The United States is still a MONSTER of economic clout. Their financial assets are $41 trillion dollars. Second place is Japan at only $14 trillion. Germany is third at only $6 trillion. It is the U.S. *government* that is bankrupt. Corporations and their CEO's are doing just fine, TYVM. I mentioned in another thread about recently flying over Chicago and seeing just how many large homes there were - all with huge plots of lands and large swimming pools. There is a LOT of wealth in the United States.
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As for September 11th, I've said this before and got shot down for it, but none have adequately address it to my satisfaction. Approximately 3,000 people died in the attacks in NYC. While this is absolutely horrific and obviously and attrocity that cannot be ignored.... 3,000 people is the same number of people that die EACH AND EVERY DAY from malaria. There doesn't seem to be the same call to arms to fight malaria as opposed to the resources that have been spent on the response to September 11th. I'm not exactly sure why that is.
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What stikes me most about September 11th was the firefighters that KNEW they might not make it through the day, and yet went in anyway. The same way as the workers around the Japanese nuclear plants went to work knowing that they might die, but also knowing that they had to do their job or more might die. That kind of bravery is deserving of every respect possible.
Many of those that went down to help are still suffering to this day:
http://www.wdtn.com/dpps/news/nation...11-jpe_3923101