Royals killing a head of state is a sure-fire way of getting the nation up in arms.

-MRegent
 
certainly killing a lot of people in the Vatican or demolishing an important landmark there (or both) would piss of the 1 billion+ Catholics of the world, and appall all of the other Christians too.

I don't think Ben Ladin is that crazy, but who knows. He does want the Caliphate after all and thinks Islam can beat Christianity in the long run. So starting a war between the religions as a whole would not be inconsistant with that.
 
I wouldn't use aircrafts in a European attacks, but rather a series of coordinated bombing, like the London bombings, in the capitals of the major European powers.

Europe is about to get much more racist, and much more ugly. Heck, the current situation in Europe, except for Britain and Germany, is pretty scary (thanks to the recession).
 
About targets into European Countries I could suggest:

France: Tour Eiffel (symbol) in Paris or Versailles (lot of tourists)
Germany: (Reichstag) or a nuclear powerplant (a contaminated area could put Germany out of game for some time due to refugee concerns for fallout)
Italy: I don't believe Vatican because too well controlled (Rome is the only Capital with 3 embassies for each country due to Italy, Vatican and FAO's opening and Italy is one of the most scarred european nations by terrorism so its controls and laws are stricts), more probably bombing on train stations like at Central Milano or an important monuments really crowded in narrow places like in Florence
Spain: Probably some important historical place around Reconquista, I supppose around Sevilla or anyway Al-andalus
Holland: Dams?

Luckily Al Quaeda didn't have a lot of operators and money to activate these plans (according to some security analysis in USA, every terrorist or criminal organization that surpasses more than 200 members along leaders, operatives and supporters cannot hope to stay hidden from counter intelligence, in good and bad, AQ didn't have such manpower)
 
About targets into European Countries I could suggest:

France: Tour Eiffel (symbol) in Paris or Versailles (lot of tourists)
Germany: (Reichstag) or a nuclear powerplant (a contaminated area could put Germany out of game for some time due to refugee concerns for fallout)
Italy: I don't believe Vatican because too well controlled (Rome is the only Capital with 3 embassies for each country due to Italy, Vatican and FAO's opening and Italy is one of the most scarred european nations by terrorism so its controls and laws are stricts), more probably bombing on train stations like at Central Milano or an important monuments really crowded in narrow places like in Florence
Spain: Probably some important historical place around Reconquista, I supppose around Sevilla or anyway Al-andalus
Holland: Dams?

This target list has a very high list of potential very likely failures. Hitting a high-rise building with a plane (Eiffel Tower for example) is not as difficult; hitting a very expansive flattish building (Pentagon OTL, St. Peter, Reichstag) is more difficult as the risk is big that you cannot control the altitude as exact as you would need - Pentagon received a glancing hit after the plane hit the ground in front of it, a direct hit would be much more devastating. Hitting and actually destroying a nuclear power station would be almost impossible - the pressure container of the reactor, a structure 10-20 m large, has to be hit head-on by the remains of the plane, AFTER it breaks through the external structure and breaks up, a golden BB. Anything else would lead to an emergency shutdown, possibly overheating of the pressure vessel, death of a dozen or two of operators and a minor radiation leackage through secondary effects - an enormous scare for the surrounding population, but without weakening the country in any significant way.
 
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