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Today marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. These were "a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks [...] against the United States of America on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001."
Of the 2,977 people who died, 2,605 were U.S. citizens and 372 non-U.S. citizens (excluding the 19 perpetrators). More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks, including the United Kingdom (67 deaths), the Dominican Republic (47 deaths), India (41 deaths), Greece (39 deaths), South Korea (28 deaths), Canada (24 deaths), Japan (24 deaths), Colombia (18 deaths), Jamaica (16 deaths), Philippines (16 deaths), Mexico (15 deaths), Trinidad and Tobago (14 deaths), Ecuador (13 deaths), Australia (11 deaths), Germany (11 deaths), Italy (10 deaths), Bangladesh (6 deaths), Ireland (6 deaths), Pakistan (6 deaths), and Poland (6 deaths).
It was a tragedy not only for America, but for the world.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday September 11 2021, @03:53PM (14 children)
I was in 8th grade in 2001 and attending school in the Bronx--ironically, it was during an American History class. I saw the smoke clouds rising. And something told me we were going to do exactly the wrong thing.
Well, 20 years later, the terrorists won. Worse than that I have an awful premonition that the US is now going to attempt to, if not ally with, at least bargain with the Taliban as the "legitimate governing body" of Afghanistan, probably to stick it to ISIS and/or China one way or another. 20 years of this bullshit, and for *what?*
Afghanistan is truly the graveyard of empires. What's worst about all of this, though, is the US fell into the *precise same trap it set for the Soviet Union 2 decades prior!* How the HELL does that happen?! Well, the terrorists won, and they won exactly the way they predicted they would.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @04:12PM (2 children)
It happened because of Neoconservatives, Left wing Jews who left the Democratic party years ago to join the Republican Party when the Democratic Party decided they were not so keen on supporting Israel anymore. The Neocons in GWB's administration were the force pushing these Middle Eastern "democratic makeover" wars. The entire GWB administration thought that was a great idea because they bought into that ideology.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @04:40PM (1 child)
I will add that neoconservative ideology has been put to the test and found to be a flop. It has been thoroughly discredited, with only the original believers who put it into action (GWB administration) still believing it.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @04:43PM
Oh, and neocons, having come originally from the Left, are not limited to the GOP. Hillary Clinton was a big neocon in her foreign policy.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Saturday September 11 2021, @04:17PM (3 children)
"We" walked into that trap intentionally. An excuse was needed to run the military industrial complex, the money pump, while keeping us in a constant state of emergency so we would surrender our freedoms.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @07:05PM (2 children)
I don't fully disagree, but I find that line of reasoning to be way overblown. Congress, and particularly the House, are as impulsive and irrational as the general population. 9/11 was scary in many ways, before the passage of time allowed some perspective. Most people, including politicians, took it very personally and wanted to do something about it. There was a real fear that 9/11 was just the start and that there were all these overlooked sleeper cells around and that there were going to be chemical and nuclear attacks to follow, which is why so many draconian policies were enacted, both to stop perceived imminent next attacks as well as to assuage people that steps were being taken to keep them safe. Of course, once you put in place laws and policies like that, it is very hard politically to remove them, which is why you need the pendulum to swing too far so that you can bring it back.
There are always opportunists around, and after 9/11 it was the influence of the neocon academics who believed that all you needed to do to fix the Middle East was to remove their shackles and they'll rise up and naturally choose a liberal democracy for a government. Saddam was the easiest target because he was a secular leader. They took him out and it turned into a great big mess. There was no follow up plan, because why would you need one when the people were going to suddenly organize themselves into a representative government (after having essentially banned everyone who knew how to run a government and throwing them out on the streets) and then, one by one, the people in neighboring countries would all follow suit and voila!, a new and Enlightened Middle East! When the real Arab Spring happened, the neocons felt vindicated ("See? We told you! The reason it didn't happen in Iraq was that GWB did it wrong!"), until it fell apart.
The MIC always makes money, whether it is wartime or peacetime. They'll happily make more of the same, if you're in a war, and make new and better stuff if in peacetime. They don't have to push foreign policy in any particular direction because they're going to get paid either way.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday September 11 2021, @09:41PM (1 child)
You don't capture the atmosphere in Washington at the time, unless you mention the anthrax scare, the beltway shooter, emphasize the attack on the Pentagon which is basically right across the river from the Capitol. We had a horde of screaming, crying, terrified children making policy after 9/11/01.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday September 11 2021, @09:43PM
You mean approving policy, not making it. Everything was written and awaiting an excuse beforehand.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @04:57PM (1 child)
How exactly did the terrorists win? Unless you a count a fraction of them surviving or outlasting you as winning.
Also you didn't walk into the same trap as the Soviet union. America more or less pushed the Soviet union into the trap. Question might be who pushed you? Who pushed the British before the Soviets etc.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:45AM
The terrorists have had us in a permanent state of fear for 20 years.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @05:28PM (1 child)
The Taliban said to the Americans when they first began their occupation, "You have all the clocks, but we have all the time."
It was worse than just a waste of money and lives. Our actions in Afghanistan over the last twenty years resulted in a doubling of the number of Afghans living in poverty today, as compared to in 2001.
And, all that nonsense about liberating women in Afghanistan was given lie by the fact that during the US occupation of Afghanistan, Afghanistan was tied for second worse place in the world to be a woman.
But, as for why we were there so long? $300M/day from public coffers largely to private military contractors is a cash cow for those companies that I imagine they were willing to provide a lot of bribes ^H^H^Hcampaign contributions to keep flowing.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @02:21AM
Ism widdle babby no wike mean feminists its ok widdle babby nappy time make widdle babby feel awwwww better
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @06:30PM (1 child)
it happened because Jews have infiltrated and exert a disproportionately high influence in all white nations and use that influence to destroy the white race and use their nations to build Greater Israel. Learn about the International, Talmudic Jew and everything will start to make sense.
It will ruin movies and other frivolous stuff full of Jew lies, though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @02:15AM
Which movies? Like the Passion of Mel Gibson? Dogma? Fritz Lang's Metropolis? Life of Brian? End of Rebuild of Evangelion?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @11:46PM
Wrong! 20 years later, and the terrorist invaders were chased off! Still no introspection in the USA