AH Challenge: Turn American Cities Into Beirut

Just what the thread happens to be titled: turn American cities into Beirut. (That is heavy fighting, a civilian population that still lives there, limited government control, etc….)

Probably the best time to do is the '60s with civil rights going horribly wrong, but I could see a '70s crime / urban decay model as well.

Anyway…*Go!
 
In order to achieve that, you need to turn the USA into Lebanon first. Weak to non-existent government naturally leads to Beirutization of every big city.
 
South Central Los Angeles is already a fair bit of the way there. Some of the wrecked buildings from the 1992 riots are still either rubble or empty lots. Detroit is another big-time mess. But no government control is next to impossible to achieve in the USA.
 
You could do it with a large earthquake either along the San Andreas or New Madrid faults during the late 1960s. There's enough of a social disruption already in place that a physical disruption should be enough to cause widespread chaos.
 
I know this might be getting close to ASB, but is it possible to have some rouge militia group manage to take out a good deal of the upper government in a surprise attack in the 60's or 70's? That might just throw the country into enough chaos to achieve Beirut status. I am thinking a dirty bomb set off close to a major government meeting would effectivly wipe out enough of the goverment.
 
I know this might be getting close to ASB, but is it possible to have some rouge militia group manage to take out a good deal of the upper government in a surprise attack in the 60's or 70's? That might just throw the country into enough chaos to achieve Beirut status. I am thinking a dirty bomb set off close to a major government meeting would effectivly wipe out enough of the goverment.

Damn that Rouge Militia! Always getting in the way of things and championing there agenda of free make-up for all...

But seriously. I don't think this could happen in the US, especially with the way that the government is set up. Even if the upper echelons of the government are taken out in a single strike, there'd still be some Secretary of Health or Education somewhere that would become President. That would cause its own problems, I'm sure, but I can't see America falling apart due to a strike on its leaders.
 

NapoleonXIV

Banned
Yeh. This is OTL, I'd always heard that Detroit had a murder rate comparable to Beirut.

One way might be to have the Islamabad model of 'urban renewal' continue to be the dominant and spread, eating up the inner cities. With literal square miles of unpolicable superblocks to contend with local law enforcement would be forced to simply give up vast areas to whatever would grow up within them. It might be gangs, but we also could see local civic orgs arming themselves and trying to work with whatever police were left.
 
Yeh. This is OTL, I'd always heard that Detroit had a murder rate comparable to Beirut.

One way might be to have the Islamabad model of 'urban renewal' continue to be the dominant and spread, eating up the inner cities. With literal square miles of unpolicable superblocks to contend with local law enforcement would be forced to simply give up vast areas to whatever would grow up within them. It might be gangs, but we also could see local civic orgs arming themselves and trying to work with whatever police were left.

Good idea, but I suppose I can't imagine something like that lasting for too long in the States. I can see the Governor, or even the President, calling in the National Guard or something and installing some semblance of order.
 
I vote for New Orleans. Corruption and governmental apathy are most likely to succeed in Louisiana, from the experience of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Throw a little Black Panthers into the mix, and have the police near-openly in league with criminal gangs, and New Orleans could be a REALLY nasty place.
 
AH Chaalenge turn American Cities into Beirut

It's not something I would want to do but I would take the POD back to around 1948. Harry Truman loses to Dewey or lacks resolve regarding desegregation in the Armed Forces and either he backs down to pressure from service chiefs or Dewey doesn't even think of it. Lyndon Johnson loses his senate seat for attempting to bring in Civil Rights legislation.

The Supreme Court rules in favour of Arkansas over Little Rock. Malcolm X doesn't go to Mecca in 1965 and continues to advocate seperatism. Mounting casualties in Vietnam and large scale draft evasion by middle class whites results in black GIs being assigned tom combat duty and coming home trained in the use of firearms. Violence breaks out in Northern Cities.

Wallace is elected President on a law and order platform and advocates segregation in the Northern states as there is not as much violence in the Southern Cities effectively most major cities are now divided into armed camps.

This scenario didn't take place a more plausible one might have been Belfast becoming like Bierut
 
I vote for New Orleans. Corruption and governmental apathy are most likely to succeed in Louisiana, from the experience of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Throw a little Black Panthers into the mix, and have the police near-openly in league with criminal gangs, and New Orleans could be a REALLY nasty place.

I would add to that by having the police be in league with, or controlled by, the KKK.
 
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