911 - 20 years later

Hmmm I'm wondering what I missed...


Anyway, I was at my office at work, working away with my headset in, listening to the Howard Stern Show. Stern was a much bigger deal then than he is now. Now he’s on satellite, richer, and plays it a lot safer, but at the time he was a regular on morning airwaves nationwide, and many of us got our first taste of something going off the rails by listening to his show.

Our office was one in which most of the workers, unless engaged in meetings or training, were heads down at their desks, almost all listening to their own headsets. People started to look worried, got up to go over to the cubicle of friends, “did you hear…” There was a lot of calling friends and family. In my case, my wife called me. She had missed work to take our son to the doctor and on the way back was also listening to Stern. However she thought it was a stupid radio bit. After she got home and cut on the TV, she saw it was not.

Meanwhile at the office, work was pretty much shot for the day. People were frightened; I was frightened. I remember my boss cutting on one of the TV’s in a meeting room on to a news channel and people would wander in, to watch as much as they could take, and then wander out again.

Of course, being in the Reserves, I knew that I would be called up sooner or later, and later turned out to be about 2 months later.

 

Answer: No, we would not come together. On 9/11 we were a confident superpower. Twenty years later, we're a spent ghost of an empire, at each others throats. The terrorists actually won. I think if I were Muslim I would have a hard time not seeing Allah's hand in the past twenty years.

 

I remember.

I worked third shift. I got home around 7:45 am. I turned on the news and went about my business of getting ready for bed. Then the news hit.

I stood by my TV and cried.

 

Just now I was watching 9-11 coverage on FOX. A guy being interviewed [I think he was a former head of Homeland Security] said we've been safe for 20 years, but it could happen again. My first thought... it is happening again... it's happening NOW. But this time around it's not only a couple of huge buildings being attacked and falling... it's the entire country !!

.

 

Unfortunately, it's the radical teachers teaching history:

"OUT: “NEVER FORGET.” IN": Students think 9/11 lessons should omit ‘gruesome’ details, ‘avoid placing blame.’ "Well, it’s ancient history, you know. Not like 1619."

They think we should focus on our faults, not our positive contributions, on 9/11.

 

I was stationed in Camp Hovey, South Korea when it happened. Korea is like 13 hours a head of NYC, and yet I was still up, since I put off packing gear for a field exercise we supposed to start the next day. If you have been stationed overseas, you know that your viewing choice on AFN(Armed Forces Network) is very limited, and I usually just watched news which was CNN at the time. I remember it like it was yesterday, I was sitting on a couch in my barracks room stuffing items into a duffle bag, when CNN started showing the video off the first plane hitting.
The video that they had at first gave the impression that the plane was a small passenger plane.
The Alarm bells didn’t go off right away, but it didn’t make sense too me why somebody would be off course so much that they would fly into a building. It never even occurred too me that this was a intentional act. Then I watched the second plane hit live, and I knew right then that the US was being attacked. I didn’t grasp the scope or what the ramifications would be at the time either.

 

Yes, I remember. I was at home (my office was in a spare den). I usually don't watch television but I got a call telling me to turn on the news. I did and watched in disbelief. I couldn't wrap my head around what was happening. It felt like I was watching a horror movie (I don't watch those).

It felt like time stood still as I have no idea how long I was a "deer stuck in the headlights". I flopped on the couch and cried. I don't know how long that took but it was a minute.

When I got my bearings, I went online to find out how I could help. I ended up donating to some of the reputable agencies that were on the frontlines and assisting survivors and survivors of the people that were murdered that day.

These attacks also impacted me personally. I lost an uncle that day. Also, my ex worked at the airport so everyone's retirement funds took a hit. My ex's father is a retired pilot for the same airline. I won't name the company but they laid off about 2/3rds of their employees over the next several months because their stocks took a big hit. The people left standing got their workloads doubled and tripled to cover the loss of so much personnel. Two guys we knew literally dropped dead of heart attacks on the job. It was brutal.

Stat, I wish I could tell you that I've found some peace about this but I haven't. I've never been able to forget it and, while I'm generally a forgiving person, I'm not about this. I never will be. And, it pains me deeply because I don't want my heart to harden. My caring nature is who I am and these monsters killed a part of that in me.

I want to believe we, all of us, can get back to caring about one another and stop fighting all the time. If nothing else, the attack on our country should remind us why that's so important. In fact, it should be our #1 priority.

We are Americans (left, right, middle, none, etc.) - We are ONE.
We are strong.
We are resilient.
We're survivors.

We are called the UNITED STATES for a reason. We need to get back to living up to our name.

 

I've read some really moving commentary here and promised to write my experience as well, so here we go.

My then-fiancee (and soon to be wife) and I just got home for the afternoon between workshifts, I had just packed my bag to go pump some iron and the phone rang. It was my soon to be father-in-law, who said very succinctly, in German: "turn your TV on", to which I replied "which channel?" to which he answered "it doesn't matter, any channel that's not a trash channel". So, I flipped CNN on shortly before the second plane hit the second tower. And there we sat, glued to the TV, and when the 1st tower collapsed, I fell on my knees and cried, because I had some friends and acquaintances who worked there. My fiancee held me in her arms for quite some time. And then the phone started ringing like crazy: colleagues of mine in Germany were calling to say how sorry they were. When the 2nd tower fell and I learned that the Pentagon had also been attacked, it was clear to me that this was well planned terrorism.

As soon as the FAA started cancelling flights (both domestic and foreign), this also had a ripple effect across the world, felt especially in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin in Germany.

I remember seeing then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder be the first world leader outside of the USA to go live on TV and express his unconditional solidarity with us Americans.

I remember being very numb all day long, also the next day.

On the third day, there was a large memorial service for the victims of 911 in the city where I was living at that time, in Dessau (in the former East Germany). I was an active participant in that memorial. Churches are barely visited in the old E. German cities, but on September 13th, 2001, this one (Marienkirche) was packed.

I think it was 9 or 10 days after 911 that then Pres. Bush (43) spoke to a joint session of Congress and to the nation. On that day I was in Switzerland on business, but I made a point of getting up at 2 in the morning to watch and listen to his address. His words resonated with me deeply and at that time, as far as Afghanistan was concerned, he had my 100% support.

I distinctly remember that it was not just a couple of terrible days for me, but rather a couple of terrible weeks.

All said and told, when the dust had settled, I lost 6 friends/colleagues/acquaintances from 911, 4 in the towers and 2 at the Pentagon. Also, a younger man on flight 93, his family had ties to my Synagogue in Ohio, so this all reminded me that the world is indeed small.

I think it is appropriate to say that people of all stripes, all races, most all ideologies, all sexualities, etc, pitched in to help. We were truly one American family, if for a fleeting moment in time. How good it would be for us to do that again. Conservative blood bleeds just as much as Liberal blood. Liberal feelings run every bit as deep as Conservative feelings. And so on and so on and so on.

@Louisiana75 made a very cogent point that we should never forget who did this to us. Lousiana, I can assure you, I have not forgotten and I would venture to say that most of us have not.

Thanks to all who gave constructive input on this thread. Keep the thoughts coming.

And may G-d bless all who perished, their families and friends.

 

Give us the formula for the action in quantum mechanic equations..

 

How many more Muslims do we need to kill to even the score and few million?

 

We are called the United States because we are a federation or a foederati were tribes(states) that were(are) bound by a treaty.

 

Give us the 213,898,342nd number in the Fibonacci Sequence. What does that have to do with the video?

 

We are not going for the golden ratio or the inverse just a representation of the physics involved. You know the "action" of the conspiracy instead of visuals which can and are manipulated and are an imperfect form of analysis when discussing actions of a dynamic scale. Oh, and for the 213,898, 342 number you will need to calculate the Fibonacci sequence, any given number is approximately 1.618 times the preceding number So get out yer calculator...

 

That’s your takeaway from my post? Not surprised you tried to turn it around.

 

I was getting ready for work. I flipped on the news, and saw the first plane hit the tower. I called for my roomate to come see it. We had been in the Marine Corps together 2 years earlier. As we watched, wondering how the hell someone had screwed up so badly as to fly a plane into the side of a skyscraper, the second plane hit, and we both knew America was under attack.
The next day I went down to the recruiter's office. The Marines said I may have to go through basic training again, and might possibly need a waiver. So I went and talked to the Army recruiter. 2 weeks later I was inprocessing at Ft Campbell into Bco 1/502, 101st Airborne Division as an infantryman.

Now, after 4 deployments to Iraq, I've been retired from the military for 3 years. Not a day goes by that I don't think of everything I have seen and done, and the friends I have lost in the global war on terror, both fellow soldiers and Iraqi civilians that I befriended.

 

America was at the apex of its economic and cultural dominance prior to 9/11. Brittany Spears was number #1 on the charts, and persons holding American passports in foreign countries were treated like royalty.

We have to remember that all great civilizations go through the same process: they start off as austere and diligent (like the hard-working Puritans who mostly founded America), but end up in a decadent and socially destructive state.

The special thing about the USA however is that its political and social foundations allow it to constantly restart the cycle of Empire, reminiscent to how a phoenix rises from its own ashes.

In other words, America will always be the police of the world, the extent and breadth to which is relative to domestic realities. Of course, it will be a few more years before we can ascertain the soundness of this hypothesis….

 

I view "empire" as a misuse of American strength. We don't need to exploit others. We need to return to first principles.

President John Adams on America:

We have ignored this wise counsel and fallen into the very traps described. Evil fools have gained the ability to direct our national power foolishly. We need to elect representatives that will be faithful to our greater vision and wrestle control of our foreign policies from the wickedness that uses it to their own gain.

I appreciate the hopeful close to your post. I would like to see our renewal put to better to service than empire.

 

I am so sorry for your losses, Stat. I stand with you and I promise you that I will never forget.

 

I am impressed with the thoughtful and respectful commentary here and am also thankful that such a disparate group of people took the time to write their thoughts. More are welcome on this thread.

What we as Americans have in common is far more than that which sometimes sunders us apart from each other.

Food for thought.

 

I remember watching the news after the first plane hit - was in a lounge at the time at a restaurant where I worked - was a mystery at the time.. .. then - while the coverage was all "what happened" - the second plane hit. Not sure whether it was right then .. or a short time later - get these mini premonitions - kind of like deja vu .. in this case was just an eerie forboding - knew that things had changed forever - and not for good.

The war on "Terror" was real - for perhaps the first year - until such time as we made war on Iraq - at which point it became fake - and has been ever since - particularely over the last decade - where we spent the majority of the time arming - supplying and supporting the 911 Terrorist Group "Al Qaeda" - and similar El Saud Spawn - ISIS.

An Orwellian twist of fate - symptom of the complete disaster that has befallen this nation since 911 - and our foreign policy - and in some part because of our foreign policy.

 

I remember that just a few years before this there had been a big TV show about what would happen if America suffered several coordinated terrorist attacks The idea being that everybody but us seemed to get lots of them

What a difference in just one day.

There was a whole crop of attacks after 9/11 but there haven't been a lot recently. I can't help but think the terrorists were thinking that they don't want to do anything to hurt Trump, as he is ****ing us worse than they would.

 

The major thing to keep in mind about Terrorism is that it is meant to turn us against the terrorist so thoroughly that we will begin to tolerate abuses of our rights by our own governments to catch them, and these abuses will then turn us against our governments. In that respect and thinking of the Patriot Act, I can't help but think they have been a resounding success

 

Heh, that was the opposite of the opinion of actual terrorists!

Bin Laden warned in 2010 letter that Biden would ‘lead US into crisis’

Osama bin Laden once warned al Qaeda not to target Joe Biden because he believed that his inheriting the presidency if something were to happen to Barack Obama would “lead the US into a crisis,” a resurfaced letter shows.

In the letter dated May 2010, the al Qaeda 9/11 mastermind wrote he had no assassination plots against Biden because he deemed him “totally unprepared” to lead the United States.

 

I hope you're wrong, Goomba.

Certainly, the U.S. will have to continue to project power and influence abroad to protect its security and interests but now that the bipolar power dynamics of the post-WWII/Cold War era are over we shouldn't have to police the world anymore.

If there's one good thing that's come out of Biden's mismanagement of the withdrawal from Afghanistan it's that it has forced our allies to realize that they can no longer rely on the level of American power and leadership that existed in the past.

You mentioned our Founders, and one of the things they warned each other and future generations about are foreign entanglements. If they were alive today they would be horrified at what our leadership, beginning with Theodore Roosevelt, has done over the past 125 years.

Our biggest problem today is breaking a habit that we have become accustomed to, and there are a lot of people in this country who don't want to relinquish the power and responsibilities we assumed as a global superpower in the aftermath of World War II. I think they are afraid of the idea of the United States reverting to its status as a regional power, but we all have to ask ourselves whether the massive expenditures in blood and treasure are worthwhile, much less necessary., anymore. There's a growing sentiment in this country that they are not, and it's a reflection of our understanding that the world has changed and we need to change with it for our own good and our children's good. It would be far better to take this step voluntarily on our own terms than to be forced to take it as other global powers have been forced to do in the past.

 

Yes, I was trying to find a better word than “empire,” something my mind wouldn’t conjure up.

Yes, I suppose arrogance got in the way of general service somewhere along the road… happens to the best of us.