Worst day in US history?

This is a great post that I believe reflects the feelings of all of us.


I also think that it is important that we continue our lives and business as normally as possible. If we don't do this then the terrorists have won a great victory. Their purpose is to destroy our way of life and our purpose of existing. We must not let that happen.


Mason

HDPM,


Likely, the pilots were killed and the suicide nutjobs crashed the planes. Bin Laden's men (i use the term very loosley) are well trained, and are capable of flying passenger aircraft.


Boy, I would not like to live in Afganistan right now. Won't be much left if Bush does what he should.


Adam.

I work in a building a 10 minute walk from the World Trade Center. When the first plane hit, everyone thought it was an accident and was looking out the windows to figure out what was going on. When we heard the blast from the second plane, we knew there was big trouble. Fortunately, the guards evacuated us in a very fascist manner soon thereafter. I started walking north (and kept walking north for 6.5 miles -- there is no transportation in the city). The TV pictures cannot capture what those burning buildings looked like in person.


A couple minutes after the first tower collapsed, two fire vehicles covered in debris raced by me. They were filled with seriously injured firefighters. At Union Square, the cars stopped and there was a fireman on the street with others trying to revive him. I will never forget that scene as long as I live.


Absolutely the worst day in U.S. history, at least since WWII.

I agree with this.


It is sad and tragic that the "purpose" of terrorism is so very negative.

I think the numbers of dead were less than 10,000 at the battles of Gettysburg and Antietam, but I could be wrong. Had the buildings collapsed immediately, those would have been exceeded, but the 80 min lag probably saved all those on the floors below the impact and kept these numbers lower. I can't comprehend the horror of being trapped at the top. My heart is very heavy today, and I didn't even think I had one. And my thanks and admiration go out to all the fire and rescue workers running in while everyone else was running out. I don't think I ever appreciated how great these guys are.


JG

They'll find someone. You're right in that Pearl Harbor was a military base attacked by a coutry's military. Who knows, as yet, who was responsible for this. But there will be, in fact, already has been, a massive call for retalitation, and there no doubrt willl be something drastic, and soon, one would think.

Words fail. We've always felt "safe" in the sense that it can't happen here and, if it did, it would be native born nuts like McVeigh. Still no guarantee this was the work of international terrorists, but sure seems likely, given the facts as we know them now. How can anyone, at any time, anywhere, justify murdering civiilians?


I like the idea of going after the international terrorist organizations and trying the leaders.

I'm not sure trying the leaders is the right thing to do, even though I have a huge respect for bringing people to justice in court, given my field. But trials for leaders of groups that do this kind of stuff are really only window dressing for what we want to do. It made sense to try McVeigh of course, but he was a citizen who committed an atrocious act, not a foreign group that is essentially committing acts of war on us. Courts don't deal well with acts of war. Armies are much better in this regard. I'm not doing a very good job explaining this, so I'll have to think about it some more. I think George Will wrote an article recently on something like this, But it might have been Bill Buckley. One of them did a better job expressing it.


Let's also remember that the level of proof for us to make war is less than required for a court to convict. And there is a much broader array of remedies. Also, I am assuming trial in American courts, I'm not at all in favor of trusting some U.N. tribunal with anything; a U.N. or international court would undermine our sovereignty, power, and prestige.


Additionally, we will have to take action against states that sponsor terrorists. This will be the only thing that truly hurts these terrorist groups. They do not fear death or the death of their families or countrymen. This cannot be done in court.


I saw just before writing this that there are missiles hitting in Kabul. I think that may be our first hint of retaliation. I think President Bush will explain more in his address to the nation in about 2 1/2 hours.

actually most planes once they are airborne can be flown quite easily by anyone with moderate training. these guys did know how to fly. they knew enough certainly to turn off the transponders(these give altitude and position to the controllers radar). with some basic simulator training even a kid could do what they did(scary isnt it).

Once the thing is airborne it is relatively easy to fly about if you aren't concerned about a soft landing or where you are going. But they probably had a need to know how to navigate and fly a complex aircraft through controlled airspace (even if they weren't going to talk to the controllers) But the more I think about it, I'm sure a lot of people out there have the piloting skills to pull this off. Still, they were all similar aircraft- no Airbuses or DC-10's or whatever.