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Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
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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There will always be wealth in the United States, thats never going to change, and its always going to be one of the key World Economic engines, thats never going to change.
However in terms of 9/11 what changed was that it was the death of optimism and the beginning of what could be a generation based on fear and mistrust. Before 9/11 terrorism was something that happened over there, and even attacks on U.S. property like the Cole attack were unsophisticated, small and random.
9/11 bought the concept of large scale well planned terrorist plots that were designed around mass murder. And Al Queda had just proved that they could do it right under the noses of the government. Nobody felt safe anymore, and nobody feels truly safe today. The bluster and confidence that America had on the world stage took a large hit that day, and there was no "day that lives in Infamy" type of rallying speech that people could get behind.
What was even worse for America was that it ripped aside the facade that they were well liked and respected on a world level.
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Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
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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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Honestly I don't think you can equate the two. Malarari while tragic is a natural occuring disease, it just does what it does, like Cancer and Aids, you know its there, but if your an American you can avoid contracting it for the most part so it doesn't have that fear factor. Malari to an extent is just a part of nature to most people
9/11 was a deliberate mass murder aimed at the three biggest symbols in America with the intent of wanton civilian slaughter, and it showed that with determination, some funding and thinking outside of the box that none of us were safe. It was our generations Pearl Harbor, if the Japanese had avoided engaging the U.S. Mililtary and instead had bombed the suburbs to instil terror.
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Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
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 |
Everyone wonders how they would react in a crisis, would you run towards it, would you dive behind a wall and wait it out, would you run away?
How would you react if following orders would mean that you would likely die?
These guys never hesitated for a second, more then the guy that rushes into a house on fire while everyone else watches, these fire fighters and police as one didn't watch, they moved forward and they for the most part knew that they were probably going to die.
I don't think you can measure that kind of bravery.