Plot to bring down the US government / terrorism

Maybe an opposition to the government's policies or democracy in general?

A belief that the government (even if it was democratically elected) is too far-reaching and powerful? As retaliation for some foreign policy decision gone disastrously wrong (from the point of view of the terrorists?) Removing a totalitarian government - a 21st century armed revolt or revolution?

**Removing a totalitarian government - a 21st century armed revolt or revolution?**

I like this idea a lot. It's sort of what's going to happen in my novel this year.

Believe! The best is yet to come!!!!

Get the US embroiled in wars it cannot win, have and then use high oil prices to drain US capital out of the country and then have OPEC switch the trading currency of oil from the Dollar to the Euro.

The point of the terrorism is to get the US involved in such wars...

a few suggestions:

- the government is no longer democratic;
- the government has a plan to use atomics in some central state to create caos and have more power;
- the terrorists are anachists and don't want a government;
- the terrorists are planning to place in power their leader, who would then become the dictator of the USA

maybe the full extent of the abuse of prisoners in x-ray/other terroist ranch got exposed, and they're JUST SO PEEVED.
maybe the US invaded another country; they've taken a liking to it.
maybe George Bush got elected AGAIN.
maybe a terroist plot got foiled by a civillian, and there was proof of the US's involvement in that terror plot, and even in 9/11.
maybe the president made a racist slur thinking he wasn't on TV, when he was.
maybe the First Lady wore a fur coat on TV and, incidently, the animal rights movement just got a virgin crate 'o guns.
maybe the president accidently coughed on a copy of the Koran.

i'm going now, because i'm getting silly.

I've enslaved my muse. Either she works or she gets beaten.

Keep up with the suggestions folks, I'm still musing.

Silly is good too, you never know what ideas that may spark ;-)

Thanks for all the ideas so far.

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The big question is: why?

What do they have against the regime?

You pose an interesting question. The U.S. is both hated and loved throughout the world for every reason under the sun. Sometimes it seems like no one hates the U.S. more than her own citizens. Being the political silly season, it's easy enough to get the perspectives from extremists on both sides of the political spectrum on the internet. But even they, as vitriolic as they are, don't want to bring down the U.S. government so much as to make it over to suit their own agenda. Many have violent sounding rhetoric, but it tends to remain just that. Every now and again there will be a lone wolf sniper, shooter, or bomber, but nothing organized on the scale required to "bring down the whole government."

"Bringing down the whole government" has been a topic of lots of fiction over the years. Nukes and asteroids are fairly effective. Even so, most of those stories overlook the fact that executive powers (and legislative and judicial) are retained by each of the 50 states. This means that state governments would contintue to function and each Governor has that state's National Guard at his or her disposal. There are also a series of statues and procedures in place to ensure not everyone who is in line for Presidential succession is in the same spot at the same time. The U.S. Constitution, which provides the procedures for reconstituting the Fed Gov, certainly survives whether Washington D.C. is a smoldering crater or not.

From the little bit you offered about your story, you could take a couple of approaches. If they're going after the stock exchange, they could be anti-capitalists of some sort. Maybe high-tech Robin Hoods intent on redistributing the U.S.'s wealth to more deserving entities. Or maybe it's revenge against one particular multi-national corporation that exploited the terrorists' homeland, maybe the MC's father died in a sweatshop making cheap trinkets for the capitalist ogres in America. Maybe there was a mine accident, or maybe illness from pollution, or something similar. Or maybe the MC is sick of socialism and redirects welfare monies into his own offshore accounts. Or maybe jilted hackerette is trying to exact revenge on ex-lover computer wiz who just took a high salary job on Wall Street and is fast-tracked to be in senior management and make a bajillion $$. He dumped her for the job.

But if they're going up against the government... Perhaps the MC was injured by the U.S. or lost family or his living during war. Or maybe the U.S. *failed* to intervene in a conflict in time to save the day (Burma, Rawanda, et al anyone?) Your MC could be religiously motivated, too. The U.S. is too Christian, too athestic, too perverted, and too pious for anyone's liking. A creepy doomsday cult trying to manipulate the world powers into war via terrorists attacks in each others' countries could be interesting. My '05 NaNo dealt with a high-tech genocide masterminded by a genius with a God-complex who wanted to restore the Earth to a Garden of Eden state. You could take the infiltration approach and have some mega-rich types try to buy influence in the government for some reason or another and the terrorist acts could be a type of blackmail.

Aw heck. I'm just babbling.

I'm doing a terrorism story, too.

One thing I don't think people have brought up is religious reasons - purely religious. There was a recent article about some Muslims on trial for wanting to overthrow the government and institute Islamic Shari'ah (Islamic law) and bring American into the Ummah (Muslim state/community). Some Muslims believe that this is their duty in the world - to make all nations run on Islamic Law.

That's just what I thought of. But really, the religious reasons could go with any religion, and maybe it would be cool to take the whole "Islamic terrorism" thing and make it into something wacky like "Buddhist terrorism," where a group of Buddhist monks decide to take over the goverment violently in order to force everyone to meditate/follow the Eightfold Path. Or take some really zany cult religion (you could make one up) and have their holy teaching/writings as a guide. The fundamentalist Christian sects also lend themselves to this model.

-NoNamer

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Modern Craziness: http://www.bloglines.com/blog/DaphneHolland