Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Was 9/11 really that bad? (I KNEW IT WOULD COME TO THIS)
Los Angeles Times ^ | 1/28/07 | David A. Bell

Posted on 01/28/2007 10:29:05 AM PST by paulat

Was 9/11 really that bad?
The attacks were a horrible act of mass murder, but history says we're overreacting.
By David A. Bell
January 28, 2007

IMAGINE THAT on 9/11, six hours after the assault on the twin towers and the Pentagon, terrorists had carried out a second wave of attacks on the United States, taking an additional 3,000 lives. Imagine that six hours after that, there had been yet another wave. Now imagine that the attacks had continued, every six hours, for another four years, until nearly 20 million Americans were dead. This is roughly what the Soviet Union suffered during World War II, and contemplating these numbers may help put in perspective what the United States has so far experienced during the war against terrorism.

[snip]

Has the American reaction to the attacks in fact been a massive overreaction? Is the widespread belief that 9/11 plunged us into one of the deadliest struggles of our time simply wrong? If we did overreact, why did we do so? Does history provide any insight?

[snip]

The people who attacked us in 2001 are indeed hate-filled fanatics who would like nothing better than to destroy this country. But desire is not the same thing as capacity, and although Islamist extremists can certainly do huge amounts of harm around the world, it is quite different to suggest that they can threaten the existence of the United States.

[snip]

Even if one counts our dead in Iraq and Afghanistan as casualties of the war against terrorism, which brings us to about 6,500, we should remember that roughly the same number of Americans die every two months in automobile accidents.

[snip]

So why has there been such an overreaction?

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; democrats; elections; terrorism; wot
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 161-163 next last
To: Billthedrill

Excellent analysis.


101 posted on 01/28/2007 12:25:02 PM PST by Nuc1 (NUC1 Sub pusher SSN 668 (Liberals Aren't Patriots))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: paulat

Yep.


102 posted on 01/28/2007 12:35:31 PM PST by Religion Moderator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies]

To: paulat


...geez, how do you respond to this?


103 posted on 01/28/2007 12:38:34 PM PST by Tzimisce (How Would Mohammed Vote? Hillary for President! www.dndorks.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill
Modern terrorism counts on this. In order to combat this evil game the response must be disproportionate. Two buildings down, two governments taken down. And Iran's frothing at the mouth despite, nobody wants to take the third building down at the cost of being the third government. And that's one reason nobody has. Disproportionality is absolutely the answer against terror and it demeans the value in human life of its victims to imply that they're only worth so much in the grand scheme of things.

Outstanding response.

104 posted on 01/28/2007 12:42:03 PM PST by 91B (God made man, Sam Colt made men equal)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: paulat

>It's because the Bush Administration has kept us safe, you moron!!!<

Where were you raised? In a juvenile hall or a boys school?So you disagree with what the man has to say. Big deal, is that sufficent to call him a moron? Dig real deep and see if there's any manners down in your socks?


105 posted on 01/28/2007 12:57:10 PM PST by B4Ranch (Press "1" for English, or Press "2" and you will be disconnected until you learn to speak English.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: DocRock
"And despite the even more nightmarish fantasies of the post-9/11 era (e.g. the TV show "24's" nuclear attack on Los Angeles), Islamist terrorists have not come close to deploying weapons other than knives, guns and conventional explosives."

The truth is they had and used HUMAN GUIDED CRUISE MISSILES, not just knives.... If Bush did not shut down air travel like he did, there would have been more attacks that day. If we weren't going after them like we are, there would have been more attacks since then.

These idiots who think the way this author does make me sick.

106 posted on 01/28/2007 12:59:25 PM PST by SteamShovel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: paulat

What an idiot. Does his mom know he's on the internet unsupervised??


107 posted on 01/28/2007 1:01:24 PM PST by Freedom4US (u)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nuc1
And despite the even more nightmarish fantasies of the post-9/11 era (e.g. the TV show "24's" nuclear attack on Los Angeles), Islamist terrorists have not come close to deploying weapons other than knives, guns and conventional explosives.

I don't suppose GWB should get some credit for that success?!

108 posted on 01/28/2007 1:01:34 PM PST by Cementjungle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 101 | View Replies]

To: Religion Moderator; Admin Moderator; Lead Moderator; Sidebar Moderator
Hope I didn't forget anyone!

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

I won't do it again!

109 posted on 01/28/2007 1:03:15 PM PST by paulat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 102 | View Replies]

To: DocRock
Saturday, 17 April, 2004

Jordan 'was chemical bomb target'

Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists planned a chemical attack on Jordan's spy headquarters that could have killed 20,000 people, officials have said.


BBC NEWS:Earlier this week King Abdullah said a massive attack had been thwarted by a series of arrests, but named no target.

Now unnamed officials say the suspects have confessed to plotting to detonate a chemical bomb on the Amman HQ of the Intelligence Services.

The plot was reportedly hatched by al-Qaeda suspect Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi.

Washington has accused the 38-year-old Jordanian radical of masterminding a string of spectacular suicide bombings in Iraq.

'Deadly gas'

An official involved in the inquiry in Jordan told AFP news agency: "We found primary materials to make a chemical bomb which, if it had exploded, would have made nearly 20,000 deaths ... in an area of one square kilometre.

...

Read on:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3635381.stm
110 posted on 01/28/2007 1:09:18 PM PST by coffee260 (coffee)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: paulat

Was 9/11 Really All That Bad?

How many more is he willing to have?


111 posted on 01/28/2007 1:10:25 PM PST by DakotaRed
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: paulat

I don't care if the Islamist swine after 9/11 had no residual capacity whatsoever to do another thing, ever. The Islamists have been up to their @@@holes in terrorism at least since the Munich Olympics. They have certainly managed to convince me that Islam is the irreconcileable foe of Western Civilization, and that Islamism needs to be warred upon for the next one thousand years if that is what it takes to humanize the beasts. Like the old song of WWII said, "they started something, and we're going to end it, right in their own backyards." If the rest of Islam would prefer we not end it right in their own backyard it is about time somebody besides Pakistan steps forward and puts a stop to it so we don't have to.


112 posted on 01/28/2007 1:12:56 PM PST by mathurine (ua)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cementjungle
I don't suppose GWB should get some credit for that success?!

I agree with you! That's the point I've been trying to make. This can't be a case of "an eye for an eye."

This is a case of "don't EVER go there again!!!"

113 posted on 01/28/2007 1:18:26 PM PST by paulat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 108 | View Replies]

To: paulat

I suppose this jerk would like to trade places with one of the dead guys ~ it can be arranged, in part.


114 posted on 01/28/2007 1:20:30 PM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Clara Lou
They, the terrorists, were seeking to murder about 55,000 people in the WTC, plus another 25,000 at the Pentagon, and upwards of 800,000 working in the Postal Service (with their anthrax attack element), and maybe several million more in the general population as a consequence of anthrax.

In short, the terrorists targeted more people than this Bell puke can count.

115 posted on 01/28/2007 1:22:23 PM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: BronzePencil

Thanks for the info.


116 posted on 01/28/2007 1:38:19 PM PST by conservativepoet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: paulat

Who the hell is David Bell?

A moron, for sure.


117 posted on 01/28/2007 2:11:26 PM PST by Palladin (Life without music would be a mistake.--Nietzsche)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Palladin
Who the hell is David Bell?

I can't post any more from the link, but if you hit it up, you can see he's a Johns Hopkins professor.

118 posted on 01/28/2007 2:13:35 PM PST by paulat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 117 | View Replies]

To: FairOpinion
"I pity his students. No wonder people are so screwed up with professors like this one teaching them."

His students? You better pitty 90% of the kids in school today.
Look back in history when the Communist went into Cuba.
The first thing they go after is the schools.
It takes very little time to convert young "sculls full of mush".
Todays universities and colleges are overrun with guys like this, and much worse.
Other then a few decent schools like Hillsdale, the bulk of American education has gone down the tubes.
119 posted on 01/28/2007 2:19:16 PM PST by AlexW (Reporting from Bratislava, Slovakia)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: paulat

UNBELIEVABLE. Thank God the planes didn't hit an hour later; the deaths would've been thousands more. What total morons.


120 posted on 01/28/2007 2:20:51 PM PST by Paved Paradise
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 161-163 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson