This is a fictional account of how I see a terrorist attack against the US going down. It will be bloody, destabilizing, will throw the world into depression almost immediately and will change our way of life forever. Oh and tell me if I'm just loony-toons for suggesting this possibility.
Situation Room.
The President is looking at reports of the attack in Cincinnati with amazement. How did these bastards get into the country? How were they able to effectively neutralize a cities police dept? Why didn't we see this coming? She keeps asking the questions but none of her advisers are able to give her answers. Finally her CIA director steps up and gives the bad news. Madam President. We don't need to do an after action now. We need to catch these sons of bitches and either kill or capture them. After that's done we can bury our dead and do the blame game business. She reluctantly agrees and makes a mental note to charge the CIA head with something...anything...as soon as its done.
What actually happened.
The reason why this terrorist attack was so successful is because they finally got smart. Scary thing huh? A smart terrorist organization! These guys though...this new group out of West Africa...they were looking to make a name and they hit the prize. Somehow they managed to steal a couple of local fuel delivery trucks, rigged them with explosives and instead of going for a body count at a mall or school went straight for the police and fire departments. Because the thefts were local it didn't immediately set off alarm bells...and by the time an FBI nationwide alert went out the deed was done.
Oh and the attack was devastating. The police station was leveled and 60 patrolmen were killed instantly, several dozen squad cars destroyed, ammunition/weapons rendered useless and the department in shock. Worse though...as if things could be worse, is the fact that these hooligans simultaneously struck the fire dept. An entire fire company was destroyed, to include the engines, the firemen, incident command truck and the building leveled.
First responders were out of action before the action began.
Then the horror.
Every municipality in the state (to include state troopers and national guard) were immediately activated and started sending people to help. It was obvious that a terrorist attack had just happened but "we take care of our own first" is said only in private among first responders. At the time it seemed reasonable. The results however would be tragic.
The news hit and suddenly the streets were filled with people wanting to rubberneck. If there is a tragedy then people want to see it. They paid the price for their curiosity. Interstate 75 was a crowded, stalled traffic mess when the news hit.
Terrorist team 1 (we have them numbered) struck on the open highway. How the hell they got RPGs is still a mystery but with AKMs and those rocket launchers it was mayhem. People were machine-gunned in their cars, large trucks were rocketed and God bless their souls a school bus was targeted and Hillcrest High School lost 50 students in a matter of seconds.
Luckily this was a small 3 man crew and some concealed carry holders put them down. But the deed was done. A major US interstate was hopeless jammed, if we had first responders available (and we didn't) they couldn't get there and approximately 250 US citizens were either dead or dying with no help coming for hours.
The pain intensifies.
The Governor declares a state of emergency, the President activates Northcom for action inside the US and the 82nd is called in. No one says a word about civil liberties. America is scared shitless. Two maniacs in stolen fuel trucks along with 3 more guys faking a broken down car on the interstate just delivered a kidney punch to the US. Additionally they succeeded in putting the US economy in a tail spin.
But that was just the beginning.
Everyone knows that the Mall of America is a potential target. Soccer Moms could care less. Teenagers either. When Terrorist team 2 struck it was mayhem. 2 guys with backpacks full of ammo walked into the mall and simply starting shooting. They just didn't care. Men, women and children were gunned down. Security cut and ran, a couple of concealed carriers were struck down because they hesitated and by the time SWAT arrived and made entry they were taken under fire while they were in their stack. Officers were on the ground severely wounded when the two clowns did the unthinkable. Everyone assumed that all they had in those packs was extra ammo. No one thought that they were suicide bombers. When additional SWAT officers and the Tactical EMS personnel moved up to help their comrades Terrorist team 2 ran out to the downed officers and detonated themselves. We're still trying to get a total body count but its close to 500.
This is how you stall an economy.
Terrorist team 3 has been problematic. They appear to be a sniper team that is moving from city to city killing motorist, pedestrians, people cutting their grass...even high school sports teams practicing. These guys are obviously trained because they setup in good hide spots (we still don't have an ID or numbers) take no more than 10 shots and are using .308 caliber to get the deed done. We think they're using an AR-15 based .308 (similar to the SR-25) that is suddenly so popular. The problem is people are staying at home, trips to the market are super short and people are sprinting from their cars to whatever building they're going into. The only good to come out of this is that the American people are taking fitness way more seriously now.
Just playing around but could this happen?
I was just wargaming how the incident in France could have been so much worse and this scenario jumped into my brain housing group. Is it far fetched? Is it totally implausible? I hope so but I wonder. We live in interesting times.