Out of Pod Experience

I always forget about this until someone reminds me. It's 10:24pm in Australia and I've managed to go the entire day without hearing anything about it until now. A day I'd rather forget, to be honest. This tragedy, while no less a tragedy, was used as an excuse by your government to drag Australia into a war (invoking the ANZUS treaty and threatening the Free Trade Agreement if we didn't go) that nobody here wanted and got a very good friend of mine killed. I still remember a caricature in the newspaper of our Prime Minister at the time, John Howard, wearing a bullring through his nose and Bush pulling him around by a chain. It was fitting, and also remarkably accurate.

Not to belittle the lives lost in the tragedy, but I think war belittles everything just fine all by itself. It's a shame that there was little alternative other than military action. However, while I freely admit that I hate what this day sparked and have a personal problem with it, and still firmly believe we played right into the hands of terrorists by implementing such freedom-restricting security measures as a result, I can't think of any alternative that would have gotten the same result and I won't say the right thing was done in response, but I will say we did the best thing we could have done with the information we had at the time. Unfortunately, hindsight is always waiting to play its hand.

They started a jihad, we should have replied with a Crusade. However the West has become weak and shortsighted. One day you will wake up and realize that your countries have been taken over from within and by then it will be too late.

Pinochets coup was truly an atrocity. Never forget.

We did, it's called imposing "democracy" on countries that don't have it, or may have it but don't suit policy, and it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

I stood on the top of one of those towers two weeks before they fell. I was just about 11 at the time.

I was back in Canada and in class when the teacher turned on the radio.

Actually I was thinking more of a burnt earth strategy and leaving heads on stakes driven into the ground in front of each destroyed village as an example. Democracy isn't medieval enough.

Well I'm from the UK, not the US, so I have to say I consider it a little distasteful that you think everyone globally should just stop to remember.
Do you stop on the 5th an 9th of august to remember the hundreds of thousands of innocent people that died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
When the US starts to care about the tragedies happening outside of their borders, especially the ones they caused themselves, I'll stop and think about their losses. Until then, while I agree it's a tragedy, I'll keep my day to myself.
EDIT: Oh and to clarify your current "caring" about oil producing countries isn't really the same thing.

I bet you don't celebrate anyone's birthday either do you? Because then, to be fair, you would have to celebrate everyone's birthday.

It must be hard living in your head.

You would have made more if it lasted longer than 2 seconds. Bull riding takes longer...

People like you are the real victims of 9/11