Under sustained attack, I suppose that some people would not be very stoic. After all, even in London and Berlin there was crime and looting. But, overall, even under devastating air attack, society did not crack and the cities continued to be functional units.

Another historical precedent would be German bombing of a Parisian neighborhood in 1940, which caused a local politician to scream that he would denounce the government (the French government) for this outrage. I think we have a lot of “leaders” of his stripe in the US currently.

In addition, with the Internet and other telecom technology, there is no reason to locate a firm’s HQ in, say, NYC, except for the intertia of prestige and the desire of an educated workforce to be near a cultural center. Putting more infrastructure into midwestern cities such as Chicago, Columbus, St. Louis, etc. makes sense, both from an overcrowding and energy usage standpoint (well, maybe not Chicago in that respect), as well as from a security standpoint. I would love to see business move West in attempt to decentralize the geographic distribution of the economy.

“In Kobe city, for example, workers dropped their tools as soon as an air raid alert sounded, so they would have enough time to flee to the hillsides immediately behind the metropolis before the bombers could arrive. Consequently the mere sounding of the alert signal in the Kobe region caused an immediate drop in industrial production. According to information reaching the War Ministry about May 1945, the attendance rate at munitions factories, throughout the country immediately after an air raid dwindled to 20-30%. The average rate of absenteeism at factories in devastated areas approximated 40%. In unraided zones the absentee rate averaged 15%, but even in unbombed Kyoto lost man hours totaled 40% by July 1945.

An indirect result of the raids was the dispersal of the labour force because of housing problems, thereby affecting both control and efficiency.”

Futher -

“According to Home Ministry data, the following Japanese civilian losses were the minimum incurred as the result of all air raids on the Homeland: 241,309 killed, 313,041 injured, 8,045,094 homeless, 2,333,388 buildings destroyed, 110,928 partial destroyed. The number of houses razed represented at least 30% of the national total. It should also be noted that the Japanese themselves demolished 615,000 buildings as firebreaks, 214,000 of which were located in Tokyo. In all about 13,000,000 people were driven from their homes by the destruction of dwellings; a substantial additional number were rendered homeless by the bombing of factory dormitories.”

For some reason must people skirt the relationship of the hammering the civilian population experienced and their post-war behaviors, such as a great reluctance to engage in military actions beyond their borders. Yes, I know they or we put articles in their constitutions, but such documents are subject to democratic change which goes back to will. The older generations resisted. Its only the newer generations that entertain the idea.

wouldn’t affecting people’s daily lives make people more likely, rather than less likely, to take effective steps to eliminate islamic terrorism and it’s “root causes.”

It is easy to imagine all kinds of scenarios in which attacks on vulnerable infrastructure lead to cascading failures, but in reality such scenarios are extremely rare — they are what Bruce Schneier calls “movie plot threats.” The fact that we have so far been able to forestall such threats should be cause for optimism and reevaluation of the odds rather than occasion to wait for the other shoe to drop. We are in a very strong position as long as we do not give up.