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As we approach the 20th anniversary of 9/11 what strikes me is that while the emphasis is, justifiably perhaps, remembering those who lost their lives and the impact of the attacks, the collective amnesia in the US is staggering.
We talk of 9/11 and what happened afterwards but few people talk about what happened before. George W Bush is often lorded as some kind of hero for how he dealt with the immediate aftermath of the attacks, but the reality is he is implicit in not taking threats seriously. 34 days before the attacks there was another presidential briefing (one of over 30 over that summer) that indicated that there was an immediate threat to the US and that Bin laden was orchestrating an attack against the US, probably in New York and using hijacked planes. In August when GWB was told about these imminent attacks, he told the security personnel "Ok, you have covered your asses"... and did NOTHING.
We all know what happened afterwards... the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan were used to progress the Military Industrial Complex - but one HAS to wonder why Bush did nothing when told that attacks were not just likely, but highly probably. I am not blaming him for the attacks or convinced he could have stopped them.... but did he do EVERYTHING to try and prevent them? They even had names! No he did not.
So I find it hard to swallow when GWB attends memorials for 9/11 like he is tomorrow for those who lost their lives on 93.
As an aside... Obama is visiting memorial sites and Biden is visiting each site. What is Trump doing? Being paid shed loads of money to commentate on the Holyfield-Belfort boxing match. **** sake, what a swampy piece of crap. But again this was the guy who commented after 9/11 that he now has the 'tallest buildings' in NYC.
Was watching the documentary on national geographic last night in it, shows the planes hitting the buildings, something I did see on the day but haven’t since. The chaos there following the fireman about is surreal, many of whom would be dead within an hour as the buildings collapsed. Bodies landing around them as they jumped rather than burn….what a horrific choice that must have been.
I watched a Documentary many years ago, From what the experts were saying, that even though Bush ( and the US ) knew a attack was being planned, they had very little way of knowing when and even less chance of stopping it happening due to the amount of air traffic ( though they were expecting them to use light aircraft )
When I went to NY we did the WTC memorial, the waterfall pools are very moving, yet when you get inside nothing can prepare you for what is inside, the posters being projected on the walls looking for family members looking for missing people is very hard to view, one was " Have you seen my Daddy " and his picture , if you visit you must have no soul to not get choked, its very moving
Originally Posted by blue matt
Yeah I went to the WTC memorial in NYC - very moving. I must admit I also teared up.
The point about Bush is that he actually didn't enact anything to try and stop the attacks. I am not a conspiracy theory person claiming he was a part of the planning of the attacks (some people believe that) to destabilise the world that would result in the US mobalising their war machine to enrich the elites... but people do need to ask harder questions as to why he did nothing... no extra security checks, no prohibiting known terrorists / people on watch lists into the US etc... nothing.
I think I saw the same documentary - footage I have never seen before. Absolutely terrifying.
Good analyis, but seems a little harsh and 'victim blamey' too!
I think the problem is the west get evidence more or less on a daily basis that terrorist attacks are imminent and while many are stopped, it is almost inevitable that some will get through, with tragic consequences.
I guess America was more naive or blasé at the time, Terrorism generally was something that was thought of as occuring in other parts of the world and I'm sure with hindsight security errors were made but by the same token, it's like accusing the authorities when a released prisoner commits a crime upon release - without locking down everyone it's impossible to stop everything.
I used to hate Bush at the time, but I can see now that it's nigh on impossible to prevent all these things. I also think his immediate response (before the subsequent war started) was commendable - his ratings soared to something like 90% approval too.
Some obvious changes come in with security around planes, but generally I think it's a lesson for the world and one we've probably not really learnt in full.
Don’t forget Islamic terrorists tried to blow up the WTC in 1993.
Yeah you are right, and Timothy McVeigh bombing the govt building in Oklahoma too, amongst others.
I just think the US generally viewed terrorism as something that happened abroad - in Europe, the middle east, central america etc and I think generally speaking that is the case. They never had an equivalent of the IRA, or Red Brigades in Italy, ETA in the Basque country, FARC in Colombia etc who were a constant threat for decades.
There’s a good documentary series on Netflix about it all.
“Turning point”
Wasn't there stories that the US had prior warning about Lockerbie as well?
America was complacent, can't really blame them, they'd never taken a 'Hit' like most other countries around the world, atleast on home soil. The biggest danger to Americans, was Americans, which probably confused the shit out of them. I suppose if your foreign policy is that of inflicting pain, death and chaos on other countries, without reprisals on home turf, there's bound to be an element of feeling untouchable, an almost blasé feel towards attack on civilians.
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