In class today, we talked about what China or the Islamic Middle East would be like if a notable event in history didn’t happen, such as Christopher Columbus or lack of US military presence in the Middle East. When class ended, I was still thinking about this, and I remembered an article I saw back in September. The article tells about a hurricane that was nearing the New York area in the days leading up to September 11, 2001. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), the storm ended up shifting directions and never actually made landfall. The big question is this: what would have happened if the storm ended up making landfall in New York?
The airports in the area would have most definitely been closed, and flights would not even be able to pass through the area. Basically, the airspace in the area of the storm would be temporarily closed. Would this have either delayed or prevented the 9/11 attacks? Would the hijackers have tried again at a later date? What if the plane had already been hijacked, but then they realized they couldn’t get to New York, would they try to crash somewhere else, such as the White House or maybe another major city like Chicago? Would they have just scrapped their plan altogether?
If the attacks never happened, what would the country be like today? I wonder if there would be as much security as there is now, and I wonder if there would be less of a negative connotation that is paired with the idea of Islam. There are too many what ifs that go along with this situation, and I am actually starting to get lost in all the possibilities, but I just thought I would share this interesting thing I realized after today’s class.