What would the response have been, if Al Qaeda had attacked New Orleans, instead of a hurricane strike?

Question

What would the response have been, if Al Qaeda had attacked New Orleans, instead of a hurricane strike?

Answer 1

I think you know very well that it would have been rebuilt by now, and better than ever.  Sadly, however, there isn't as much good 'press' from a hurricane...so New Orleans contines to rot.  Its people, its structures, its history.  But shiny new towers, representing the wealth of the USA get taken down...by an inhumane act on a scale that only Hollywood could outdo...and all stops are taken out to make it a shrine.

Priorities...

Answer 2

i dont know why they would attack new orleans

Answer 3

What's the point? What are you looking for from this??

Answer 4

much faster.  instead of dozens of organizations sitting around wondering what to do, there would have been millions of people offering every possible piece of help.  the federal government would have been there within hours, the FBI would investigate immediately, and the victims would have been housed somewhere more permanently.  however, one attack likely would not have displaced the same amount of people so it's really difficult to compare.

Answer 5

I think Bush would have paid more attention.

Answer 6

Why does everyone limit Hurricane Katrina's damage to just New Orleans?  Doesn't anybody remember that other places took damage too, i.e. the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast?  I guess if they'd griped as much as people of New Orleans they'd get more attention.  Maybe if my relatives in Bay St. Louis had called out the government and shot at relief helicoptoers they would've gotten a little bit of that government money and help, instead of going to work to rebuild their house themselves and not getting a d**n thing.  Nobody even remembers they were victims anymore in Mississippi and some parts of Alabama.

Anyway (that wasn't aimed at you specifically), we would've all been ready to go whip some terrorists again like we were after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks back on September 11th most likely.  I think if-well, unfortunately, when is more likely- terrorists hit again, it'll fire everybody back up to go after the terrorists again.

Answer 7

Despite the comments in some of the other "answers" your qestion is right on target.  Compare the per-capita assistance rendered to New York after 9/11 with the aid provided to the Katrina-devastated areas and there is a stark contrast - with the Gulf coast way in second place.

The reason is that both the Democrats and the Republicans view Katrina as a "bad news" story for their party.  

The Governor of LA (at the time) and the Mayor of New Orleans were high-profile Democrat politicians, and both proved to be worse than ineffective during the crisis. Governor Blanco did not even run for re-election and Mayor Nagin has repeatedly shown himself to be both incompetent and racist. New Orleans' city government was under FBI investigation before Katrina and literally scores of elected & appointed officials are in jail or on their way to jail for corruption.  The bottom line is the Democrats want to pretend New Orleans/Katrina never happened, so we get ignored by them.

Republicans were embarassed by FEMA, which was overwhelmed by the disaster. Some of the failure was due to the post-9/11 reorganization that placed FEMA under the Department of Homeland Security and shifted the agency's focus from disasters to counter-terrorism.  There was almost no money for disaster training/preparation after the shift, but there was lots for counter-terrorism (for example, money for Anthrax training was readily available even though there was only one real Anthrax attack, which was on Congress so the money taps were opened full). The bottom line is the Republicans want to pretend New Orleans/Katrina never happened, so we get ignored by them.

Instead, we get c**p from both sides claiming we are doing nothing except sitting on our backsides with our hands out, waiting for someone else to fix New Orleans.  

In reality, there has been huge progress rebuilding New Orleans in the past 2 1/2 years - with little but bureaucracy and excuses from Washington and Baton Rouge.

Meanwhile, the WTC site is still a construction zone - 7 years after 9/11.

Answer 8

Well, in my circle of friends, both 9/11 AND Katrina were conjured by the Dubai Gates / Cheney Halliburton feed trough.  (Yes, we can make hurricanes and toss them at people.)  So, the issue would be moot about tossing Al Qaeda at New Orleans rather than a hurricane, considering it could be the same source.

Answer 9

I believe it would have been a similar response.  Bush might have responded faster; the main cause of the delay was that the Governor of Louisiana, the Mayor of New Orleans, and President Bush could not decide who was actually supposed to order help to New Orleans.

They all kept fighting over who's responsibility it was, by law, to order help.  If it had been a terrorist attack, I'm fairly certain Bush would have called that responsibility as part of looking like the one who can deal with terrorism.

But another major problem was that most of the response forces of FEMA had neither the equipment or the training to deal with this situation; and that is the biggest reason this became such a fiasco.  Even if Bush had responded sooner; if you respond with substandard equipment and training you will fail no matter when you get there.

I suspect the response would have happened sooner but be just as incompetent.  Nothing really changed that much.

Answer 10

Vote OBAMA 08

Answer 11

the CIA might have given him a pay cut for refusing to follow orders.

Burning of the Reischstag, people. We needed an excuse to attack Afghanistan and grow poppies. Needed a reason to invade the gulf and make Bush's cronies rich and steal the oil. Do you thnk with all our vaunted intelligence services a bunch of guys with known radical ties could come into the country and go to flight schools simultaneously without attracting attention when a schoolteacher can't download kiddie p**n without getting nailed?

Do you think in a day when satellities can count the freckles on your girlfriend's b***s and listen to a conversation by bouncing lasers of the window of a office building we couldn't find these Al Qaeda guys if we wanted to? Don't you think we could pop them from space if we wanted to? Do you really think the fastest airplane we ever built went into production in 1963?

Yeah, it's that bad. Go ahead and call me a nut and give me a bunch of thumbs down.

Answer 12

Who says Al Qaeda didn't attack New Orleans?

Answer 13

I think terrorist got to your imagination.