Good fiction is based on believable reality. Doesn't matter what setting.

For instance, despite many claims that "nobody predicted 9/11", Tom Clancy's 1995 novel "Debt of Honour" features just such a scenario, in graphic detail. In this novel, a disgruntled foreigner flies a suicide flight into the Capitol and wipes out the legislature, the President, and most senior members of the administration - that's how Jack Ryan, National Security Advisor, gets to be President in a hurry.

I'm sure certain arab gentlemen read this novel and used it to work-up their plot. Note that they also targetted the Pentagon and had another plane on the way to Washinton that was brought down by the brave actions of its passengers.

So fiction is often a good guide to the motives of other people, even if the future history is wrong (Japanese, not Arabs). Other people are inherently hard to predict - they think in different ways than you do yourself. It's useful to get help from other people who also think differently to explore the possibilities.

If we take note of what we read, we would be better defended...