WI: 9/11 attacks the Empire State building instead of the WTC

I see no reason why their choice of target would affect America's reaction. Bottom line, they still run an airplane into a skyscraper and it still kills hundreds of innocents. Unless you change the organization that perpetrated it, then the US would still invade Afghanistan and we'd still be in the same damn mess we're in now. Unless the Empire State Building is way more important than I think it is.
 
It's likely that the ESB would not have collapsed. It has a much more robust and fire resistant construction. Given the level of flying skills of the hijackers I'm not sure they would have hit it at all. Mid-town Manhattan has a lot of tall buildings and they could well have wound uphitting the Chrysler or another tall building by mistake. Not that that would have altered the US response. The fourth plane might have been tasked with the Capitol or other high-value target
 
At a minimum the death toll would have been far lower, the Empire State Building was overengineered compared to the World Trade Center and had already survived a plane crashing into it. As it is if it does collapse it will take far longer and almost everyone will be saved
 
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