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 ...
The good professor omits that our reaction to 9-11 is trivial compared to our mobilization and tactics in World War 2, let alone those of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union went to a total war footing early on the first day of the Nazi onslaught, when the death tolll was in fact no higher than on 9-11. Is Bell suggesting that they should have waited?
I also wonder what the toll would have been by now if we had responded as leftists urged, send police agents to serve meaningless warrants on bin Laden and the Taliban.
For years the liberals have been harping on the poor Russians as the number one hero/victims of the Nazis even as the United States, whose young men poured out their lives like water to stop the Axis, has been treated as the continuation of the Nazi regime. I've about had it.
Unlike the pure hero/martyr Joseph Stalin, the United States didn't sign a non-aggression pact with Hitler and split Poland with him (and got the Baltics in the same deal). Moreover, this Communist alliance with the Nazis was not broken by the Communists but by the Nazis themselves. If Hitler had never stabbed his fellow monster in the back, does anyone really suppose the USSR would have ever been the martyr nation of WWII that the liberals today make it out to have been?
Meanwhile America's war with Japan on the other side of the globe is treated as an unprovoked act of white supremacy, even though Japan was formally allied with the Nazis.
Enough with the "poor Commies" line, already!
The unfortunate thing is that with the liberals (or "progressives", as they have rebranded themselves)...by the time they finally comprehend the danger, it's almost always after lives have been lost and property destroyed.
To make things worse, they silence anyone else who sees what's REALLY going on (or attempts to do anything about it). Then, after tragedy strikes, they blame everyone but themselves.
Liberals and their ilk are a blight to Western civilization and a cancer of the human race. 'Tis a pity that I must characterize other human beings in this way, but it's the analogy of best fit.
If Bell is going to make this comparison, he should also compare the measures taken by the Soviets in response to the Nazi invasion.
- Suspected enemy sympathizers (like Bell) shot out of hand
- Entire population drafted into war service
- Ruthless food rationing
- Diversion of all resources to the war effort
- Rigid censorship of all media
- Indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilians when expedient.
- Captured enemy combatants held without trial (duh!)
Bell's analogy falls apart without this comparison, since he is implying disproportionality in our response to 9-11. He is minimizing the provocation in comparison to that suffered by the Soviets. If so, he must also compare responses before he can assert that one is disproportionate.
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Perhaps the terrorists can accomodate him in their next murderous attack on US citizens ... I'm sure such a high-minded liberal would be glad to die for their cause.
Well I guess if it's really no big deal, why all the fuss about getting out without finishing the mission? Nancy and company obviously are the ones "over-reacting.
Of course, only a tenured professor of history could ask such an obtuse question and get paid for it.
I guess I would just reiterate that we would have lost tens of thousands more on 9/11, plus maybe the Congress or the White House, had everything gone the way the terrorists planned.
This is not taken into account by Prof. Bell.
Very well put.
That said, however, I cannot even believe that somebody would be idiotic to suggest that there's a "tolerable" level of terrorist attack. I think he can only say this because there hasn't been another one since then and he's gotten pretty assured that he, at least, has little chance of being a victim.
And what has kept him safe???? One of the many questions a liberal will never answer.
President Bush, God Bless Him, has been too successful in his determination to keep us safe from further attacks since 9/11, as it's resulted in morons such as this to come out from under their rocks and brainwash the simple minded on the left.
Sad to say, I'm rapidly becoming to believe that nothing but another 9/11 disaster is going to wake America up and bring them to their senses.
So why is the left so up in arms about the historically small number of casualties in Iraq and screaming for Bush's blood?
Somehow, the author manages to ignore all the other attacks on US embassies, ships, etc. BEFORE 9/11.
Thank you, I added a couple more frames to my old 3 framer! This is a topic you have good material on!
No eradication talk, please.
I'm in enough trouble with the Mods as it is....
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