BLOOMBERG: 9/11 ATTACKS TARGETED IDEALS OF EARLY GREEK CIVILIZATION

New York Post ^ | Fri Sep 20, 3:12 AM ET | Maggie Haberman

[Destro]

New York Post

BLOOMBERG: 9/11 ATTACKS TARGETED IDEALS OF EARLY GREEK CIVILIZATION

Fri Sep 20, 3:12 AM ET

Mayor Bloomberg - visiting Greece yesterday during the first full day of his European tour - said the Sept. 11 terror attacks targeted ideals of freedom that grew out of early Greek civilization.

"All of us in the civilized world are victims of terrorism," Bloomberg told the Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce ( news - web sites) in Athens.

"The attack on New York City was not an attack on a geographic place. It was an attack on a philosophy and lifestyle."

Bloomberg spoke about the rebuilding effort as new reports on lower Manhattan placed heavy emphasis on improved transit infrastructure as the key to the area rebounding.

The papers, compiled by the economic development working group of the Civic Alliance coalition of planners and civic leaders, also suggest the future of downtown isn't nearly as bleak as a recent report commissioned by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. suggested.

Maggie Haberman

[Kerensky]

In Austria, 20 percent of the population are muslim. In England, muslims are calling for cultural revolution. Given the chance, the terrorists would kill us,
destroy our buildings and burn our literature.

[Destro]

9/11 was not the first time Eastern civilization attacked the West.

When Xerxes wrote again to King Leonidas of Sparta: 'Deliver up your arms,' Leonidas wrote back: 'Come and take them.' ("MOLON LABE")

Leonidas (Agiad King, 491-480, Killed at Battle of Thermopylae)

[Destro]

see above.

[Savage Beast]

Yes, Michael, the September 11 massacre was an attack on Western Civilization.

It is incompatible with Islamic fundamentalism and anathema to Islamic fundamentalists, who particularly dispise its ideals of freedom of thought and speech, human rights, and, most of all, freedom of religion and the separation of religion and state.

Western Civilization, whose first major flowering was in Greece in the 5th century B.C., is the greatest accumulation of human wisdom and benevolence the world has ever known. It is priceless, and it must be protected.

[genefromjersey]

Dang ! Ah didn't know them Ay-rabs wuz a targetin ' Greenwich Village !!

[thucydides]

An attack on a...lifestyle? Bloomberg sounds more like someone from Marin County, California than New York City.

[marsh2]

I expected this to discuss the overt waging of war on civilians as the breaking of a Western taboo. (Not sure if that is a rule among Muslims, but it appears it may not be. On the other hand, it appears to be a long standing tactic of some of the Irish groups and then there are the animal rights and extreme environmental groups that use it. Perhaps the ruke exists only at the international level.)

Suicide bombers, using the threat of violence upon civilians (not military or government targets) to attempt to influence political policy... Perhaps we are not all on the same page here? or are we?

[thucydides]

Your point is well taken; of course attacks on noncombatants are utterly despicable and contrary to our values. I thought Mayor Bloomberg's rhetoric was rather impoverished when he talked about an attack on a lifestyle. These are not only attacks on human beings, but on the ideas that give meaning to their existence. Incidentally, this kind of barbarism is nothing new in the region. Unfortunately, with the decline of traditional values in Western civilization, it seems to have spread, facilitated by our failure to deal effectively with it, as the Greeks would have.

[Savage Beast]

It does. So do 2,500 years of pre-Hellenic Egyptian civilization and countless other contributing factors including Arabic influences, which included the concept of immunization. The result is present Western Civilization. It certainly has more to offer and more for which to be grateful than does any challenger. For example, Western Civilization eradicated smallpox from the earth; Islamic extremism threatens to reintroduce it; which is more valuable?

[Savage Beast]

I hope you feel better soon. (Light tone is fine.)