What if the 9/11 attacks had been the result of domestic terrorists

Suppose if instead of Al-Qaeda, the attacks had been perpetrated by some sort of extremist group native to the United States with no apparent international connections.
Lets suppose for this it was a far right wing organization bent on bringing down the goverment and the terrorists had been white.
Would there still be a big war on terrorism with the use of military forces, only this time in America against other Americans?
Would this cause the US to turn inward and become more reluctant to engage in foreign affairs because we'd be too busy focusing on internal problems?
Would this result in an increased enviroment of paranoia since the terrorists would be indistinguishable from the majority of Americans?
Would this result in a major oppression of civil liberties?
 
Home grown US terrorists have tended to come from the right (see
McVeigh and the overthrow of Constitutional government in the South in the 1870s)

I cannot imagine that they would have targeted the World Trade Centre. I would guess that they would have targeted the UN HQ.

I am not aware of any significant 'martyr' concept on the US far right so that any huge outrage would be in some other form.
 
Home grown US terrorists have tended to come from the right (see
McVeigh and the overthrow of Constitutional government in the South in the 1870s)

Or the left. (see Bill Ayers & the Weather Underground, Earth Liberation Front(ELF), Armed Forces for Puerto Rican Liberation(FALN), Black Panthers, Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), etc)
 
Or the left. (see Bill Ayers & the Weather Underground, Earth Liberation Front(ELF), Armed Forces for Puerto Rican Liberation(FALN), Black Panthers, Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), etc)

Comparatively, they're fairly insignificant, though. The USA has traditionally been the kind of place where, as a serious leftist, you could get along fine without finding yourself in conflict with the authorities. Most violent domestic opposition to its constitution, law and society has always come from the right, relatively little from the left.

Yes, I just called the US a pinko kind of place. Seriously, it is. I'd rather be a Communist in Alabama than in Bulgaria or Korea.
 

Philip

Donor
Would there still be a big war on terrorism with the use of military forces, only this time in America against other Americans?

The use of paramilitary law enforcement units is more likely. Possibly the National Guard, though I don't know if some laws might need to be changed.

Would this cause the US to turn inward and become more reluctant to engage in foreign affairs because we'd be too busy focusing on internal problems?

Probably, but perhaps not for the reasons you are suggesting. The US was moving toward a more isolationist position leading up to 9/11.

Would this result in an increased enviroment of paranoia since the terrorists would be indistinguishable from the majority of Americans?

I am not sure if 'indistinguishable' is correct, but you would probably see an increase in behavioral profiling.

Would this result in a major oppression of civil liberties?

Doubtful.


Home grown US terrorists have tended to come from the right (see
McVeigh and the overthrow of Constitutional government in the South in the 1870s)

Actually, it is fairly evenly split.

I cannot imagine that they would have targeted the World Trade Centre. I would guess that they would have targeted the UN HQ.

UN would be reasonable, but so is the WTC. The wacky-conspiracy-fringe right loves theories about the world being controlled by a wealth cabal.

I am not aware of any significant 'martyr' concept on the US far right so that any huge outrage would be in some other form.

Do you mean a martyr as viewed by their companions? There is certainly such a concept. (eg Ruby Ridge) If you mean martyr in a suicidal context, I don't think their is a strong concept of such among domestic groups.
 
The domestic whack-jobs in the US wouldn't need large-scale military force to crush them.

The ELF could be taken down in a coordinated series of police raids, while the militia types (what few are left) might require a bit more muscle.

Given the antecedents of the Patriot Act were put in place after the OKC bombing, I would how police-statey the US would get with *another* domestic terror attack on a large scale?

The enemy, after all, would be internal, not an external foe like al-Qaeda.

BTW, a domestic terror attack would be less likely to be a suicidal one. You could still bring down the Twin Towers with a large enough truck bomb under each, I would imagine.
 
Out of curiosity, OrdinaryJoe, would you consider yourself a liberal or a conservative?

Most of the concern about domestic terrorists seems to come from the left these days, while the right seems more concerned about foreigners.

For example, soon after the declaration of the War on Terror, a columnist (can't remember her name) said the WoT should be declared over "as soon as decently possible" and more attention should be paid to "domestic Talibans" like the abortion clinic bombers.

(Hmm...AQ killed 3,000 people in a single day, while the anti-abortion terrorists have probably killed less than 100 over the course of decades. Someone's priorities are skewed.)

Meanwhile, on FreeRepublic, there are a bunch of people who're convinced if the US withdraws from Iraq or elects Paul President (they hated Ron Paul, mostly), Shariah would be imposed in the United States by a victorious AQ.

(umm...what?)

Furthermore, you cited right-wing nutters as your terrorists, when (in theory) the whacko left could produce a suicidal killer, given some of the eco-crackheads believe in "voluntary human extinction," that's more likely to give rise to a suicidal terrorist than "the tree of liberty must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
 
Or the left. (see Bill Ayers & the Weather Underground, Earth Liberation Front(ELF), Armed Forces for Puerto Rican Liberation(FALN), Black Panthers, Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), etc)

one thing I've wondered for a long time... who the hell are the Symbionese and who do they need liberating from?
 
one thing I've wondered for a long time... who the hell are the Symbionese and who do they need liberating from?

i lookt at the wikipedia page and couldn't really be bothered to read it. But this was a bit interesting
Although the S.L.A. considered themselves leaders of the Black revolution, DeFreeze was its only Black member.
and i like this picture

225px-Patty_Hearst.jpg
 
Out of curiosity, OrdinaryJoe, would you consider yourself a liberal or a conservative?
That is not so easily answered as one might think. I am strongly against abortion. I am against the death penalty. And I'm in favor of gay marriage. These are some issues that matter to me. I'm not sure where that would put me on the political spectrum.
In the past I've liked to consider myself to be conservative socially and liberal politically, but I'm not sure how accurate that truly is.
And I guess I made them right wing because when I think of domestic terrorism Timothy McVeigh is always the first thing to come to mind.
 
Had Timothy McVeigh hijacked an airplane, he could have carried out a suicidal attack on a large building. But he was not suicidal at the time.

It does not matter what cause a terrorist chooses to support. In a world of millions of people, there will always be somebody who wants to assassinate prominent people or cause destruction for whatever sake.

Unless you want to submit to Orwell/1984 surveillance, a potential terrorist who has no past record will get a "bye" as he or she assembles the resources to cause destruction. McVeigh worked below the radar to accumulate the explosives. Ammonium nitrate, being a common fertilizer, is stored in bulk warehouses and trucked to the farms.
 
Instead of the terrorist being a blanket rightest or leftist, I can see one attacking the world trade center as an Anti-Globalist. They could be in the militia movement, an out of work factory man or women, A member of the Communist Party or the Constitution party or even a Democrat, Republican or Libertarian. I think though that whoever it would be would just be an Anti globalist, very strongly against NAFTA, and free trade and be big into conspiracy theories. Thats just my take on it though.
 
To take politics out of it let's just pretend it's a joint venture between leftie and rightie violent nuts teaming up to attack their mutual hallucinatory enemies, globalized capitalism and politicians in Washington. Now, given the scale of destruction, and the fact that they're local and have ties to less extreme/violent groups, what I think happens is a tsunami of tips and leads from sympathizers of their causes who are aghast at the death toll. The conspirators are largely rounded up, with a few hiding out in the woods Eric Rudolph style for a while after and others are subjects of an international manhunt after they slip over the borders. OTL security changes at the airports are implemented, along with some variant of Patriot Act, but overall the reaction is much less extreme. I think a similar lower/smaller reaction would have come about if OBL and other Al-Qaeda leadership were turned over to the US as Bush demanded, although it's hard to see how the Afghans could have mustered the strength to take an unwilling bunch of terrorist leaders into custody.
 
Top