9/11

[sheeper]

so i'll chime in here. on Sept 11, 2001 I was living in NY and at the World Trade Center. At the time I was working for a government contractor training company and my team and I were starting a new counter-terrorism training project for NYPD. We saw the first plane level off and smash into the building. 11 years later and i can still feel the force of the impact, still feel the fireball on my face. Though i was outside on the ground, we know that America was under attack. To make a very long story short, i went in and helped. I spent 9 months working at Ground Zero and think every day of the people lost and of the brothers and sisters i worked with at Ground Zero and I also think of the responders who leave us too soon because of what they did there. Every day, I work to keep our nation safe. I'm proud of America and proud of what my brothers and sisters in arms accomplished then....and accomplish each and every day.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I don't think we should have gotten into Iraq at all. I had a friend who worked for the CIA at the time and he's been pretty clear on the topic of WMDs and the total lack of evidence of any WMDs in Iraq. It was not what the administration wanted to hear though so we went to war in Iraq. Another friend was a case officer in Afghanistan who watched as US troops and diplomatic staff were greeted as heroes when we first when in - but between the third rate diplomats that were sent and the military going in with a "treat them all like rag heads" attitude, by the time he left 18 months later, they pretty much all hated us and wanted us to go home.

We failed to learn anything in Vietnam and we failed to learn anything from the Soviet experience in Afghanistan, and now we're repeating those mistakes in a 10 year old conflict with no end in sight and now we've got 6,600 dead soldiers, nothing to show for it, and no real exit strategy that will lead to any lasting peace. If anything, we've just given a few generations of Iraqis and Afghans a valid reason to hate us.

We should have done what the Israelis do - quietly go about hunting down and killing all those involved with minimum collateral damage and adopt real security rather than TSA passenger harassment.

We should not have let 9/11 change our way of life, our economy or our personal liberties and freedoms as when we did that, we handed them the victory they sought.

What we did, in addition to creating generations of terrorists who hate America was create the appearance of doing something rather than actually doing something of substance, and provided a wonderful bottom line for military contractors who have made big bucks off a decade long war that continues to cost us a couple billion dollars a week.

I'm mad about that. I'm mad about 6,600 dead American soldiers who willingly gave their all for leaders who do not deserve that sacrifice and I'm mad that with better political leadership the majority of them would not have needed to die, and I'm mad about the hundreds or thousands more that will die before we extricate ourselves from this mess. I'm mad at our politicians who lack the intelligence, foresight or integrity to make smart decisions and I'm mad about the ignorant masses that keep voting them into office.

The actual terrorists out there are pretty far down the list of people I'm mad at.

 

[supergaijin]

So much hate in this thread. Sad to see.

9/11 was a horrible event- no arguments there.
The subsequent retaliation killings are not justifiable IMO.

True 'religious wars' are actually few and far between. This war- like so many before them is just another grab for scare resources. Iraq has the oil, Afghanistan the strategic positioning.

 

[divad]

Thanks to everyone who did not visit NY eleven years later on a "pay their respect respects" vacation.
.

 

[Zen Diving Inc.]

Thanks to everyone who did not visit NY eleven years later on a "pay their respect respects" vacation.
.

I hope i'm reading this wrong... Thanks for not coming and paying your respects? is that what you meant. ...? I looked it up online and didn't see any thing officially declaring this as the thing to do on my vacation this year. My families respects have been paid, which did not require a visit to the crash site. I think you just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Im going to forget I even read that...

 

[sheeper]

it's sad to me to see anger and hatred here. It was anger and hatred that led us to 9-11. the past is past and looking backwards is not how one moves forward. As a Nation we did what we needed to do in Afghanistan. Sadly, we are up against a system in that part of the world that feeds on hatred, wields total control over populations and considers lies and misinformation to be God's work. America and the free nations of the world, and all those who value life will continue to face a motivated enemy here. Tragically, in any conflict there are those who die. Those of us who serve, have served or will serve KNOW and ACCEPT that.
It is important to remember that those who were behind 9-11 and the such attacks of terror have corrupted the beauty of Islam for their own purposes.

 

[divad]

I hope i'm reading this wrong... Thanks for not coming and paying your respects? is that what you meant. ...? I looked it up online and didn't see any thing officially declaring this as the thing to do on my vacation this year. My families respects have been paid, which did not require a visit to the crash site. I think you just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Im going to forget I even read that...

Yes, you are "reading this wrong" and misquoting, and then elaborating.

 

[koozemani]

I was in bed with my gf at the time sleeping off a night of excess when one of her friends burst into the bedroom announcing that we were under attack. My initial thoughts were, god damn it, this better be good. After turning on the tv, they turned to stunned disbelief. Watching the second plane hit and the towers come down is something that will be burned in my memory for the rest of my days.