Anything I could say about recollections of the day, I’ve already said in previous years.
So this year I’m simply moved to ask…
…anyone feeling safer?
PAD
Anything I could say about recollections of the day, I’ve already said in previous years.
So this year I’m simply moved to ask…
…anyone feeling safer?
PAD
• 
It’s one thing to come to grips with the idea that one could be killed at any moment. Detah is so much the unknown quantity that one can see it as a transition or an adventure to be undertaken. But, in a country where one’s rights can be taken away on a whim, where one’s privacy can be invaded without proper cause, where so much as saying the wrong thing in the presence of the wrong person can have the secret service breathing down, not only one’s own neck, but the necks of everyone one cares about or knows well, where one can be imprisoned and tortured with no cause, no justification and no recourse, well…
… No not really safe. Not in one’s own country or even one’s own home. Not safe at all.
Nope. Not safer yet.
So we continue fighting until we do.
Well, as I sit here watching the CNN coverage, I can honestly say I don’t feel any more safe, or any less safe. I’m amazed that other countries even talk to us. I always thought that Isolationism was a choice, not a result. Hopefully the Administration will not make things any worse before they go away.
Someone sent this link to me: watch it if you want to laugh and cry at the same time…
http://gprime.net/video.php/theirack
No. And I’m not that scared by the terrorists either. It’s one thing to fear getting blown up. It’s another to keep seeing the government slowly planning their reaction to terrorists–something that looks less like protection and more like fascism waiting in the wings. I’ll vote for whoever promises to take those “emergency provisions” out of the law books.
Living in Manhattan…No not feeling safer at all.
Did anyone see that wonderful (sarcastic) article that was in the Daily News the other day? About how the MTA and TBTA are too concerned with toll collections to stop and search vans/trucks entering Manhattan?
THATS what makes me feel unsafe.
No I don’t feel safer. But I expect to, the day after the next inauguration.
Posted by michael t at September 11, 2007 09:56 AM
Living in Manhattan…No not feeling safer at all.
Y’know Michael, I live in Poughkeepsie and usually go down to the city a couple of times a month, my wife even moreso, and at least once before either of us go, there is always that twinge of uneasiness. The day the steampipe blew a hole in the street my wife sent me a text message after her meeting. She wanted me to turn on CNN because there were people running down the street past where she was having lunch. It took me a few minutes to find some coverage on a local channel, but those few minutes lasted a looong time.
Do you really have any reason not to feel safe? Maybe not completely and perfectly safe, which people rarely are. But of all things that makes life unsafe, terrorism is not exactly on the top of the list. So why feel unsafe?
ya know the whole “backpacks and large bags may be subject to search by the police”….has become white noise, and that is somewhat alarming to me because most NY’ers are the same way.
I feel more inconvenienced than anything. And somewhere in the back of my geek mind I’m thinking, these police and NG look at me like I’m no threat, a white guy from the LI and for all they know I could be packing semtex in my bag… not that I am, but they let 18 hijackers through airport “security” for probably the same reason…
oh yeah, and on this day our friend Leah was born. I choose to remember her over the horrific events of that day that are etched into my psyche and no amount of ptsd theraby could erase.
D is doing well- saw him labor day weekend at NYRF. He’s a senior in HS now, jeez.
Peter, I didn’t feel safe BEFORE 9/11… why should I feel safe afterwards?
It’s never what you see coming that gets you… it’s the unexpected phone call at 3am, or that car that jumped the intersection when you weren’t looking, or the puddle on the floor that you slip on and fall.
Safety and order are the illusions. Chaos is king.
What is this ‘safe’ that you refer to, PAD?
Micha –
Do you really have any reason not to feel safe?
The general incompetence of our government should be reason enough for any one not to feel safe.
The fact that we haven’t had more attacks here in the US is more about luck and lack of attempt than effort on the part of terrorists.
When you see the reactions after 9/11, after Katrina, no, there’s no reason to feel safe.
From terrorists? sure. From the government, not so much.
As for the checkpoints, if a suicide bomber wants to get through, a man with a vest isn’t going to stop him. All he has to do is step on the gas, shoot past the checkpoint, and onto the bridge.
Micha –
Do you really have any reason not to feel safe?
Craig J. Ries:
The general incompetence of our government should be reason enough for any one not to feel safe.
Micha:
I agree. As Katherina demonstrated, an incompetent government can be dangerous. But my point was more that terrorism itself does not seem to present a major threat to the safety of the average american at present.
Craig J. Ries:
The fact that we haven’t had more attacks here in the US is more about luck and lack of attempt than effort on the part of terrorists.
Micha:
I’m not sure that’s true. It doesn’t seem likely that the reason there were no other terrorist attacks in the US is because of luck. Luck only goes so far. It’s surely not a lack of motivation on Al-Quaida’s part, unless we should assume that they are so focused on Iraq that they don’t feel the need to try again in the US. But if it’s not that, then it seems likely that something is going your way despite everything.
Michael Brunner:
As for the checkpoints, if a suicide bomber wants to get through, a man with a vest isn’t going to stop him. All he has to do is step on the gas, shoot past the checkpoint, and onto the bridge.
Micha
If a suicide bomber reveals himself — either by shooting or detonating — at a checkpoint, then that means he will not make it to his intended target (unless the bridge was the target).
Unfortunately, I do not. But I’m still hoping for the best while keeping a weary eye on the world.
http://thefreechoice.info/index.php?s=news&p=main&m=1189483719
I’ve not felt safe economically, physically or mentally since Jan. 2001. Today makes little difference.
If we can’t fix stupid in this country .. we elect it and protect it. Sad.
No. This is such a sad day.
Safety is an illusion. It always has been.
What I feel is anger – anger at anyone who uses tragedy and paranoia to further their own agenda, line their own pockets, or intimidate and bully others.
Echoing what others here have said, I’ll feel safer when the evil and insanity that has taken over this country is finally defeated.
Yeah, actually. I feel like my worst fear – that this would become normal, that we’d start having suicide bombers in coffee shops and McDonalds across the country, that terrorism would just become part of the everyday weren’t realized. That could change, but for right now, it doesn’t seem like we’ve become Britain in the 80s, or Israel.
Yes, there are still major pieces of terrorism, but even in Europe (which seems to be the big target now) it’s remarkably occasional, and the death tolls, while significant, are far less than 9/11.
And beyond that, even though it’s not 2009 yet, I have a sense that things are starting to change meaningfully. That the damage Bush can do is increasingly limited to what he can do as President, instead of what he can do as a powerful President with support from Congress and the people. I feel like the administration is finally starting to lose more battles than they win, and like the clock is running out for them.
It’s not all better by any stretch of the imagination. But it does honestly seem better than it did five years ago, if not six years and one day. I feel like we’re moving out of an immediately post-9/11 world and into something a good bit more hopeful.
William Sims: Echoing what others here have said, I’ll feel safer when the evil and insanity that has taken over this country is finally defeated.
So out of curiosity, what have you (and I’m addressing this to the “others” as well) actually done to help defeat the evil and insanity?
No.
‘Nuff said.
No.
Ask again in 2 years.
In a world where more importance in the hand wringing of those who Volunteer for the army,( Remember there is no longer a draft folks the soldiers willing joined a job where dying at any moment is part of the job description,) and then are killed in the line of duty.
And there is very little concern for Mothers, Fathers, and Children who do not volunteer to be MURDERED by drunk drivers everyday. I will never feel safe. We can all bìŧçh and moan about our civil rights being violated by politicians. (Which thank out founding fathers is our right.)
But when my 10 year old cousin is murdered by a drunk driver, and he is sentenced to 2 years in prison for manslaughter, and gets out in 4 months. No one complains and decries the injustice of the so called “Justice System”, and why Congress is not doing anything to try and solve this problem.
It is so much better to divide us.
And because of that I do not feel safe.
Today should be a time to mourn those who lost their lives in a horrible murder pulled off by those who hate us, not to forward your political agenda.
As the New Year begins tomorrow night,the only answer to the tragedy of 9/11 is the same solution I always give to the Israeli/Palestinian, India/Pakistan, and Shiate Muslim/Sunni Muslim situations.
“All this will end when they love their children more than they hate each other!”
When did we forget to MOURN AND HONOR the dead?
Sorry for and angry and rambling post, but my neighborhood woke up this morning to find three United States Flags defaced by with words like, “End the War Now!”, and “America equals Hate!”.
And I am not only upset by that, but another family of 4 was murdered on the streets by a drunk last night.
(Look up how may people are murdered in drunk driving accidents each year, and compare that to the members of the army killed since 2003 in Iraq & Afghanistan actions.
However when I gather with my family for Erev Rosh Hashana dinner tomorrow I WILL feel safe knowing that the Democratic party official uncle, and the Card Carrying Republican Brither-in-law will eat, laugh, and then go to pray together knowing we are all family, and that is all that matters.
Bobb
(In Irving, in Texas, in The United States of America, and very proud we still live in a country where we can disagree with each other without feeling the need to bomb each other.)
I’ll vote for whoever promises to take those “emergency provisions” out of the law books.
Right with ya. I went back and forth on my vote for the NJ Senate race last fall almost up until the end. I knew I wasn’t going to vote for Kean (another empty suit running on the “the other guy’s a sleaze” platform), but I had very little reason to vote FOR Menendez, given things like his horrible habeas corpus vote.
I actually went to one of his local HQ’s (not much of a sacrifice, since it was walking distance from home 🙂 ) and asked one of his big reps. I said something like, “Don’t give me a reason to vote against Kean — I’ve got plenty of those. Give me a reason to vote FOR your guy in light of this vote, and not just something about regaining Congress.”
He said that he’d actually asked Menendez himself about it, and that the justification was that putting that in place prevented an even worse law from being enacted. (Like what, I wonder?) He also said that Menendez told him personally that “as soon as the Democrats get the Congress back, that law’s going to be fixed.”
So I voted. And Menendez won.
And that %#&*!* law is still on the books.
Not making THAT mistake again.
TWL
No, I don’t feel safer. But then, neither do I worry about or fear another terrorist attack. Nor, for that matter, have I ever really worried about a terrorist attack. In fact, I was only mildly worried about a nuclear exchange when the U.S. and Soviet Union were going at each other in the Cold War days. My “worries” have always been more in the range of the more down-to-earth “what if she says no to a date?” than “what if someone walks in with a bomb?” Both are possibilities, but statistically speaking, I’ve got a better chance of being rejected than blown up.
I am worried, however, that Bush and company, through their blunderings (to say nothing of their attempts to curtail some civil liberties, even if they genuinely believe it’s for the common good) are only helping to make things worse– on both a national and international scale.
True, if someone is determined to carry out a terrorist attack– and doesn’t care if they die in the process– it can be dámņëd difficult to stop them. But even so, there are some things you, as the commander-in-chief of the country that was attacked, can do when responding to an attack. Like, say, keep the war focused on Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda and not divert forces into Iraq. Is the world better off without Saddam Hussein? Very likely, but should taking him down taken higher priority than getting Osama “wanted dead or alive” bin Laden?
I don’t think so.
If Bush had done everything “right” following 9/11, would the possibility of future terrorist attacks still exist? Of course. Even if a terrorist group renounced violence and gave up all its weapons, that wouldn’t stop individuals from attacking us (or other nations) if they so chose. I don’t recall Timothy McVeigh belonging to any organized group.
But Bush didn’t do everything “right”, and so we may be worse off in the long run than we might otherwise have been.
Are we worse off than we might have been? Will we be at some point down the road? Who knows? We can all speculate about what Bush might have done differently had he listened to certain people; or how a Gore administration would have handled the aftermath of 9/11. Or how the second term of a Dole administration would have handled it. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to alternate universes where those differences were reality. We’re stuck in this universe, and have to deal with both the situations that caused 9/11and those that resulted from it.
Rick
Bobb (In Irving): “In a world where more importance in the hand wringing of those who Volunteer for the army,( Remember there is no longer a draft folks the soldiers willing joined a job where dying at any moment is part of the job description,) and then are killed in the line of duty.”
That’s a bit simplistic. The poor are disproportionately represented in the U.S. military. There are many people who join the military because, rightly or wrongly, they see no other options for themselves.
Moreover, have you ever talked with a military recruiter? I have. When I was 17, I got telemarketing calls from military recruiters all the time. Plus they would come to my high school on career day. They’re very good at talking up the G.I. Bill and dancing around the reality that armed forces are, at their core, about waging war. It’s easy to say that people should know better but that presupposes that 17-year-olds can be expected to have the wisdom that comes with age. That presupposition is, of course, absurd on its face.
And even if someone joins the army fully cognizant of the risks solely because he or she wants to protect and serve this country, why should we not wring our hands about his or her safety? That person is placing in our hands a sacred trust by agreeing to follow orders without question, even at the cost of his or her own life.
Bobb (In Irving): “And there is very little concern for Mothers, Fathers, and Children who do not volunteer to be MURDERED by drunk drivers everyday.”
That’s not been my experience. I’ve heard a lot of people express a lot of concern about that issue.
Bobb (In Irving): “But when my 10 year old cousin is murdered by a drunk driver, and he is sentenced to 2 years in prison for manslaughter, and gets out in 4 months. No one complains and decries the injustice of the so called “Justice System”, and why Congress is not doing anything to try and solve this problem.”
Well, first of all, I don’t believe drunk driving is a federal offense, so I don’t think Congress can do anything about it. It has nothing to do with the severity of the offense, by the way. It has to do with federal versus state jurisdiction, a topic that is too broad for me to address in the five minutes I have left before yet another meeting today at work.
Second, I think the light sentences drunk drivers may receive has less to do with apathy and more to do with a grim reality: the U.S. has a whoppingly huge prison population relative to its overall population. It’s easy to say we should hire more cops, build more prisons, etc. But someone has to PAY for all of that. And whenever a politician mentions higher taxes, his or her allies just stare at their feet and shuffle while he or she is shot down in electoral flames.
I empathize with you and am deeply sorry to hear that you suffered such a loss. But I fear the roots of the problem are not as simple as you believe, nor is the solution.
I myself decline to answer the question of whether or not I feel safer because it is in my view a loaded question. Instead I am saddened that the terrorists have succeeded in deepening the divisions between us at a time when our country needs to unify more than ever. And, yeah, I know that many of you are reading this and raising your hands and pointing across the way at someone else and shouting, “But it’s not me, it’s HIM!” Well, then, you are part of the problem.
And so am I.
We are ALL to blame. As soon as we accept that, we can begin discussing solutions. Because the real enemies are still the terrorists, who remain a viable threat.
No, no safer…
Most of us don’t live with the secret service guarding us. If someone wants to do us harm, they can, they will…
We’ve managed to suss out a few terrorist plots in the past few years, but sooner or later, one will get past.
We can live in fear or we can live…
“…anyone feeling safer?”
No.
For some reason I’m reminded of a scene from a Sopranos episode where Tony is telling everybody at the Bing how dangerous the world is, how security’s lousy, and the bartender says something like “that’s why you should just try to live for today.”
Tony doesn’t believe what he’s hearing, that the bartender can think of this stuff and not get as emotional as Tony. He loses his temper and beats the bartender senseless.
But that’s really what it comes down to, I think. There’s nothing that can be done to ensure anybody’s safety, and that’s why I’m saying I don’t feel safer.
Even before we had to worry about maniacs using airliners as missiles, we had to worry about bombings, war with the USSR, school shootings, muggings, serial killers, and God knows what else.
A person can either worry about it, or try not to worry about it. For some people, it’s impossible not to worry, of course. But it’s best to try not to, try not to think about it. If you think about something troubling that you can’t change, it’s not gonna do anything except possibly bring you closer to a nervous breakdown. The more time you spend worrying, the less you get out of life. I hope that doesn’t sound patronizing.
Well we haven’t had anything like that happen *since*, so I’d have to say yes, I feel safer.
Not sure I feel *better*, though. A subtle, but distinct, difference, I guess.
Do I feel safer? Not really. But I never felt all that unsafe to begin with.
I do feel much less safe about the state of this country, though, with all the attacks that have been made against out Constitution.
In July, three people were tortured and brutally murdered in my hometown, scarcely two miles from my home, in a manner so horrific it made national headlines. The perpetrators were repeat offenders who were let out on early release, and did the crime not even 3 months after release.
Number of foreign terrorist attacks in the US proper? Two in 60 years (I’ll grant you Pearl Harbor even though it wasn’t a state yet). Number of people murdered in the US? New Haven CT is up to 8 already this year – one city in a large country. My chances of being domestically murdered are far, far greater than being killed in a terrorist attack at the mall. And the murderers will likely never show up on a no-fly list, or be pulled aside for carrying a knife into the Smithsonian, or have their phone lines tapped, i.e., no one will ever care beyond the cost of keeping them imprisoned. While child stalkers walk around free because despite self-proclaimed desires, they have not actually committed a crime, my children must walk a mile and a half to school, free for the picking.
Am I any safer? Not in the least, and I never will be. It’s all a farce, a big sad farce.
Not a whit.
Sean D. Martin: “So out of curiosity, what have you (and I’m addressing this to the “others” as well) actually done to help defeat the evil and insanity?”
Well Sean, to start with, I vote (national, state, and local elections), not that it really mattered much in the last one since my Republican Congressman was running unopposed, and we all know how the presidential race came out. Hopefully, things will be different in ’08.
I also write my Congressman and Senators (as well as the House and Senate leaders and the White House) regularly to let them know that not everyone in this country is blindly cheering the administration on in their criminal war on liberty here and abroad.
I support individuals and organizations who oppose the war in Iraq, who believe that the best way to support and protect our troops is to bring them home safely and immediately, and who believe that our personal liberties should never be traded for perceived “safety.”
But the most meaningful thing I do to help defeat evil and insanity in this screwed-up world is teach my 10-year old son the difference between right and wrong, that kindness and understanding are not weaknesses, that all authority (mine included) should be questioned, that evil and stupidity should always be confronted, and most importantly, to think for himself. If I never do anything else worthwhile, I’ll be happy with that.
Any safer since 9/11? No. However, I must say that over the past year or so I have started to feel safer again.
Am I afraid of a terrorist attack? Not really, no. To add to my already confidence in their infrequency is the fact that I live in a town that next to no one (who doesn’t read “High Times” a lot) has heard of, a place that certainly wouldn’t be the target for any non-local terrorist. There are concerns that I have based on where I live, but they tend to focus more on possibilities of my friends drowning in substance abuse or getting shot after stumbling past a grow (which tend to happen far more often than any terrorist acts).
I do feel unsafe about slowly losing my civil liberties, although I’m holding out hope that things will turn around soon at the capital, noting that the reason why I feel safer now than I did two years ago is the recent turns in media outlets. Unlike right after 9/11 when all was “Praise Bush, praise America” it seems that the media has begun to step up to the plate and actually report on itmes that might or might not be that easy for the public to swallow. I acknowledge that this doesn’t describe every news source, but this last year I’ve even seen FOX news outlets (well, a clip of a broadcast from an LA FOX report) reporting on police violence, politician’s nasty wheelings and dealings, abuses of power, and other things that I believe it’s the media’s job to report on (be they good or bad). So that makes me feel safer.
I’ve also been very proud of my local city government for stepping up and taking a stand against the national government, being the first to pass sanctions against the USA PATRIOT Act among other things. And although I plan on leaving this place soon, I’m certain it will continue to be a haven of Green party politicos with much more opinion than they have power, but at least the power to get their opinion heard. So that makes me feel safer.
What makes me feel even more unsafe than the government though is the overwhelming apathy of the public at some of the things that have happened. Although there are some who rage strong against this, there’s a large portion who seem to accept the fact that there will be illegeal wire-tappings and black lists and other things that degrade our civil liberties. And there’s no way that we can stop this. There’s currently an ideological war in my home between myself and my roommates (each of us seem to have differing opinions on how to deal with this) concerning the actions we should take. The Anarchist has no faith in governments and thinks we need to stop voting and instead raise a militia. I think that stopping voting is about the worst thing we need at this moment. A more informed, more enraged group of voters angry to make themselves heard could do far more than a couple anarchists with guns and no direction. I refuse to give up on democracy yet.
A correction to my post “… degrade our civil liberties. And that there’s no way we can stop this.”
PAD, why do ask such hard questions? Do I feel safer? I will put it this way, I was paranoid of the democracy train going off the tracks since I was 8 when I began seeing similarities between the US and pre-Imperial Rome. (about 35 years ago) My sense of fear hasn’t change because the possibility of some sociopath kill a person on the spur of the moment hasn’t changed. (The terrorists are just a sociopathic idea on a group scale.) My paranoia on the other hand has gone up substantially in the last few years. The signs of a fundamental change in our form of government have been evident for more than 3 decades, the obvious changes have really accelerated since the ‘big event’ 6 years ago. The fascist or totalitarian forces in this country have used that event to change the speed of those changes. They are happening now not just on a glacial scale but on that of a waterfall. Do I feel safer? Hëll no. Do I feel less safe? Hëll no. I feel much, much more paranoid.
Micha
It doesn’t seem likely that the reason there were no other terrorist attacks in the US is because of luck. Luck only goes so far. It’s surely not a lack of motivation on Al-Quaida’s part, unless we should assume that they are so focused on Iraq that they don’t feel the need to try again in the US. But if it’s not that, then it seems likely that something is going your way despite everything.
Micha, I think you need to look at al-Qa’eda’s history. They attacked the twin towers complex in 1993, and failed. They didn’t turn around and attack a year or two later. They evaluated the method of attack, evaluated the target, set a new plan, and then executed it. It took them 8 years for them to plan that next attack, recruit the proper forces to carry out the plan, and then to give the go ahead the carry it out. Is it likely that they are planning another attack against targets in this country, yes. Will they succeed, hëll if I know. But the planning is being done, and the forces to execute it are in place, and I doubt that commercial aircraft are going to be used again. Of course, since Americans tend to have very short memories, who knows, I don’t think the people who are responsible for our our ‘safety’ care a bit about whether we are safe as long as they can keep us scared. Don’t buy the theory that if they haven’t attacked it’s because we have stopped them. I know the arrest of homeless people in Florida who wanted new shoes in order to atleast appear to be planning an attack made me ‘feel’ much safer.
Sorry about the length, but I felt it was necessary.
“…anyone feeling safer?
No. I do feel just as safe as I did on 9/10/01 though. I was aware of the dangers of the world a long time ago. I was also aware that of the fact that you can’t live in fear all the time.
Now, do I feel that the steps taken (or not taken) by our government have made us safer? No, not at all. I actually believe that what has happened in the Halls of Power have made things worse in matters of our security. But I refuse to live in fear.
I will not allow the actions of a few mad men make me live in fear or live with the feeling that I am somehow less safe in my life. I will not allow a bunch of power hungry pols who preach fear in order to obtain/retain power make me live in fear or live with the feeling that I am somehow less safe in my life.
I will be aware of what’s out there, of what’s around me and of what can happen, but it will not in any great way change how I live my life or what I allow my “protectors” in office do. If I do, then they (pick whichever they you want) win.
“feeling safer” is relative.
I lived and worked in London throughout the ’80s when the IRA were setting off real bombs and closing down the Tube pretty much whenever they felt like it. I actually worked in an office just round the corner from the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Couthouse) so we got evacuated pretty much every week.
Twice, bombs went off within half a mile of us. (Real efficient bombs, not the half áršëd fire crackers we’ve (so luckily) seen so far this time around)
Now I’m living in a much smaller city in Scotland, about 30 miles from Glasgow Airport.
It is, as they say, to laugh…
However, if the question is actually ‘do I feel safer as a result of the Bush’n’Blair double act’, well, “Hëll, no!”
Cheers.
I feel actively less safe every time Bush opens his filthy lying mouth.
I only feel safer whenever one of his cronies goes down in flames.
He can’t leave office soon enough.
I’m not afraid of the terrorists. I’m afraid of the world that sociopathic texas hick is creating.
Safer than I did on September 10th 2001? No, of course not.
Safer than I did on September 12th 2001 when I, and a good number of others as I recall, believed that we were entering a new age where this sort of thing would become commonplace…well, yeah, I’d have to be totally out of touch with reality to not see that my worst fears did not come to pass.
Given the many opportunities Al Queda had to really have an effect on us–opportunities now gone forever–I doubt that the lack of subsequent atatcks is simply a matter of a lack of interest on their part. It wouldn’t take much in the way of planning, they could actually do as much damage with simple strikes against easy targets as they could with some SPECTRE sized super-villain scheme. Either they just got lucky once and have been coasting ever since or we will one day learn many distressing facts about how many potential attacks were thwarted.
At any rate, the lack of these attacks for the last 6 years has indeed relieved some of my fears. I just can’t sustain fear for that long without some reinforcement.
By blaming division on those who blame, how are you not simply compounding committing the offense yourself with a hypocrisy? What virtue is there in your observation other than to blur the distinction between those who have been sacrificed and those who paint their taking as sacrifice?
Actually, yes. Since none of TPTB feels there is any more market for beating plowshares into swords, no one is running around going “WE are all going to DIE!!! THEY are going to KILL US!!!” This is the safest I have felt since the last election.
Heck, I didn’t even realize I wasn’t supposed to feel safe today until I had written my second check.
Little Wolf considering the frequency of terrorist attacks or attempted attacks in other parts of the world, and considering the growing popularity of the US with radical Islamic terrorists, it would be reasonable to expect that you would experience more terrorism than you actually have. I find it hard to believe that the only reason you haven’t been attacked more frequently is because al-quaida is too fastidious to launch an attack except every 7 or 8 years.
Look, the US has had more than its share of blunders since 9/11, but in this regard at least things seem to be going your way, so give yourself a pat on the back at least for this thing. a. Things could be worse. b. you still have a lot of blunders to deal with.
Oh, and please cheer up. Apparently the mood of the american people is affecting the global economy.
“I am saddened that the terrorists have succeeded in deepening the divisions between us at a time when our country needs to unify more than ever.”
It is good if there is diversity of opinions, because it enables society to question and correct its decisions, and also helps balance out different points of view. But when the division goes to the extreme where ,minds close down and dialogue shuts down, than it’s a bad thing.
“Oh, and please cheer up. Apparently the mood of the american people is affecting the global economy. “
Suuurrreeeee! That’s easy for you to say. Just another guy sitting safe and sound behind his keyboard and making judgments about America and Americans. Sure! Like, you would know about living in a country where you have to think about the ever looming prospect of explosions, terrorist attacks, unprovoked religious hatred or the sudden and impulsive actions of the many nations that irrationally hate your country over some extremist religious doctrines.
Yeah, go ahead and take potshots at us from the unimaginable safety of the virtual paradise that you live in that shelters you from all the things that we have to face here each day of our barely tolerable lives.
America, the greatest and strongest nation in the world that just happens to be simultaneously the weakest, most vulnerable, most defenseless and most terrified country in the world. Come back and make your snide comments when you’ve walked a mile or two in our heavily terrorized shoes you paradise living wussy.
God, people like you probably don’t even know how bad the undead problems really are here either. Won’t stop you from telling us to stop winging on about trying not to get bit all the dámņ time…
Makes me sick.
~8?(
Micha: “It is good if there is diversity of opinions, because it enables society to question and correct its decisions, and also helps balance out different points of view.”
Absolutely. Had George W. Bush been more willing to consider diverse points of view, we may have been able to avoid the debacle that is Iraq.
Micha: “But when the division goes to the extreme where ,minds close down and dialogue shuts down, than it’s a bad thing.”
Well, yeah. That’s where we’re at right now in the U.S. Granted, the divisiveness began before the attacks on September 11, 2001, but the attacks deepened and exacerbated those divisions.
When I hear right-wingers claim that a victory for the Democrats is a victory for the terrorists, and when I hear left-wingers like a poster in this thread express a greater fear of George W. Bush than of Al Qaeda, I can only say in response: you’re all playing right into Osama bin Laden’s hands! It is possible to disagree passionately with one’s fellow U.S. citizens while still remembering that the paramount threat is still Al Qaeda.
By the way, I’m a card-carrying member of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. I believe my civil libertarian street creds are rock-solid. I despise the oxymoronically named “USA Patriot Act” and believe it must be opposed by people of good conscience. Nevertheless, I am far more disgusted by Osama bin Laden’s call to everyone in the U.S. to convert to Islam in order to end the war between us. And I find it unfathomable that people would fail to see a significant difference in degree between these things.
Oh, and I don’t buy the argument that the absence of Al Qaeda attacks on U.S. soil since 9/11 is evidence that the group lacks the ability to mount another assault on us. Al Qaeda’s M.O. includes patience and an appetite for the spectacular. Remember, those bášŧárdš tried to knock down one of the Twin Towers using a van loaded with explosives back in 1993. They didn’t hit us on our home turf again until 2001.
Al Qaeda has metastasized into Pakistan, where they enjoy popular support in many regions. Worse, that nation’s pro-U.S. (more or less) president appears to be losing his grip on power. If a pro-Al-Qaeda government were to gain control of Pakistan with its nuclear weapons… well, that significantly ups the ante, doesn’t it?
George W. Bush has been one of our worst presidents. He is an abject and abysmal failure by any objective standard. And yet Al Qaeda is still our true enemy. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Eyes on the ball, folks.
No, I don’t feel safe. I expect that in 2008, the GOP will do everything in its power to make us feel even less safe, since fear is the only thing they have to run on anymore.
Safer. You funny!
Jerry, you KNOW you’re gonna catch hëll from those with an irony deficiency, right?
God, people like you probably don’t even know how bad the undead problems really are here either. Won’t stop you from telling us to stop winging on about trying not to get bit all the dámņ time…
Well, while the Democrats are willing to sit back, spend their ill gotten Chinese campaign contributions, and deprive hard working average Joes like myself from buying high capacity semiautomatic clips for my home protection, President Bush is right on top of the zombie threat:
http://www.imao.us/archives/008446.html
We can only hope that Hillary Clinton, a woman who clearly understands the zombie threat, and/or Fred Thompson, who has a hot wife, will be chosen to carry on this fight. If it’s Dennis Kucinech or John Edwards you might as well just go ahead and bite yourself.
Bill Mulligan: “Jerry, you KNOW you’re gonna catch hëll from those with an irony deficiency, right?”
I don’t have an irony deficiency. I just think Jerry is a gøddámņ anti-semitic terrorist. With a name like Chandler, he just has to be a friggin’ Arab, man.
God, people like you probably don’t even know how bad the undead problems really are here either. Won’t stop you from telling us to stop winging on about trying not to get bit all the dámņ time…
Bill Mulligan: “…you might as well just go ahead and bite yourself.”
Bill, I fear that remark says more about you than you realize…
“I expect that in 2008, the GOP will do everything in its power to make us feel even less safe…”
Not only the GOP.
Whereas Bush and the GOP have been more ham-fisted and clumsy about it, the Democrats of late have been playing the fear card in a more subtle way. There have been any number of Democrats and some private organizations backing the Democrats electoral bids that have been playing up the fact that the Republicans have made us less safe, less secure and more open to an attack then we were before. Hëll, that’s a twice a week (at least) theme on Countdown.
It’s not as effective (and maybe not always as noticeable) as the Bushies use of FEAR, but it’s still the same trick. I have no doubt that one of the central themes of the 2008 election for the Democrats (almost as strong as and tied in to they’re call to get out of Iraq) will be that Bush and the Republicans have actually made us less safe and more vulnerable then we were on 9/10/01.
They can make that case if they (please excuse the now cliché) cherry-pick their facts. As I pointed out above, some facets of our overall security have been made worse in the last six years. But I’m also in a professional position to tell you that some other aspects are better. Not all of the credit goes to Bush for the one anymore then all of the blame goes to Bush for the other.
Honestly, overall (other then maybe having a strained and stretched military) the pros and cons almost equal each other out at this point. Truth be told, taking everything into account, were not much better off or worse off then we were on 9/10/01. Just don’t ask a politician that question in public. You’ll never get an honest answer from them when they can respond with, “FEAR!!!!!”