The 09-11 attacks of course were horrific and killed many innocent lives. Hijackers took advantage of the fact that in past hijackings, people would make demands to, say and when this was met, the hostages would be let go. In almost all past hijackings, the hijackers certainly valued their safety and lives and airline personnel were actually trained not to resist but to give in to hijackers because this was the best way to make sure everyone could come out of it alive as the hijackers were interested in having demands met but otherwise also wanted to live. So when hijackers took over planes using common utility knives, even though they could have been easily resisted, the crew and passengers didn't do so believing it was just the "run of the mill" hijacking. For all the horrific death and destruction, the 09-11 attacks, weren't sophisticated. I'm sure there are many people here who have aviation training. If you could travel back in time before 09-11 and gather up a gang of 10 or so strong people with such training and carry a bunch of utility knives with the decision that you were going to crash the plane killing yourselves on board into some building, would it have been that hard to pull off? I bet you could have pulled it off on a moments notice pre 09-11. The 09-11 people were simply "lucky" and found a "loophole" which they exploited because they were willing to sacrifice themselves which was totally unexpected. But "fortunately" 09-11 is those once in a lifetime deals. There's just no way that hijackers could ever pull off something like this again. No way could they do it with utility knives. Even if they somehow managed to get guns on board, it still wouldn't succeed because with 09-11 behind us, everyone assumes they'll die anyway and worse take out people on the ground in addition so no pilot would give up control of the cockpit even if the hijackers started threatening and killing people because they'd die anyway but crashing into some building in the middle of a city instead of in some empty fields somewhere. Personally I believe that the 09-11 hijackers just got "lucky". I believe that the 09-11 hijackers have actually rendered futile the usefulness of further hijackings. Yet somehow we are spending all this time and money trying to prevent something that I believe simply can't happen again. This isn't to say that further terrorist attacks won't happen. We've seen the Madrid bombings, London bombings, Bali bombings, etc. But with regard to any 09-11 style attacks, I'm not sure it makes sense to try too hard to prevent it simply because there is no way such an attack could happen again. So when I see all this security screening and not allowing nail clippers and nail filers and small scissors onboard, it just all seems ridiculous. And when we declared this so-called "War on Terror" based on 09-11 I also wonder if it was an overreaction to some guys who simply got "lucky".
So for the people that say, no, you really believe that hijackers could pull off a 09-11 style attack again? I don't see how they could pull it off. The problem with 09-11 happening wasn't really inadequate airport security and screening it was with people not realizing what the hijackers intended. Thus I would say that all this extra screening and delays and preventing carrying scissors and nail clippers is just silly. Even if they got on board with utility knifes (not that I don't think they should be allowed) there'd be no way they could succeed. So I wonder if all the extra screening and security and delays implemented to prevent another 09-11 attack specifically is really not a waste of time, money and resources.
for people who answer no, is it because 1) not enough has been done/not enough liives has been sacrificed/not enough money has been spent 2) OBL is still on the loose 3) AQ is still strong and extremist terrorists are growing 4) America is still unsafe I think alot of action has been done but unfortunately, the results are the opposite of what was expected..
No, but only because we've mismanaged the allocation of our resources and efforts. I think the reconstruction of Afghanistan is underfunded and undermanned. I think other strategic efforts abroad are being poorly carried out and I think the Iraq war did little in terms of actually combating terrorism. We have a lot more we need to do, and we've done a lot that we didn't need to do.
No because Afghanistan was the reaction to 9/11. Iraq was planned for a long time and had nothing to do with 9/11. . .
I agree with you 100%. We need to be spending more domestically and less overseas. I still don't feel completely safe flying not because the old lady sitting next to me tried to board the plane with nail scissors and a tube of lipstick, but because we are still not screening checked luggage like we should. Also, we still have a long way to go in protecting our borders and ports.
It depends on what area of reaction we are talking about. 1. In regards to our nation sticking to its principles, constitution and keeping the moral highground we have most definitely overreacted. 2. Iraq war definitely an overreaction if it was truly a response to 9/11. 3. Afghanistan we haven't done enough. 4. Capturing OBL, we haven't done enough. 5. Undercutting support for terrorists groups by winning hearts and minds, we haven't done enough. 6. Securing our ports and vulnerable locales withing the U.S., we haven't done enough.
as the international community, no. the outpuring of emtion and sympathy and grief is too be expected. as the media, probably. how many times can you show a plane spearing a building? as to the Bush administration - hell yes. Oh, how i could count the ways. Breaking international law by pursuing(and proceeding with) war and airstrikes without UN sanctions, torturing suspects, treating foreigners to the US as potential criminals...you know it can go on...
I say yes. Its like having a grudge with someone, and then kicking his friend's ass instead of settling the score with the person you had the grudge against initially.
Luck had nothing to do with it. NORAD and the military have shooting down highjacked planes down pat they practice it 100's of times each year. It takes about 4 min. to intercept and shoot down a plane off course headed to NYC. No way a plane could have made it to the WTC towers without being shot down first, unless there was a breach of security. The US air defense systems are too sophisticated and highly accurate to be penetrated. So forget luck. Good planning beats luck. If you study the 9-11 timeline it is obvious that there needed to be a complex and well planned chain of events to allow the jets to reach the WTC towers. Especially the 2nd plane that was identified over 15 minutes prior to impact. Don't even try to figure out how the FAA failed, it is documented that they didn't fail on the 2nd plane to hit the towers.
The over reaction to 9/11 came in form of cowardly Americans who because fear are willing to sell our 200 years of freedom and the Constitution of United States because they fear another terrorist attack. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died to keep America a free country and because the of deaths of 2800 Americans on 9/11 some are willing to through it all away.
No. Al Queda still exists. Hamas still exists. The Tamil Tigers still exist. Hizballah still exists. Many other terrorist organizations still exist. Until every terrorist on earth is killed or imprisoned we have underreacted to every terrorist attack that has taken place.
yes a lot more people die from poverty and druken drivers then terrorists, but we waste all this money fighting terrorists.
