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[RedKing]

There's really no way this thread can end well, sad to say.

I still remember that day, I will probably always remember that day because it's one of those kind of days that gets seared into your memory.
But you know what? So was Sandy Hook. So was the Gabby Giffords shooting. So was the crazy fucker in Virginia the other week that gunned down a reporter on live TV. So was the Space Shuttle blowing up (both times). So was Hurricane Katrina.

[mainiac]

Nah, I don't know about that. Nobody does Pearl Harbor Day sales.
Except this guy.
And these guys.

MFW FUCK YEAH A'MURICA



(I know what you are thinking.  Yes, I am actually an eagle-a'murican.)

[Fniff]

It's not the suicide attack that got me about 9/11 or the way that hundreds of office workers went from checking their emails to suffocating to death in a few minutes. Those are horrifying, but like many news stories it all becomes abstract. Like the people all dying from medical malpractice, but that's an even worse case: it doesn't have a stark image like 9/11. I'm cynical like that because that's easy mode for tragedies.

But cynicism doesn't work for everything. What got me was the people in the World Trade Center who killed themselves. Many died by accident trying to climb away, but there must have been those who decided that they would throw themselves off the building.

2,000 were murdered on that day. But more then that are killed every other day. But among those people there were those who, consciously or unconsciously, ignored their will to survive. The most intrinsic part of a human being, the need to keep on living, was replaced with a choice: do you want to die in a fire or fall to your death?

That's what makes 9/11 what it is. Those people didn't know they'd kill themselves on that day; some of them might have not even considered it.

I can die any day, but what scares me is knowing I would decide to die.

[SalmonGod]

My kid's 5th grade class was sent home lastnight with the assignment to ask one of their parents how they felt when the events of 9/11 were happening. 

My response:

"I felt an ominous foreboding that there would be an enormous and foolish cultural backlash to follow.  I was correct, but I underestimated how bad it was going to be.  I couldn't have predicted that it would become the justification for over a decade of violent foreign policy and domestic political oppression."

I wonder if it was wrong of me to send that answer back to school with my kid
Honest response, though.  Through the later part of the day, I was thinking about America's cultural response to the Columbine shooting, and how horribly fucking misguided and disgusting it was.  I knew that something similar was going to come from 9/11.  I skipped my last couple classes that day, because I expected it wouldn't be long before I would be surrounded by people randomly selecting scapegoats and spewing hatred.  I didn't want to be around that again.

[Graknorke]

No, it's the right thing to do.
Still being nationally butthurt over one terrorist attack over a decade ago isn't helping anybody.

[LordBucket]

Wonder why the OP is thanking the vets that invaded an unrelated country

Either because like many americans he either forgot or never realized that that particular invasion of Iraq was an opportunistic invasion of a country that had nothing to do with 911. President George Hubert Bush invaded Iraq in the 90s, but nothing much came of it except some oil pipelines. Hussein stayed in power.So his son, President George Walker Bush used 911 as an excuse to "finish what daddy started." Plus, we wanted their oil, and I think we hadn't yet managed to take it all the last time we invaded them.

Also, because the US has a tradition that originates from the aftermath of the Vietnam war of always expressing appreciation of veterans. Vietnam vets came back to people angry at them, and it left scars. So now we thank them even if we disagree with what they were ordered to do. It reduces the stress and emotional trauma veterans have to endure from realizing that they were paid to murder innocent people.

[LordBucket]

My kid's 5th grade class was sent home lastnight with the assignment to ask one of their parents how they felt when the events of 9/11 were happening. 

My response:

"I felt an ominous foreboding that there would be an enormous and foolish cultural backlash to follow.  I was correct, but I underestimated how bad it was going to be.  I couldn't have predicted that it would become the justification for over a decade of violent foreign policy and domestic political oppression."

I wonder if it was wrong of me to send that answer back to school with my kid

Difficult position for a parent to be in. Unfortunately, telling the truth here might result in your son being the target of anger and ridicule. Many americans have a great deal of emotional angst over 911 and have drunk the koolaid over it. If the teacher does something incredibly stupid, like say...have everyone read their parent's responses in front of the class, it's possible you might have just identified your son for harassment by students who've been trained to feel very differently.

Let us know what the results are.

Also, did you explain to him why you feel the way you do? Did you explain what you meant by your response? If he's asked to justify your opinion against people of the "Murica' Fuck yeah!" persuasion, that might not be easy for a 5th grader to do.

[Sheb]

To be clear, I was more wondering "Why Iraq and not Afghanistan (that actually had stuffto do with 9/11), or Vietnam, or the USS Cole, or any other occasion where US soldiers died."

I guess the answer is more "hastily put together OP" than anything else.

[Frumple]

That, and presumably because Iraq's closer to the present. Closet to the current memory and all that.

[Sheb]

Closer to the present than Afghanistan?

[Frumple]

The start, at least, yeah. It came second. The continued presence in afghanistan is more than a little downplayed.

[Urist Targaryen]

The start, at least, yeah. It came second. The continued presence in afghanistan is more than a little downplayed.

As a culture we (Americans) cannot seem to hold more than one or two ideas in our collective conscience at once. And that includes multiple countries being involved. 9/11 was because of Iraq, ISIS is a Syrian problem, Iran is a nuclear threat to Israel, and these countries only export these problems. Imagining that these are complex problems that are spread across a region, and simultaneously are very heterogeneous issues within each country, undermines the narrative that it is the identity of a country to provide a problem.

[Bohandas]

You know, I had been meaning to invite some friends over to play Jenga today but I forgot. Oh well, wasn't really worth remembering anyway.

[Owlga]

I heard from a good source that wolf girls really did 9/11.

[Bohandas]

My kid's 5th grade class was sent home lastnight with the assignment to ask one of their parents how they felt when the events of 9/11 were happening. 

My response:

"I felt an ominous foreboding that there would be an enormous and foolish cultural backlash to follow.  I was correct, but I underestimated how bad it was going to be.  I couldn't have predicted that it would become the justification for over a decade of violent foreign policy and domestic political oppression."

I wonder if it was wrong of me to send that answer back to school with my kid
Honest response, though.  Through the later part of the day, I was thinking about America's cultural response to the Columbine shooting, and how horribly fucking misguided and disgusting it was.  I knew that something similar was going to come from 9/11.  I skipped my last couple classes that day, because I expected it wouldn't be long before I would be surrounded by people randomly selecting scapegoats and spewing hatred.  I didn't want to be around that again.

I completely agree. The only credible threat to American freedom is panicking idiots and sleazy opportunistic politicians.