9/11 five years hence

[Masali]

My opinion, in a sentence or two:

The day should be remembered and people should pay their due respects, but we should not dwell on this tragedy. People should make a big deal out of it...personally, not so it disrupts day to day life.

[FullMetalAlchemist997]

I was young whenit happened but i remeber watching the TV in school. I didn't quite understand the magnitude of what happened then but I do now. The 5 year anniversary is very important.

[der Scharfschüt]

My opinion, in a sentence or two:

The day should be remembered and people should pay their due respects, but we should not dwell on this tragedy. People should make a big deal out of it...personally, not so it disrupts day to day life.

wow that summed up everything I was gonna say, thanks man

[Capernicus]

Er......this doesn't need to become an arguement.

First I'd like to say that comparing 9/11 and Pearly Harbor should not go on. Yes they are similar, but that lessens their uniqueness, and the tragedy. In a way, America instigated that attack from Japan by secretly shipping supplies to the Allies. No, we were not officially in the war, but we might as well have been. The President at the time 9his name elludes me!) used the attacks to declare war.

With 9/11, we had a negative image with Muslim Fundamentalists. They call this a class of civilizations, and Bush says it's a clash for civilization (as if the American way is the only way). And he is alternately using it as an excuse to wage a war.

(sorry for not being very articulate, I'll edit this later)

[Lucidian Dyne]

Allow me to say right now, that I give full condoleneces to anyone that was in some way, big or small, affected by September 11th. In no way am I attempting to write off the event as a pockmark on a camel's buttocks. Keep this in mind when I state what I think about all of this.

Okay, so. I'll agree with few of the points made here. 1) This day should never be forgotten. 2) Media and movies have blown this event to pieces for us to be force-fed, using a proverbial shovel. 3) Terrorism has existed for times longer than anyone of us have been alive.

Changing the world? Hmm, I'd like to think that Earth and its human inhabitants have been on a self destructive course since the beginning of written history. All of this centers around bloodshed. I mean, that's what we're all discussing when we mention "changing the world", isn't it? People die, people retaliate. It's been happening, people. It's been happening for a good, long while. Not that it should matter when a country and its citizens think they're untouchable, right?

From that last statement, lemme branch off into two different trains of thought. Consider these ideas. And when I mention specific countries and names, generalize it in your minds if it makes it easier for you to swallow.

---- When America gets involved in other countries' affairs, would those countries be fair in thinking how wrong it is for America to interfere? Interfere with their ways of government and their citizens' lives? I don't believe justification is symbolized by a balance. Other countries could be as equally pissed off by our invasion, just as we are irate at the tragedies inflicted upon us.

Bring this out a little further, go ahead and say that we're preventing calamity by policing the world. Is America so immaculate as to think we're the ones who knows what's right? Sure, read your books, drag up your facts, tell me that America's history of international correction has some substance in it. For all you know, change happens on a full spectrum of scales, and it is constant. America is changing. Personally, I don't think that change is for the better -- I don't even think the change has an outside influence.

Still keeping my first paragraph in mind? Chew on this.

~~~~ When the planes hit the Twin Towers, President Bush gave a press conference in which he was quoted as saying (or as close as I can remember hearing), "We have been assaulted by faceless cowards." At that very point in time, disregarding everything that's happened since then, we've yet to make out positive identities for the culprits. Oh, we've got probable cause to believe who's done it, and we've got a formative idea on who is to blame based on their backgrounds. Forensic science, while not 100% accurate, is effective for figuring these things out.

Where am I going with all of this?

How would you feel if you were told that the events of September 11th were a self destructive act of America? Has anyone else considered this? Are we too embroiled in patriotism and war to even give this day a second look and wonder who it was that really put the hurt on us? The people died for reasons utlimately unknown to us, and yes, their lives are something we should not take for granted. But who really murdered those people?

I digress, I'm more of a conspiracy theorist. A lot of what I want to say isn't really suited for this topic. But governments have been known to hurt their own people, as is apparent by Hussein's legacy in the Middle East. Who's to say that America isn't doing the same thing? If the lives lost to 9/11 were meant to supress the liberty of those who are meant to be free, not only in USA but also in other countries, the meaning for their lives would definately be skewed from the general public's current perspective.

All this being said, I hold everyone else's stated opinions in equal regard to mine. Please give my opinions a fair chance.

[Kristen]

Er......this doesn't need to become an arguement.

First I'd like to say that comparing 9/11 and Pearly Harbor should not go on. Yes they are similar, but that lessens their uniqueness, and the tragedy. In a way, America instigated that attack from Japan by secretly shipping supplies to the Allies. No, we were not officially in the war, but we might as well have been. The President at the time 9his name elludes me!) used the attacks to declare war.

With 9/11, we had a negative image with Muslim Fundamentalists. They call this a class of civilizations, and Bush says it's a clash for civilization (as if the American way is the only way). And he is alternately using it as an excuse to wage a war.

(sorry for not being very articulate, I'll edit this later)

While I semi-understand the point you were attempting to make, it's a rather "lost in translation" sort of deal. No one was "comparing" September 11th to Pearl Harbor in a way that was bad. Pearl Harbor, in itself, was less destructive than September 11th. And if you mean Pearl Harbor as in the WAR, then you should state that because there is a difference. Pearl Harbor only describe the bombing OF Pearl Harbor, etc. It is not the name of the second world war and is not the entirety of it. But again, no one was "comparing" which was worse or whatnot, we were comparing issues of that time. Things like media, the affect and etcetera.

Your second statement is false. Before September 11th, we had already had a bad relationship with "Muslim Fundamentalists", this is why we had such a tragedy. It wasn't completely out of the blue, there were tips, things we should or could have noticed, but didn't or refused to address. Also, it is very much so a clash of civilizations. But this isn't in the way you're thinking of, and no one tried to get anyone to believe that the "American way" is the "only way". A large majority of the Middle East believe many different things than America. This goes for any country.

The war isn't entirely uncalled for. When it comes down to it, we were attacked. Unjustly so? That's possible. Not likely, but possible. I do believe, now, that the war had/has some potential. Whether that potential is gone now or not, I'm unaware. Of course our president has ulterior motives. But it's not irrational to say that he also has good ones. He is still the president and as stupid and incompetent as he may be, he is still trying for the greater good. No one but he, God and those he tells know what his real insight on everything is. His vision of right and wrong for a country is clouded, but to his individual self, it's clear. And there lays the problem.

[Ichiro Matsuchani]

9/11 is a day that all Americans need to remember.

I believe this because of one particular reason; we are not safe in this world, not matter how powerful the nation becomes. We had to learn that in Pearl Harbor, so the lesson had to be retaught.

[-Batman-]

While I semi-understand the point you were attempting to make, it's a rather "lost in translation" sort of deal. No one was "comparing" September 11th to Pearl Harbor in a way that was bad. Pearl Harbor, in itself, was less destructive than September 11th.

2,403 dead at pearl harbor

2,752 dead on september 11th

If we go by these numbers, they are VERY close to one another in terms of death count.
And pearl harbor was less destructive? I'm sorry I must disagree.
The bombing of pearl harbor almost completely CRUSHED the american naval fleet. Back then, without a navy, you were pretty much screwed. It's still kind of like that today.

Just wanted to bring that up, I shall take my leave now to avoid further arguments.

[Riyokin]

Meh I wasn't affected by 9/11 at all. It's just something I heard about and went "Meh". Not trying to be mean but I honestly don't care about the people who died. It was going to happen sooner or later, it just happened sooner.

[Kaitou Ace]

Meh, Ryokin got banned. It was going to happen sooner or later, it just happened sooner.


This is the second thread about people dying that you posted almost the same exact thing in. Trolling is bad. Have a ban please.

Seriously, why come into a thread to let people know you don't care? If you don't care, then don't post. If all you want to do is troll, I'd rather not have you here, thanks. You posted just about the same thing in the Steve Irwin thread, and obviously felt the need to recycle your post.

If Toe Cutter/Dr McDoom! weren't enough of an example, take heed of this one. If there is a thread going on a serious topic, and the merest possibility of the thought of hopping in there and starting some trolling begins to even remotely consider crossing that vast, empty space between your ears, take a moment out, take a deep breath, and ram your head as hard as possible into the nearest wall.
Repeat until the urge goes away, or unconsciousness sets in.

I rather value the more serious posts, and I rather not see them have to be closed because you (the proverbial you, unless one of my gentle readers feels that this may target them, in which case, rest assured, it most certainly does) felt the need to engage in some intellectual self-stimulation.

Much oblidged.

[Yugure's Goddess]

hhhmmm.... I remember where I was and everything. I was in fifth grade and at the end of the day, right before we went home, our teacher came running in from talking to another teacher while we were finishing our assignments, talking about how somebody slammed airliners into the twin towers. She was beginning to become flustered because her son was in the National guard or the Marines or something and they were going to send people to New York (like her son, which included military personel) to protect, help out and prevent riots and uproars. At the time I was extremely uninformed about the world around and didn't know what the twin towers were but by the end of the day I was well educated. I found out that the twin towers were two large economical buildings near the heart of New York city that completed their skyline.

I went home, crying, knowing that there would be tons of people dead and that I was helpless and not only that, but my step father at the time was in the army reserve so that worried me as well. (fortunately, when I got home I found out I was unnecessarily worried about him and that he was too old to do anything for the military anymore…man, you have no idea how relieved, though stupid I felt after hearing that news.)

Later I came home and my mom was just sitting on the couch glued to the TV her eyes red and swollen from crying. And I stood in the doorway with my older brother as we both did nothing to put down our things but just stared, mindlessly at the screen, watching over and over and over again, the planes hitting the towers, The police officers, fire fighters, and even normal citizens rushing into to an almost sure death just to save at least one person, ignoring every poster of fire, smog, dust and crubling steel and cement around them. I’m not one for religion nor am I a patriot by any standard but seeing the police, firemen and citizens, fighting to save those people without any regard for their own well-being, I never felt so proud and touched in my life; they were like angels. These people show the very qualities I seek to perfect in myself, the desire, no, the NEED to help those in danger regardless of the circumstances. Since then it seems on a day to day basis I tell myself that if anything were to happen I would help those in danger even at the cost of my own life, no matter who it was, even if I HATED them… cause that’s just the kind of person I’d like to be…

At the same time, I never felt so terrified in my life seeing so many people just jump. I kept wondering how bad it must have been to think that you would be better off jumping to your death than actually trying to escape or even just staying where you are. And it really messed with me, seeing those towers falling in an onslaught smoke and dust greater in volume than the towers themselves. They just kept showing the fall over and over again and the people who had been standing near by running for their lives not only from the towers but also from being suffocated by the dust cloud.

… Five years later… Five years, already, huh? *sighs* Well it’s still something that gets me choked up, however a lot of what Sagat said is true. America is not the center of the universe, unlike most of its citizens seem to believe and never shut up about (this is one of the major reasons why I very much dislike this country as a whole). They’re always saying how this country is the best in the world, when they really can’t say that when most people who say that have never been to any other countries (and thus wouldn’t REALLY know that). Lately Georgy has been using the attacks on the twin towers as means to get people to rally behind the war effort in Iraq, even though that isn’t the reason the troops were sent there in the first place. I’m tired of everything being about the terrorist attacks when they’ve been happening for ages and not until those attacks hit our soil did anyone in the U.S. start to care about it, no matter helping other people in need just out of the goodness of our hearts, no matter giving a damn about other countries, allies or not. It always has and will be about what happens to America. The attacks on the Twin Towers had a profound impact on my own life and should not be forgotten by the American people, however it’s also not the collapse that brought the world to its senses it’s the collapse that brought the United States to its senses.

Also, another view point I have on this. Most of the people working in those towers were capitalistic pigs that pretty much deserved to die. Not the people that rushed in to save, them, they were the most wonderful people that deserved to live more than most people on the planet, more than me, but the people working there pretty much had it coming.

This is an important event in U.S. history but not in World History. To say such a thing is arrogant and stupid because, again, America isn’t the center of the universe.

…that’s just me…

love
dani
dude

[Señor Nobody]

Here is a small amount of what I think, if it makes you cry or retort with patriotic drivel then sod off.

Foremost, it was a terrible tragedy, yes. Terrorist hijackers destroying two huge economic centres of America and killing 3000 something people including fellow Canadians in the mix.

Second .. did it change the world? NO. America is not the world. The rest of the world has been fighting terrorism now for a while. India and their bombing and terror problems, Malaysian and Nepalese Maoist rebels bombing and attacking civilians constantly, Pakistans Islamic problems, Cambodia and their former Khmer Rouge, just about all of South Africa and their gov't rebel groups (Tamill Tigers, Shining Path, Burundi anti-govt group FNL I think) the Chechen rebels that fight Russia and bombed that theatre and executed kids hell most of that entire sector of the world has some sort of Maoist/Islamic/Rebel terrorist problems. America got hit what they've been dealing with for a long time now.

To say it changed the world is ignorant because it only changed America's view, which is not the world as hard as it is for some to swallow. Did it change the nature of the world? Sure it did, because America has global projection of its power. Factor in that Britain with Her power rallied with America and you have two huge powers now altering the world.

9/11 did not change the world, it just brought America up to speed with the problems other countries already face.

Third, 9/11 as it stands now is nothing more than a bunch of large strings connected to everyone, for the Government to pull on its whim. I don't like that, but tough, that's how it is. Whether you're all simmering with emotion and patriotism (as I would personally want you all to be as a leader) to see this doesn't matter. Because now it is nothing more than a propaganda tool to incite fear, patriotism and anger to keep the public in line. Cry and whine and flame me and god forbid leave your stupid bad reps if you want, if you can't face that simple fact then I'd love to have you as a citizen as a leader.

I was going to say something else, but I can already feel the PC justice league gearing up to bash me. All I will say is that America is not innocent like you all love to believe it is. My country isn't, Britain isn't, yours isn't either. They didn't target you guys first then us without a reason.

I agree with all that was stated above.