Can you believe it's two years ago......

Dr. Dre

Recall it here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30985

daveg

Jesus 2 years. I remember I was at home on the day. Watching sky news.... Saw the second plane crash live. Most surrel thing I've ever seen.

Wierdest thing was when I looked at our photographs at home from `98. On top of the WTC. I remember my fear of heights kicking in and my mate told me about the bombing of the WTC in `93. I remember thinking jesus imagine if there was another terrerist attack.

Shinji

Hey, yeah, it's September 11th today. Happy terrorist day, everyone!

rymus

ohh man is that ever in bad taste! (cant resist though) rofl

"happy terrorist day"

Sleipnir

in the indo about this today


Best prospect now is that Bush loses the election



TWO years ago today, the most spectacular and awe-inspiring act of terrorism ever perpetrated brought down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in Manhattan.

While two hijacked aircraft flew into the towers, a third destroyed part of the Pentagon in Washington. A fourth came down in the countryside after passengers attacked the hijackers. It may have been destined for the White House or Capitol Hill.

Thus the young Saudis and Egyptians of al-Qa'ida struck against the greatest symbols of American power and the greatest citadels of politics, military might and commerce in the world. The selection of targets was frightening, the conduct of the operation brilliant.

This point is crucial. Underestimating the enemy has lost countless wars and brought down empires. To call al-Qa'ida barbaric, mad, etc, misses the point. They are not mad, though they may appear so to Westerners who cannot understand that they have a totally different set of values. That makes them all the more terrifying.

In the United States, and elsewhere in the Western world, the emotions that predominated on September 11, 2001, were grief and anger. These feelings are easily articulated. Harder to articulate, harder to come to terms with, was the knowledge that a whole way of life had come under a threat which must now be recognised. Hitherto - for all the omens, including a previous attempted bombing of the World Trade Centre - the threat had been ignored. This was no longer possible.

President George Bush responded by proclaiming a "war on terror". He got a good press initially.

But almost from the beginning, there were serious murmurings about the propaganda and the reality. Who was going to fight this war? And against whom? Obviously the front line would have to be the American intelligence services, with their disastrous pre-September 11 record. As to the enemy, they were not concentrated in a single country, much less in a single identifiable location, but scattered all over the world.

And they were (and are) a formidable as well as an exotic enemy. Not bloodthirsty fanatics fit for cannon fodder, as depicted in a million libels on Muslims and Arabs, but intelligent and highly educated young men, willing to sacrifice their own lives in a calculated manner and quietly - not ferociously - satisfied with the suffering they inflicted on others.

There was, however, one definite target. Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qa'ida, lived in Afghanistan with the sanction, apparently under the protection, of the ruling Taliban.

The Americans and their allies invaded Afghanistan, rapidly overcame the main resistance, and installed a government of sorts in Kabul. In the months that followed, physical and security conditions in the country deteriorated far below the point they had occupied under Taliban rule, but the Americans had other fish to fry.

Iraq had spent a decade on the agenda under the heading "whenever we choose to get round to it". The dictator, Saddam Hussein, could be relied upon to supply a pretext by refusing to co-operate with UN inspectors searching for his weapons of mass destruction. Even if - as would happen - he did co-operate, his actions could be ignored or downgraded and Bush could return to his insistence on "regime change" in Baghdad.

The US administration tried to strengthen itself by the use of the egregious phrase "axis of evil", referring to Iraq, Iran and North Korea. However, since no axis existed, this served to weaken rather than reinforce the case for war.

Other priorities were the search for allies and the bullying of the UN Security Council. Both failed.

The US found only one effective ally, Britain. Tony Blair rushed on board with puppy-like eagerness, proclaiming his certainty that weapons of mass destruction would be discovered and the war thereby justified. He would live to regret it.

An intense and protracted diplomatic process resulted in the refusal of the Security Council to give the Americans the specific authorisation they wanted in order to go to war.

They went ahead anyway.

At the beginning, President Bush wanted either to destroy the influence of the Security Council or reduce it to an American puppet. Now, after his 'victory' in Iraq, he wants foreign troops in the country, with a UN mandate but under American control.

A colossal diplomatic exercise is now under way. It must end in some sort of compromise.

The best prospect is that Bush will lose next year's presidential election, that his far-right colleagues will disappear from the political scene, and that the intelligent and sophisticated Eastern Establishment will resume its rightful place at the centre of American foreign policy.

The "war on terror" still has to be fought. Right now the terrorists are winning. They have shown their ability to strike at the heart of American power, and at locations at either end of the Muslim world, from Morocco to Indonesia.

The first requirement for all countries is self-protection. That assertion surely requires no argument. But the second is not wars launched for confused motives against ill-chosen targets.

It is a new geopolitics aimed at stabilising the Middle East and bringing to the region, not indeed what Bush might absurdly call "democracy" but some of the individual freedom and rule of law which we have enjoyed in the West and which his policies threaten.

That would be a suitable memorial for the victims of 9-11. But we are most unlikely to see it while he remains President.

Cabaal

This is the only reason why bush is still in power, if this dident happen people would have got sick of him ages ago.

Oh not to mention he's got two nice wars out of it, he does love his wars...

Sleipnir

question now is; how is he going to convince the world that starting another war in Iran is for the "War on Terror"
He really, really, wants to go in there but I guess his puppeteers are saying

"no george, you have to have patience. You can't start another war until you finish this one"
"But Donny, I wanna nudder war NOWWWWWWW!"

commuterised

hard to believe its 2 years ago now,
I remember coming back to work after lunch and seeing it all unfold on SKY news website, we thought it was one of those joke websites....

ixoy

God two years. Doesn't time fly. I remember reading UTV Teletext and saw that there was a news update about a plane flying into the WTC. Bored, I flicked to Sky News, the only channel showing it.
At the time there was a load of helicopters flying around and the commentators were idly speculating that a light aircraft had had the pilot blinded by the sun and crashed into the tower. And then they were calmly talking about "what appears to be another aircraft" approaching and I saw (not the craft itself from the angle) the explosion and thought, "Jesus fcuking Christ!" I did kinda shout at RTE for ages saying, "Ya might want to cover this you thick twats! Switch over NOW!" And then sorta watched gobsmacked for the next few hours..

ToxicPaddy

I was in Gran Canaria on the 11th and hired a car for a few days to see the island.. when we got back to the place we were staying, a guy we knew there said "did ya see the news, they're blowing up New York"...

I went in, turned on CNN and the next thing I see is the second plane live, flying straight into the second tower...

Flew home on the 14th amoungst the chaos of the aftermath and to be honest it totally freaked me out.. at one stage we were in the airport and no one knew where our plane was... :rolleyes:

monument

Originally posted by Shinji
Hey, yeah, it's September 11th today. Happy terrorist day, everyone!

Thanks Shinji, happy terrorist day to you and everyone!

Tha Gopher

Believe i mentioned this before anyway but what odds.......
I was in school when it happened. We had just come back from the break and were in an english class i think when the head came in and had a chat quietly with the teacher.to the teacher. He told us a few mins later a plane had crashed into the world trade centre. This was at about 2:15 so presumably either the second plane hadnt hit or he didnt know about it. He didnt know what type of plane it was when i asked so to be honest i wasnt hugely arsed. I expected it to be a small plane and in the evening it would turn out to be one of those stories that sky news had unduly hyped from being too quick to react to certain stories(think-how many times have you seen exaggerated breaking news which barely makes the in brief section that night)
Then I got home and my neighbour was outside and told me there had been two planes and the towers had collapsed. I half didnt believe it but when i went in sky was on and it was showing the impact of the second plane i believe.I was just like"holy sh1t this isnt real"

solice

i just read the thread from 9-11, oh my god, it is so chilling. ppl genuinely thought it was ww3. reading peoples immediate reactions as things happened. it sent shivers down my spine