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Was 9/11 really that bad? (I KNEW IT WOULD COME TO THIS)
Los Angeles Times ^
| 1/28/07
| David A. Bell
Posted on 01/28/2007 10:29:05 AM PST by paulat
Was 9/11 really that bad?
The attacks were a horrible act of mass murder, but history says we're overreacting.
By David A. Bell
January 28, 2007
IMAGINE THAT on 9/11, six hours after the assault on the twin towers and the Pentagon, terrorists had carried out a second wave of attacks on the United States, taking an additional 3,000 lives. Imagine that six hours after that, there had been yet another wave. Now imagine that the attacks had continued, every six hours, for another four years, until nearly 20 million Americans were dead. This is roughly what the Soviet Union suffered during World War II, and contemplating these numbers may help put in perspective what the United States has so far experienced during the war against terrorism.
[snip]
Has the American reaction to the attacks in fact been a massive overreaction? Is the widespread belief that 9/11 plunged us into one of the deadliest struggles of our time simply wrong? If we did overreact, why did we do so? Does history provide any insight?
[snip]
The people who attacked us in 2001 are indeed hate-filled fanatics who would like nothing better than to destroy this country. But desire is not the same thing as capacity, and although Islamist extremists can certainly do huge amounts of harm around the world, it is quite different to suggest that they can threaten the existence of the United States.
[snip]
Even if one counts our dead in Iraq and Afghanistan as casualties of the war against terrorism, which brings us to about 6,500, we should remember that roughly the same number of Americans die every two months in automobile accidents.
[snip]
So why has there been such an overreaction?
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; democrats; elections; terrorism; wot
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To: Billthedrill
101
posted on
01/28/2007 12:25:02 PM PST
by
Nuc1
(NUC1 Sub pusher SSN 668 (Liberals Aren't Patriots))
To: paulat
To: paulat
...geez, how do you respond to this?
103
posted on
01/28/2007 12:38:34 PM PST
by
Tzimisce
(How Would Mohammed Vote? Hillary for President! www.dndorks.com)
To: Billthedrill
Modern terrorism counts on this. In order to combat this evil game the response must be disproportionate. Two buildings down, two governments taken down. And Iran's frothing at the mouth despite, nobody wants to take the third building down at the cost of being the third government. And that's one reason nobody has. Disproportionality is absolutely the answer against terror and it demeans the value in human life of its victims to imply that they're only worth so much in the grand scheme of things.Outstanding response.
104
posted on
01/28/2007 12:42:03 PM PST
by
91B
(God made man, Sam Colt made men equal)
To: paulat
>It's because the Bush Administration has kept us safe, you moron!!!<
Where were you raised? In a juvenile hall or a boys school?So you disagree with what the man has to say. Big deal, is that sufficent to call him a moron? Dig real deep and see if there's any manners down in your socks?
105
posted on
01/28/2007 12:57:10 PM PST
by
B4Ranch
(Press "1" for English, or Press "2" and you will be disconnected until you learn to speak English.)
To: DocRock
"And despite the even more nightmarish fantasies of the post-9/11 era (e.g. the TV show "24's" nuclear attack on Los Angeles), Islamist terrorists have not come close to deploying weapons other than knives, guns and conventional explosives." The truth is they had and used HUMAN GUIDED CRUISE MISSILES, not just knives.... If Bush did not shut down air travel like he did, there would have been more attacks that day. If we weren't going after them like we are, there would have been more attacks since then.
These idiots who think the way this author does make me sick.
To: paulat
What an idiot. Does his mom know he's on the internet unsupervised??
To: Nuc1
And despite the even more nightmarish fantasies of the post-9/11 era (e.g. the TV show "24's" nuclear attack on Los Angeles), Islamist terrorists have not come close to deploying weapons other than knives, guns and conventional explosives. I don't suppose GWB should get some credit for that success?!
To: Religion Moderator; Admin Moderator; Lead Moderator; Sidebar Moderator
Hope I didn't forget anyone!
I won't do it again!
109
posted on
01/28/2007 1:03:15 PM PST
by
paulat
To: DocRock
Saturday, 17 April, 2004
Jordan 'was chemical bomb target'
Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists planned a chemical attack on Jordan's spy headquarters that could have killed 20,000 people, officials have said.
BBC NEWS:Earlier this week King Abdullah said a massive attack had been thwarted by a series of arrests, but named no target.
Now unnamed officials say the suspects have confessed to plotting to detonate a chemical bomb on the Amman HQ of the Intelligence Services.
The plot was reportedly hatched by al-Qaeda suspect Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi.
Washington has accused the 38-year-old Jordanian radical of masterminding a string of spectacular suicide bombings in Iraq.
'Deadly gas'
An official involved in the inquiry in Jordan told AFP news agency: "We found primary materials to make a chemical bomb which, if it had exploded, would have made nearly 20,000 deaths ... in an area of one square kilometre.
...
Read on:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3635381.stm
110
posted on
01/28/2007 1:09:18 PM PST
by
coffee260
(coffee)
To: paulat
Was 9/11 Really All That Bad?
How many more is he willing to have?
To: paulat
I don't care if the Islamist swine after 9/11 had no residual capacity whatsoever to do another thing, ever. The Islamists have been up to their @@@holes in terrorism at least since the Munich Olympics. They have certainly managed to convince me that Islam is the irreconcileable foe of Western Civilization, and that Islamism needs to be warred upon for the next one thousand years if that is what it takes to humanize the beasts. Like the old song of WWII said, "they started something, and we're going to end it, right in their own backyards." If the rest of Islam would prefer we not end it right in their own backyard it is about time somebody besides Pakistan steps forward and puts a stop to it so we don't have to.
To: Cementjungle
I don't suppose GWB should get some credit for that success?! I agree with you! That's the point I've been trying to make. This can't be a case of "an eye for an eye."
This is a case of "don't EVER go there again!!!"
113
posted on
01/28/2007 1:18:26 PM PST
by
paulat
To: paulat
I suppose this jerk would like to trade places with one of the dead guys ~ it can be arranged, in part.
To: Clara Lou
They, the terrorists, were seeking to murder about 55,000 people in the WTC, plus another 25,000 at the Pentagon, and upwards of 800,000 working in the Postal Service (with their anthrax attack element), and maybe several million more in the general population as a consequence of anthrax.
In short, the terrorists targeted more people than this Bell puke can count.
To: BronzePencil
To: paulat
Who the hell is David Bell?
A moron, for sure.
117
posted on
01/28/2007 2:11:26 PM PST
by
Palladin
(Life without music would be a mistake.--Nietzsche)
To: Palladin
Who the hell is David Bell? I can't post any more from the link, but if you hit it up, you can see he's a Johns Hopkins professor.
118
posted on
01/28/2007 2:13:35 PM PST
by
paulat
To: FairOpinion
"I pity his students. No wonder people are so screwed up with professors like this one teaching them."
His students? You better pitty 90% of the kids in school today.
Look back in history when the Communist went into Cuba.
The first thing they go after is the schools.
It takes very little time to convert young "sculls full of mush".
Todays universities and colleges are overrun with guys like this, and much worse.
Other then a few decent schools like Hillsdale, the bulk of American education has gone down the tubes.
119
posted on
01/28/2007 2:19:16 PM PST
by
AlexW
(Reporting from Bratislava, Slovakia)
To: paulat
UNBELIEVABLE. Thank God the planes didn't hit an hour later; the deaths would've been thousands more. What total morons.
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