On September 11, 2001, the question on everyone's mind was

[XemaSab]

"Is it over?"

Will there be more planes, more bombs, more collapsing buildings, and more deaths?

After 10 years, the answer is clear.

It never ended.

Every day for the last 10 years has been haunted by the events of September 11th.

We've seen our country bleed every day, and we've seen other countries bleed every day.

We're torn ourselves apart.

[grasswire]

1. and yet the truest answer to terror is "more democracy"

That is the proper response.

[tetedur]

13. That's what Benazir Bhutto said.

I fully understand the men behind Al Qaeda. They have tried to assassinate me twice before. The Pakistan Peoples Party and I represent everything they fear the most — moderation, democracy, equality for women, information, and technology. We represent the future of a modern Pakistan, a future that has no place in it for ignorance, intolerance, and terrorism.
The forces of moderation and democracy must, and will, prevail against extremism and dictatorship. I will not be intimidated. I will step out on the tarmac in Karachi not to complete a journey, but to begin one. Despite threats of death, I will not acquiesce to tyranny, but rather lead the fight against it.
"Journeying to democracy" in The Boston Globe (18 October 2007)


Democracy is the best revenge. After Benazir Bhutto's death, her son's brief public remarks were captured on video, and they were reported in international newspapers. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced, "My mother always said, ' Democracy is the best revenge.' "

"Democracy the best revenge, says Bilawal," Dawn (Internet). December 31, 2007/Zilhaj 20, 1428.

[patrice]

2. Right. & Too bad it wasn't "Why?" nt

[LibDemAlways]

6. That question was never addressed because it would open a huge

can of worms with respect to our foreign policy. Better to repeat the meme "They hate us for our freedom" than to seriously address the issue.

[patrice]

8. Very threatening question that.

[Kath1]

10. Absolutely Right!

I have been thinking and saying the exact same thing for 10 long years. Not a popular opinion.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. Great discussion on NPR in the 4-5 hour EST - Ted Koppel's view

is that because there was never anything asked as sacrifice - we just borrowed money to "pay" for it and told people to just go shopping - there actually is no end in sight to the "war on terror". Finally, must-listen radio.

[gateley]

4. Our government was the best comrade in arms Al Q could have hoped for. nt

[aquart]

5. And the answer was "Nuh uh."

Or, as my sister put it when people were screeching about conspiracies and sleeper cells, "Uh huh. Where are the car bombs?"

[classof56]

7. After the shock and numbness diminished

(my daughter worked near the Pentagon, a friend's workplace was two blocks from WTC), my question was, what the hell happened to our intel? The answer was more shocking than I could have imagined. Thank you, George Bush, for setting us on the path to division and destruction.

[lib2DaBone]

9. on 911 the Question on everyones mind was..."Why was NORAD told to stand down?"..

Why were there over 46 military drills underway that morning? Drills that (all of a sudden) went live without any announcement?

Who can cancel the NORAD response?

How far do you have to go up on the chain-of-command in the Pentagon before you have the authority to cancel NORAD? The Janitor... the Interns?

Why.. after 10 years.. are major portions of the 911 report still classified?

Why was Henry Kissinger named as the original head of the 911 commission?

Who sent all the Antrax? (Anthax that can only be obtained from the U.S. Army Depot at Ft. Detrick)

Oh, you mean , ANYONE can walk into a 7-11 and purchase Weapon-grade Anthrax?

[Cary Vonfused]

20. You forgot a very important question

Who the hell bought "put options" on United & American Airlines just days before the attack, as if they knew the stock value of those two airlines would take a sudden dive?

[EFerrari]

23. You're mistaken about Ft. Detrick.

They didn't have the capacity to make weaponized Anthrax which is one reason the case against Bruce Ivins is cr@p.

But I agree with your questions. :thumbsup:

[HockeyMom]

11. Why were the fighter jets in the area told to stand down?

That question was never answered. Air Force from LI and NJ could have been there, and were READY, to fly right after the first plane hit. They were told NO by their superior officers. Local news interviewed these pilots. Many of them broke down and CRIED on camera saying that they could have been there in 20 minutes and possibly intercepted the second plane. Imagine the pain these men must have suffered knowing their hands were tied?

WHY? Oh, there was so much on the local NY news that the rest of the country never heard about.

[B Calm]

12. The question on my mind was why did Bush allow this to happen. I knew

the results from the recount in Florida was due to be released on Sept 12.

[SheilaT]

14. It was crystal clear to me about a half

hour after flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania that it was all over. Whoever it was had done everything they could do, and nothing new would happen for a very long time, if ever.

Ever since then I have all but foamed at the mouth at the "Well, you never know," bullshit that requires idiotic airport "security", invading other countries, the total sell-out of this country and EVERYTHING else that has been used to justify endless spending on endless war while genuine domestic concerns (jobs, housing, health care, schools) go begging.

[XemaSab]

16. Really?

:shrug:

[SheilaT]

17. YES.

It was so completely obvious that they (whoever "they" were) had done their best. It involved the hijacking of four airplanes and that was it. There was nothing more.

In the ten years since there has been NOTHING of substance against this country.

In further explication, I am a former airline employee. I worked as a ticket agent at DCA (National Airport in Washington, DC) starting in January, 1969. That was before any security of any kind. We used to let people go out onto the ramp areas to photograph airplanes, if they wished. There used to be observation decks at most airports, where you could watch the airplanes, often pretty close up.

The other thing to understand is how very quickly news of crashes spread through the airline industry. I cannot begin to tell you how very fast we knew of crashes or other incidents. I swear, I sometimes knew of plane crashes before the wreckage had come to a complete halt. It was almost as if airline employees were psychic, and as if after a crash we all lifted our heads and said, "Yes, flight such-and-thus has just crashed." I can tell you about specific crashes, but that's not the point.

On September 11, I'd turned on National Public Radio right before the top of the hour, only to hear Bob Edwards say, "Reports are sketchy, but it appears that a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center." I immediately thought, This is a visual story, and turned on TV. About twenty minutes later when I saw the second plane crash into the other tower, my first thought was to call former co-workers because I knew that they would know exactly what flights had crashed and what other flights might be missing.

As it turned out, I could not get ahold of my friends that day, but when I did talk to them, they said, "Oh, yes, we knew by then exactly which flights had been hijacked."

I repeat: In the airline industry, when something goes bad, the employees know about it immediately.

In fact, while watching the coverage that morning, as all the various on-air persons for the many networks were struggling to figure out what had happened, all I could think of was: Don't ANY of you have contacts with an airline ticket agent somewhere?

And yes, I knew very quickly that whoever had done this thing (and I knew I did not know who had done it) had done everything, had used up all his resources, and this was the end.

Sometimes those close to the ground really do have a better understanding of things.

On a separate but related note, I've been very frustrated over the years that those who are supposed to understand these things cannot distinguish between rumor and verifiable information. As a woman who was connected to the rumor network of my children's school, I always paid attention to the source. Some are reliable, others not so much.

[TexasProgresive]

15. Not for me-my ? was-where was the Air Defence Command?

Later I found out that my old Air Force Command was no longer. The protocol for the situation with these 4 planes in my time was straight forward.
1) The planes are out of the filed flight plan.
2) The transponders are turned off.
Either of these 2 things causes an immediate launch of interceptor jets. They bracket the plane and try to communicate by radio and visual. If the plane is unresponsive and is headed where it can cause danger to those on the ground it may be put down. If it is headed towards nowhere like the Penn plane they just follow as was done with Payne Stewart's plane.

So where were the interceptors? I don't believe any crap about a exercise causing NORAD to be "offline." That is just too stupid to believe. During the cold war there were exercises being run regularly and regular surveillance was maintained-in fact it was probably stepped up during and exercise since we knew that the enemy is watching as well.

[uppityperson]

18. k&r

[Zax2me]

19. collapsing buildings never ended?

Sure it did.

[Major Hogwash]

21. That wasn't my question.

My question was, who did it?

I saw the 2nd commercial jet hit the WTC towers and knew that it was on purpose.
It sure as hell was no accident.
All I wanted to know then was who was responsible.
Then, when the reports of the commercial jet hitting the Pentagon came on the news, I knew it had to be coordinated from within.

By the time I heard about the commercial jet in Pennsylvania I wondered what the hell was going on with NORAD.

And within days I wondered just how many more American lives were going to be wasted so Bush could convince people that we needed to go back to Iraq to finish the job that his "daddy" started in 1991.

[EFerrari]

22. The thing that 9/11 changed was that for once our people at home

suffered the direct results of our foreign policy in the way people in other parts of the world have always suffered from them.

No, it not only didn't end but our government doubled down. And that is the main thing we must learn about September 11 if we want to prevent a repetition or if we want to stop the killing of innocents around the world.