9/11

[Retired Blub]

Huh--i'm surprised no one's started a discussion about this.

Okay, what do you think of this? Do you think that the event could have been prevented? Do you think that there are more terrorist attacks to come? What'ver on your mind, say it!

[Torey]

I honestly don't know what to think. I try not to get too involved with things like this. I'd prefer not to know. I was deeply shocked when I saw what was happening on that day. I couldn't take it in.

[teghan62]

What I found kind of funny about the whole 9/11 thing is the day AFTER they upped their security. Hello - a bit late here, aren't we? They're not going to attack the very next day. Sure it can help for future but you're just a little bit late, that's all.

I honestly think it COULD have been prevented. I mean, if they had a better security in the first place...

[Smiley]

I'm probably going to be skinned alive about this, but here goes...

It couldn't have been prevented. The intelligence that they had pretty much said, "There might be an attack, but we're not sure when... and they might use transportation..." That's not very definite.

What really gets me is when people say that we shouldn't have gone to Iraq with such little intelligence, and yet, the ones who say that often turn around saying that we should have acted on the tiny bit of intelligence about 9/11 (...when we had no idea of where it would be, what would happen, etc.). I'm sure people would lash out against the government if the security had been overly tightened in a pre-9/11 world, when people laughed at the idea that a mere third-world country could possibly take on the mighty power of capitalism.

As for another terrorist attack - maybe, but certainly not by bin Laden. When there's a huge manhunt going on out there, people longing to have his head on a stick, it wouldn't do good to force himself back into the open. That's the thing with all evil people - they're cowards.

Instead of worrying about whether or not 9/11 could have been prevented, though, I think we need to focus on bringing our troops home. Iraq is their own country now, they're becoming more independent, and I think our soldiers should come back to the states, all political parties and campaigns aside. That's all that really matters to me at the moment, because 9/11 is in the past, and whether or not it could have been prevented, we can't go back and change it now.

Just my two cents.

[Oily]

Uh, I don't think it could have been prevented. And I think more terrorist acts are inevitable. There's always been terrorists in the world, and always will be. Only now, they are willing to die along with their victims.

[squieshie]

Jasper said:

What I found kind of funny about the whole 9/11 thing is the day AFTER they upped their security. Hello - a bit late here, aren't we? They're not going to attack the very next day. Sure it can help for future but you're just a little bit late, that's all.

I honestly think it COULD have been prevented. I mean, if they had a better security in the first place...

I agree. I think it could have been prevented... I'm surprised they hadn't thought about terrorists coming on to an airplane a stuff...

[KittyKadaveral]

Oily said:

Uh, I don't think it could have been prevented. And I think more terrorist acts are inevitable. There's always been terrorists in the world, and always will be. Only now, they are willing to die along with their victims.

The United States was created on terrorism which is still going on today so in a way, it's wrong for folks to say that only other countries cause terrorism. Yeah, it was a crummy thing that happened and I couldn't get unglued from the tv with all that happening on that day but in a way it doesn't surprise me. I can imagine some people constantly getting tired of a braggart and finally trying to do something to shut them up. Yeah, America can probably kick anyone's butt in a war, but do we always need to shove our nose in other people's business all of the time and thing our way is the only way? Charity begins at home and I wish they'd use the money they waste on bombing and rebuilding countries on the needy folks here. I am sure things could have been prevented in a better way. Maybe not knowing 100% that something was going on, but why weren't any fighters sent out when they noticed planes were acting strangely off course? I'm sure someone noticed the radar and that these paths were getting a bit bonkers. I also want to know how these people managed to slip by security in the airport? My chains on my jacket caused the stupid alarms to go nuts when I flew to CA years ago to the point where they actually had to get a wand out and run it over me to see what was making all that noise. That was a problem, but I'm sure if I had a knife I could have got through? That's a bit screwed up. I know that things probably should have been more secure back then because the old saying goes the time to prepare for war is during peace, but still, at least they're trying to help things now. You can't forsee the future to know Hey, this should be checked better or that shouldn't be allowed here. I mean, I'm sure people weren't screaming at car factories when everyone was getting shot through the windshields since there were no seatbelts installed on cars in the begining. The thing is sometimes it takes something bad to happen for something to get realized there was a problem to begin with. I feel safe in this country, I don't walk down the street thinking some radical is going to jump at me or that a car bomb is going to go off in the employee parking lot or that someone is going to blow up Cinderella's Castle. It's just that this was a big goof and people are going to debate about it back and forth, but from what I hear the movie Farenheit (i can't spell that word) 911 is a real shocker. I don't know much about it, but apparently the government knew a lot more than you think about the situation and it's all a big game of money. Sorry if this seems harsh and babble, but the entire finger blame usually irks me as do cries of terrorism. I do wish it would stop, but I don't think war is a way to help it.

[The Wanderer]

I would have to agree with some of the criticism of U.S. intelligence on possible terrorist plots, but at this point, the blame-game has spread like a wildfire to places that don't deserve the flak over 9/11. I speak of the FAA and the rescue efforts that this "9/11 commission" is putting under the microscope over communication difficulties that took place on that fateful day. They were just like the rest of us: dazed and confused about something none of us have seen.

I think that in some ways, we should have seen it coming, we could have seen it coming, but we didnt. The reason being, is because none of us, deep down, could have imagined a terrorist having the gall to do something like fly planes into buildings. After all, weren't the U.S.'s pre-9/11 counter-terrorist measures based on preventing terrorists from using nuclear weapons, and car-bombs? All our security measures are just forcing terrorists to think creatively on how to give the U.S. another black eye, as they did on 9/11.

[ghostision]

They say hindsight is perfect, but I think that's just because it's impossible to show otherwise.
My history teacher mentioned a book once, that said President Roosevelt could have prevented the attacks on Pearl Harbor. It pointed out all the little clues, the details, the giveaway signs that showed that Japan wanted to do such a thing. The book said that he purposely let them attack, since he wanted to go to war.
It was a popular theory for a while. But my history teacher said it was ridiculous. There is so much information out there, so much false leads, so many things that point to things that turn out to be true, but was buried among the garbage. If people could figure these things out, there'd be no murders, no crimes, because we'd be able to figure out motives, sort out the relevant from the random. But we can't. We're only human, they're only human. If they followed up on every single intelligence lead that they ever got, we'd probably be chasing after UFO's and trying to figure out how someone can make brain control potions. It's just not possible, it looks possible, because we see all these things and know it's important now, but back then how would they? They're not psychic. Few people would have guessed, back then, that they'd use airplanes, most people would have said bombs and so forth, it's ever so much more logical. Who knows how many other attacks we've headed off? We'll never know, because if it didn't happen, no one cares. It's ever so much more enjoyable to make nice big expensive committees who point fingers at people and say "you made a mistake." Now we can go and hate one of our own, instead of the enemy, because everyone knows it's bad to hate the enemy. We can blame one of our own and then, having figured out the source of the problem, go about complacently on our business. It won't happen again. We've punished the person who messed up. Someone always has to mess up, in chess, they say the winner's the one who makes the next to last mistake, same in real life. And I agree with smiley.

[Jessica Coconut]

We have no way of knowing. Like you said, who knows how many attacks the US has avoided. We'll never know, because they never happened. For all we know, without the army that the US has, they could have suffered an attack a day, and this was one of the (un)lucky ones that made it through.

[etchelion]

There is not much that can be said about this. Some would like to believe that it could have been prevented, and the Gov. Somehow seriously dropped the ball on that one. Others have stated that attacks will always come, and one or another is bound to slip by.

9/11 is as many have stated, a very special case. It is on of the unfortunate attacks that have gotten through. However, even had we knew about such a possible plan, our defenses did not have any script to go by on how to take care of such a situation. We see alot of airplane hijack movies, but it is very different in real life.

[irishdragonlord]

Mathematically speaking, it "could" have.

Basically, I say that it could have been prevented - at least the Twin Towers.

So I've heard, in the 1970's they had precautions against such things - something built on or in the Two Towers, to make it able to resist an airplane crash. Of course, now the planes are bigger and have more fuel, and the system never got re-built and re-advanced.

I agree with the there was no human way we could have prevented it, not with a good amount of evidence anyway. If we followed every strain we'd not be bable to tackle the most definite ones.

My 2 pennies.

[Shadyy]

I don't think it could have been prevented.
Even if there was vague information the security-intelligence-people are only humans you know. Not psychic machines who can smell when a plane, bomb or whatever is going to explode/crash, where it will do so and when...you can't check everything and anyone or there would have to be more military/intelligence/police-people then normal civilians.
i
I'm not going to share my opinion and what basically we even see in college courses in belgium, on what happened after 9/11. I don't feel like starting a huge murdering debate.

[redpen]

Alright watch the bashing come in. Honestly I wasn't that shocked or awed or anything, beacause there are so many more horrible things going on in the world, like the AIDS epidemic in Africa, that took twice the death toll of 9/11. It was an awful thing, I just think it has been overplayed by politics and the media.
On the subject of it being prevented, I really don't know if it could have been prevented or not, but it is in the past, and I think that that is where it should remain.

[aakfish]

I am probably going to be the most hated person in the world for this but if 9/11 had happened in some third world country rather then the US nobody would give as much of a darn about it.

The saddest part about 9/11 is that innocent Americans died because of terrorists trained by their own country. That is the worst part.