Ten years on from the suicide attacks

I always felt that the cruise missiles were here so the Soviets would attack us and not the USA; we were just used as a buffer. I found it difficult to sleep sometimes knowing that they were being driven around the country. Had I not had small children at the time I would have loved to have been at Greenham Common, and would still like to go there one day to pay my respects.

Innocence! Brilliant! LOL
Lost its sense of invulnerability maybe.
But did they join the dots between the CIA's decades of ceaseless interfering with other states and the fact that they were at last becoming a target themselves... alas no.

Nothing justifies the senseless and cruel death of nearly 3,000 people in New York, more in Washington and the brave people on the fourth plane. However, I am very put out by the media consensus that 9/11 was the day America lost its innocence. It may have lost its naivety, but it didn't have innocence.

I always held the belief that Osama Bin Laden had originally been trained by the CIA, and I never understood the USA supporting regimes such as Saudi Arabia and going to war with others. We have to learn from what happened 10 years ago [and I'm not trying to justify 9/11 in any way]. For the sake of those that lost their lives then, and are still losing their lives, we must make the right decisions. Especially when people like grannyactivist are still suffering from the aftermath of it all.

Well said artygran re the IRA. Of course it was being bankrolled by a mass of sentimental Americans who liked the idea of their Irish roots but were untouched by the troubles.
As someone said on Any Questions yesterday, after 9/11 the USA had huge sympathy around the world and they squandered it all by going to war.
It is pretty clear that the Iraq war was initiated 10 years ago today (Bush and Rumsfeld were looking for an excuse). The planning of the invasion took a little over a year. All that nonsense about weapons of mass destruction was a cynical construction of motive. I met an ex UK submariner who said he was at sea and they knew the date of the invasion 12 months ahead. It was only changed by one day.
I was in correspondence with my MP on the night of the commons vote. She, a long term supporter of a settlement for Palestine, believed that Blair was supporting Bush, in order to get leverage on that issue. Difficult to know what Blair was thinking of isn't it.

I think that too much is being made of the 9/11 anniversary, especially for relatives of the victims. I am sure that they do not wish to be faced with all the pictures, regurgitated experiences and sounds of this deplorable happening every time they listen to the radio or turn on the TV. I am not suggesting that we should not remember but I am sure that those affected would like to do it in their own quiet way without having the dreadful events thrust in their faces.

Ten years later and all the whys and wherefores are still being discussed in endless detail. Pretty pointless if you ask me.

I saw the live events on television and shall never forget it. Man's cruelty to man can never be fathomable.

Yes, Artygran I think Pearl Harbour was the nearest US experience to the twin towers. That brought them into WW2 - without it that was seen as a little faraway European tiff, nothing to do with the US.

To me personally, the atrocities in Ireland are still fresher in my mind than those of 9/11, probably because, as you say Artygran I lost someone very special to me in Belfast many years ago.

I think it is particularly difficult for Americans to get a clear perspective in the aftermath of 9/11 because it was really the first time that a significant atrocity had been visited on them on their soil. No one ever thought that fortress America would be attacked and their sense of outrage is still palpable. We were dragged into a futile and unnecessary war in Iraq on the back of it, for no reason other than that America had to be seen by its people to be doing something to take the fight to "the enemy". I am not unsympathetic to people who have loved ones who lost their lives on 9/11, but maybe it focussed the American mind on what went on in the wider world and shattered its insularity. I sometimes wonder whether the troubles in Ireland would have dragged on so long, and so many lives would have been lost, if the Americans hadn't been bankrolling Sinn Fein IRA. We lost friends and colleagues while we were in Ireland and you don't forget things like that, even though we are now very glad that a political solution has been found and Northern Ireland is back on its feet again and building the future it deserves. Let's hope they find a political solution in Afghanistan soon and bring our people home.

glammanana I am sure you are right. Those who have been personally affected can't help but see the events of that day, and others both before and after it, in the light of their own experiences. It will take a century for it to settle into its position in history.

And even then, there may be several versions of history, as there are of the Crusades of centuries ago.

I think maybe Elergran it is still too raw for some people to get a perspective that is not biased,as I have mentioned in another post both my DSs where involved with the aftermath in Irag and Afganistan but I am a very lucky mum to have had my boy's returned to me,to-day we are remembering and thinking of the friend's that they lost,in total they lost 9 of their close friend's and all of them had stayed with us at one time or another,so it will be a long time indeed before any scar's begin to heel for many many people or for people to understand the cause's.