Background[]
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed first presented the idea for the September 11 plot to Bin Laden in 1996 in Afghanistan. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed envisioned a hijacking of 5 planes and 7,000 bombs on both the East and West coasts, and for nine of them to be crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, either the White House or the United States Capitol, the tallest building in Los Angeles (the Library Tower, now known as the U.S. Bank Tower), the Sears Tower, both the Bank of America Tower and Space Needle in Seattle, Washington, and Empire State Building. The commission stated that Mohammed also wanted to personally hijack a tenth airliner, kill all of the adult males on board, land the plane in the U.S., make a political speech, and then free all of the women, children, and elderly on the plane. His plan was trimmed back greatly. But what if it weren't? What if they got off the kill that they'd intended? How would America and the world react to such a threat?
The Attack[]
September 11th started as in OTL, a cloudless sky across the entire United States. By 9 am, the first two planes were crashing into the World Trade Center in New York. The crashes were lower and later than in OTL and the death toll was closer to the original anticipation of that day, with capacity of the buildings being 100,000 or more. Plane strucks The Empire State Building and 500 bombs goes off in the statue of Liberty Head, destroying all three of New York's and some of America's most important symbols of freedom.
Meanwhile in DC, The Pentagon crash was also slightly more destructive by hitting the center of the building's courtyard. A second DC plane crashes into the Capitol Building, and a flight plows into the East Wing of the White House. All of this happens between 9 and 9:30 and no one seems to know in the panic and fires who is where, except for President Bush, who is in Florida at an elementary school at the time.
Chicago's Sears Tower, Detroit's GM middle building Headquarters, Miami Beach, One metropolitan sqaure in St. Louis, The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Liberty Tower in Los Angeles. But the Space Needle had 1,000 bombs, Bank of America Tower of Seattle are all victims of similar attacks by hijacked airlines. These all are happening as the US is shutting down its airspace and trying to ground legitimate air traffic, while sorting out any remaining hostile flights.
By 10am, people are running in terror from every monument and city in America. Nine cities have been attacked by fifteen flights turned into missiles. There are several more attacks that continue, the Hollywood Sign in LA is destroyed by a suicidal plane, followed by two planes flying into Universal and Paramount Pictures. The cities of Minneapolis, Houston, Memphis, and Atlanta all have planes slammed into lesser known skyscrapers.
A final plane is sitting on the runway at JFK, with the hostages alive. KSM does as he first envisions, and he recites some long threatening tirade against all that America is and isn't over a cellphone connection to CNN. Then he parades the flight crew to the exit and beheads them all.
Bush spends the next week in a bunker in Nebraska underground while the threats continue and the rumors abound. Several senators, congressmen, and many political advisors are all killed in the attacks. The VP, Speaker, and Secretary of State are unharmed. The hijackers are primarily Saudis, but there is a hijacker from nearly every Muslim nation, and quickly those nations send their repeated repudiations of extreme Islamic terrorism and beg that the US not hold them responsible.
The Aftermath[]
Following the attacks, the death toll is very high and the American people are in shell-shock for a week or so. President Bush addresses the American people, but the demand for vengeance is high... much higher than in OTL. The draft is instituted, and will increase the US armed forces to an unprecedented level. The NATO Treaty is activated. One footnote of the draft activation is the end of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy in the US. Hundreds of thousands of gays and lesbians volunteer to fight for their nation and to fight the oppressive nations of the Middle East.
Vengeance[]
Many Muslim nations experience air bombardment like never seen before. Kabul is nuked. Libya, Syria, Yemen, Oman, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sudan are all bombed in October and November 2001 and by Jan 1, 2002 have capitulated to American military rule. The threat of nuclear attack is verbally given at the highest level of government to all the rest of the Islamic world, so they all fall into line at this point as well. Mecca, the holiest city in the Islamic faith, was also planning to be subject to nuclear destruction, but several Muslim-American citizens and organizations successfully convince Bush to be fair to the Muslims who condemned the attacks and allow them to preserve the most important aspects of their faith.
By the end of 2004, Northern Africa, the Middle East and the rest of the Muslim world is under NATO control and being politically dismantled. Pornography is decriminalized throughout the Muslim world and by the end of 2004 is widespread. The burka and all restrictive clothing is banned for security reasons in US-controlled areas. Cultural initiatives to decrease violence are given a wide latitude. Many extremist or extremist-sympathizer imams are arrested and deported to unknown overseas prisons. American programs are translated and showing non-stop on mid-east television stations, with the idea being to show that American life was better, opulent and less violent.
The Results[]
In 2009, Bush was succeeded by Barack Obama, who pulled the US out of the Middle East, declaring mission accomplished.
In 2013, the Middle Eastern nations are united as the Fertile Block (FB), with their capital being Jerusalem. Islam has also changed drastically, with many of the conservative schools of Islamic thought having died out due to the trauma and pressure to crack down on Islamic extremism and terrorism. The Middle East also become much more democratic and culturally diverse due to American influence, though this has caused political controversy due to critics saying this has removed these countries from their history, as well as noting the ultra-violent means in which this was accomplished. The legacy of the Fertile Block was also divisive amongst Muslim communities, as while many agreed the original governments were corrupt and the terrorists deserved punishment, the bombings resulted in many unfair deaths of innocents and the aggressive use of intimidation may set a poor precedent of turning other developing or least-developed nations, such as East or Southeast Asia, into democracies and/or developed nations. Many Muslim communities even compare the founding of the Fertile Block to the colonization of America by Christopher Columbus and the slaughtering of the Indigenous Americans that followed afterwards, although this comparison also sparks controversy due to how the original Muslim countries provoked the United States into attacking whereas the Native Americans didn't want a war.
Movies[]
- Revenge of America (American Film | 2003)
- الإرهاب ونيويورك (Syrian Film | 2004)
- न्यूयॉर्क और विमान (Hindu Film | 2007)
- Terrorism Attacks (American Film | 2012)
- สิบเอ็ดกันยายน (Thai Film | 2015)
- Les méchants arabes (French Film | 2017)
- Tháp đôi (Vietnamese Film | 2021)
- Terrorismo Com Aviões (Brazillian Film | 2023)
- Revenge of America 2 (American Film | 2023)