9/11 Tomorrow

binari

HeroPsycho wrote:

dynamik wrote:

It's saddening that over 3,000 people died that day, and that should have been a wake up call to the US that we need to rethink our role in the world, how we've dealt with international relations, what needs to be changed, etc. in the post-Cold War era. I fear we didn't truly do that.

Yes....of course we should rethink our role in the world....why, Because Bin Laden does not like
our foreign policy.

Ahriakin

binari wrote:

dynamik wrote:

It's saddening that over 3,000 people died that day, and that should have been a wake up call to the US that we need to rethink our role in the world, how we've dealt with international relations, what needs to be changed, etc. in the post-Cold War era. I fear we didn't truly do that.

Yes....of course we should rethink our role in the world....why, Because Bin Laden does not like
our foreign policy.

Though I'm sure he did like CIA training. Forgetting everything else do you not think foreign policy needs to be looked at again when both countries invaded post 9/11 had regimes previously trained and funded by the US. Not learning from this removes the one good thing that could come from it. I'm not going to turn this post into a political statement, it shouldn't be and I won't post here again but this kind of statement does everyone here a disservice either from ignorance or making light of something that absolutely shouldn't be.

mamono

I was a senior in college at work in a University Tech Services Center when we heard over the news that a plane hit the WTC. We turned on the TV and watched in horror as the events transpired. I felt so depressed. I wanted to be as far away from a TV as possible, so to try to cheer myself up I asked a girl out to lunch. Didn't seem to work, the place we ate at had a wall of TV's...

malcybood

It was a very sad day, I remember when it happened similar to 07/07 bombings in London as I was working in London and on the underground at around 9am the previous day.

On 9/11 I remember sitting in college and coming back from lunch break and our class lecturer told us and it was pretty surreal. Didn't really sink in, the impact of it all until later on when I seen tv footage and the news. Also it is my birthday today which makes it a bit weird and will do for the rest of my days I guess, it was my 20th birthday when 9/11 happened.

RIP to all who were victims

Turgon

It was a surreal experience seeing events unfold on television. I was on holiday on the coast in Denmark at the time. The morning after a day spent walking the beach and a barbecue I awoke to all the reports on TV. My friend was worried about what the US would do next. A couple of days later the cruise missiles were falling on Kabul. I recall a BBC reporter being there at the time.
Catching the flight back home from a tiny Danish airport was a strange experience. Security was ramped up and everyone was rather subdued.

My company had clients in WTC and some of my colleagues lost friends there. On my return to the UK I learned that my mother was concerned as she couldn't reach me when it all unfolded. She knew we had a New York office but wasn't aware I actually never visited the place for work purposes. Our directors were in NYC on business at the time and we had the devil's job getting them home.

Still a very sad day for all concerned.

RussS

HeroPsycho wrote:

It's saddening that over 3,000 people died that day, and that should have been a wake up call to the US that we need to rethink our role in the world, how we've dealt with international relations, what needs to be changed, etc. in the post-Cold War era. I fear we didn't truly do that.

I could not agree more

To be quite frank, we have certainly made ourselves unpopular in many parts of the world - for so many different reasons. Bluntly, and without any party politics or any other political leanings - we screwed the pooch with Desert Storm back in '91 and if the freaking politicians had kept their noses out of things I truly believe that we would not have this sad day to remember.

As someone who lost some friends and a relative there I could be incredibly bitter - I am not, but I am dispondant that we have not taken heed of this lesson. I just hope and pray that one day the penny will drop, the BS will stop and we can truly make progress with our image and reputation in the world.

Mmartin_47

You know SlowHand... BART started to operate on this day back in the 70's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Area_Rapid_Transit

Mrock4

It's 9/11 now..RIP.

Lee H

LarryDaMan wrote:

The funny thing is, we were not too far from the spot in PA where the 4th plane crashed in the field. The idiots in charge had us outside looking for the plane in the sky!

quote]



Very sad day indeed, I remember seeing the footage for the first time on TV, I couldnt comprehend why someone would do this

I cannot believe that this plane was never found, I mean surley todays technology of sonar equipment or something to that affect could have been used, does anyone have any info on why this plane was never found

Lee H

snadam

Ahriakin wrote:

royal wrote:

Ahriakin wrote:

We can invade 2 countries but we can't build one decent memorial to the victims.

http://www.national911memorial.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage2

Now all they have to do is get past mock up images and actually complete it (2011, it takes 10 years?). At least they have a nice website .

a follow up to your comment

Pentagon Unveils 9/11 memorial
Creating 9/11 memorials is a slow process



These things take time. Memorials are symbolic, and necessary, I agree. But what does the significance of putting one up within X years really matter? 9/11 still happened, the people still died. Weather or not there is a memorial where it happened, it's not going to change my idea of the whole situation (nor should it for anyone else). Personally, Id rather wait 20 years for the right thing, than 7 years for a piece of garbage.

royal

snadam wrote:

Ahriakin wrote:

royal wrote:

Ahriakin wrote:

We can invade 2 countries but we can't build one decent memorial to the victims.

http://www.national911memorial.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage2

Now all they have to do is get past mock up images and actually complete it (2011, it takes 10 years?). At least they have a nice website .

These things take time. Memorials are symbolic, and necessary, I agree. But what does the significance of putting one up within X years really matter? 9/11 still happened, the people still died. Weather or not there is a memorial where it happened, it's not going to change my idea of the whole situation (nor should it for anyone else). Personally, Id rather wait 20 years for the right thing, than 7 years for a piece of garbage.

Agreed.

arwes

I remember that day quite vividly, going to work at the call center for a large ISP. I was driving in to work, listening to Doug Stephan's Good Day radio show. They said something about a small plane (possibly a Cessna I think) crashing into one of the WTC towers. My first thought was how could someone not see a huge building like that?

I get to my workstation, and oddly enough the TV that had been broken for months was repaired and we were watching live coverage (we used the TV for Weather Channel as long as management was there, but after 11:00 PM it was all Iron Chef and Cartoon Network). The second plane apparently hit just before we got the TV set back up. I noticed we weren't getting many phone calls because the phone networks were jammed.

I got maybe 2 calls the entire day, one guy was in Ville Platte, LA and didn't know what happened. He said "man, SCREW internet problems I gotta go watch the news!". I remember a huge outpouring of donations to the American Red Cross as well. They were accepting donations through Amazon, and the last I had checked it I believe they were up to around 10 million. It was awesome to see everyday people step up to help during such a huge crisis.

JDMurray

malcybood wrote:

Also it is my birthday today which makes it a bit weird and will do for the rest of my days I guess, it was my 20th birthday when 9/11 happened.

Well, Happy Birthday!

The South Park character "Butters" was born on 9/11/01. Part of the tragic irony surrounding that character.

HeroPsycho

binari wrote:

HeroPsycho wrote:

It's saddening that over 3,000 people died that day, and that should have been a wake up call to the US that we need to rethink our role in the world, how we've dealt with international relations, what needs to be changed, etc. in the post-Cold War era. I fear we didn't truly do that.

Yes....of course we should rethink our role in the world....why, Because Bin Laden does not like
our foreign policy.

We should rethink our foreign policy, not because Bin Laden doesn't like it, but because 9/11 was a direct result from our foreign policy choices during and after the Cold War.

Is it so hard to fathom the US has made mistakes, some understandable in their historical contexts, and some just being outright mistakes?

As an example, the reality is we played the Middle East and other regions of the world as if they were pawns in the chessboard that was the Cold War. When you're dealing with another country like the Soviet Union, it is somewhat understandable why we erred in this fashion, as mistakes of not effectively combating the Soviet Union could have resulted in many horrible things, one of which quite possibly could have been nuclear annihilation of the entire planet. However, I think we all can agree now that aiding and training Bin Laden to fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan was not a bright idea.

It's time to put the blind flag waving down, and realistically assess what the US has done, both good and bad, and take a positive step forward. We haven't had a broad consensus on foreign policy since the idea of containment in the Cold War.

It is far more patriotic to soberly evaluate our decisions as a country, admit mistakes, and make us better from that then blindly wave a flag and support those who are in charge. I hope years from now, when the histories of this time period are written, we'll see that the most significant mistakes in foreign policy we've made in the last 30 years came during a time of the largest patriotic swell since JFK's assassination, and complicity by opposing political parties and the press. It took a complete reversal of all three to finally begin to question what's been going on, which brought change in just to how we've been handling the occupation of Iraq, which I think everyone can agree needed to be done, and at the very least, the occupation of Iraq has been going better because of this.

Mrock4

It's easy to speak of foreign policy, and "the right thing" from a desk. Reality can be much less forgiving.

I'm not aiming this directly at you HeroPsycho..but people in general. I have fallen into the trap of trying to speculate about what should be done, but the truth is, the average american really isn't close enough to the facts to make a fair suggestion.

BTW..I absolutely hate politics..and politicians.

snadam

Mrock4 wrote:

the average american really isn't close enough to the facts to make a fair suggestion.

BTW..I absolutely hate politics..and politicians.

agreed 10 times over!

there is ALWAYS a side of the story the general public does not know about; and I think most people hate politics/politicians, unless you are related to one (maybe not even still! )

which is why I try to reserve my opinion on situations as much as I can.

Slowhand

Mmartin_47 wrote:

You know SlowHand... BART started to operate on this day back in the 70's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Area_Rapid_Transit

That's kind of eerie, actually. I was on BART today, and they came through with bomb-sniffing dogs more than once before I got to San Francisco.

HeroPsycho

snadam wrote:

Mrock4 wrote:

the average american really isn't close enough to the facts to make a fair suggestion.

BTW..I absolutely hate politics..and politicians.

agreed 10 times over!

there is ALWAYS a side of the story the general public does not know about; and I think most people hate politics/politicians, unless you are related to one (maybe not even still! )

which is why I try to reserve my opinion on situations as much as I can.

However, at the same time, there's a point where it's plainly obvious mistakes were made. I don't think anyone, including the Bush administration itself, would disagree now that the initial occupation of Iraq was bungled severely.

When the quality of press reporting, extreme partisanship, spin, societal apathy, and attempts to cover up what is happening by the government get to the point that it takes several years for the general population to discern there's a major problem, we're in trouble as a democracy.

My point here is not to slam the Bush administration, but to point out that people need to put patriotism and political ideology aside and take a sober look at what's going on, and hold their leaders accountable.

I think the idea that it's okay to keep vastly important facts that are relevant to policy decisions from the public has been used far too liberally in recent years by the US government, and it wreaks of distrust of the idea of democracy as a whole.

I'm not so concerned with who wins the upcoming election as I am that the systemic problems of our democracy be fixed.