Well, they did kill a few dozen US sailors by blowing a hole in the side of a destroyer with 2" thick steel plating and a few hundred people by attacking two em

Well, they did kill a few dozen US sailors by blowing a hole in the side of a destroyer with 2" thick steel plating and a few hundred people by attacking two embassies guarded by US marines prior to 9/11. So I'm not sure they wouldn't considering hitting military or economic targets today. They also got a few cruise missiles in response to the first two attacks, and they got a massive war in response to 9/11. That kind of speaks to how much more effective hitting big civilian targets is for the terrorists than the military and economic ones, but I don't think we can just shrug this off because they've changed course a bit. (I don't personally believe that hitting Iraq was a good response to 9/11, but you can't argue that if 9/11 hadn't happened Bush would have had any public support to invade Iraq. Without 9/11 there is no Iraq war. With 9/11 and a different president, I doubt there is an Iraq war then either)