Our Generation's
Pearl Harbor
NASA satellite photo of the smoke plume arising from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.
From the Associated Press:
Grand total 266 dead on the aircraft.
Total dead and missing, in the air
and on the ground: 5,219.
–American Airlines Flight 11: A Boeing 767 en route from Boston to Los Angeles. The plane was carrying 81 passengers, nine flight attendants and two pilots. This plane took off from Boston at 7:59 AM and crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center at 8:45 AM.
–United Airlines Flight 175: A Boeing 767. The flight was bound from Boston to Los Angeles. It was carrying 56 passengers, two pilots and seven flight attendants. This plane took off at 8:14 AM and crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center at 9:03 AM.
–American Airlines Flight 77: A Boeing 757 en route from Dulles Airport near Washington to Los Angeles. The plane was carrying 58 passengers, four flight attendants and two pilots. This plane crashed into the Pentagon at 9:40 AM.
–At 9:50 AM the south tower (Two World Trade Center) collapsed.
–United Airlines Flight 93: A Boeing 757, crashed southeast of Pittsburgh while en route from Newark, N.J. to San Francisco at 10:00 AM. The plane was carrying 38 passengers, two pilots and five flight attendants.
–At 10:29 AM the north tower (One World Trade Center) collapsed.
–At 5:25 PM Seven World Trade Center collapsed.
I expect that every American airport will now look and operate like an Israeli airport. Bear in mind that about 50,000 people work in the World Trade Center and this happened in the middle of an ordinary day of business. Fortunately there was about a one-hour delay between the impacts and the collapse of the towers. A lot of the people in the towers probably got out alive.
At least 266 people died on the aircraft. A total of two United aircraft and two American Airlines aircraft have crashed, and all Freepers are encouraged to pray for the families of those killed and injured. Relief efforts, particularly donations of blood, deserve our immediate support.
It is possible that the losses at Pearl Harbor will pale in comparison to this unbelievably dastardly attack. Total killed at Pearl Harbor were 2,230. Total killed or missing in the World Trade Center are 4,763. Total killed or missing at the Pentagon are 190. Total killed on board the four aircraft are 266. Grand total 5,219.
In terms of property damage in constant dollars (that are adjusted for inflation), try to correlate the following losses. At Pearl Harbor, we lost two battleships, one very old battleship that had been converted into a target ship, one oiler and one repair ship. Three more battleships, a cruiser and two destroyers were damaged, but repaired and returned to action. We also lost over 100 aircraft, nearly all of them single-engined.
On Tuesday we lost the World Trade Center's twin towers and six other buildings in lower Manhattan. The Pentagon and several other New York buildings have been damaged but are returning to full operational capacity -- in the case of the Pentagon, they were up and running very quickly but it may take a few months to repair the damage. We also lost four large-capacity intercontinental airliners.
I strongly urge all freepers, and all media reporters lurking on these threads, to KEEP YOUR MOUTHS SHUT about any military or intelligence related activity by America and her allies. Don't assume that the information will never get back to the terrorists. Their sympathizers from around the world are definitely swarming all over this site and many other discussion sites.
Right now, we want to hear about it after the fact ... after they have delivered their ordnance payloads to their targets.
NBC's Tim Russert reported from Washington that there is "unprecedented anger" in response to this attack, but they "don't know where or how to channel it." I anticipate that we will know very soon, and that our response will be devastating.
Both of the main towers have collapsed. Building Seven (lower right-hand corner of diagram) also collapsed several hours later.
Washington Under Siege
These kids are cheering because over 5,000
American civilians were just murdered.
We're going to give them a lot to cry about.
This is EXACTLY what you think it is.
This is EXACTLY what you think it is.