The terrorists won

Reading all the 9-11-01 stuff got me to thinking about how different the country is today than it was on 9-10-01 and, I'm sad to say, I think they won.

I think the terrorists accomplished their goals with that attack. Did they destroy the entire country with one attack? No, they didn't. But they didn't have to.

Look at what happened after that day. Our economy went straight into the toilet. Our government began trampling on civil liberties in the name of safety. We started a war with a country that was of little to no threat to us. We engaged in torture.

The country we have today is far from the one we had on 9-10-01 and it's far from the ideals we always set out for ourselves. So many people live in fear of another attack that they elected an incompetent president a second time. So many people live in fear of another attack they don't mind a bit that our government has taken away many of our rights.

I hate to admit it, but I believe the terrorists won.

"Those who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty, nor security." - Ben Franklin

 

bigp,

The terrorists didn't win, but we're behind and the clock is ticking.

 

They didn't "win." We lost.

Many of our own problems were caused by the current administration. The terrorists did not crash the housing market or raise fuel prices to $4.00 a gallon. The terrorists did not invade the wrong country or make the debatable choice of invading at all. The terrorists did not sit back while Katrina destroyed a city.

No, 9-11 would be nothing more than a coach blaming a traveling call in the first quarter for the reason why his or her team lost the game.

Our problems run much, much deeper than those four airplanes.

 

The reason I disagree with you is that those four airplanes gave this administration carte blanche to do what it wanted because our citizens were too scared to vote these fuckers out of office. Somehow, the Bushies managed to convince a majority of the public that we were safer with them in office than with someone else.

Many of our most significant problems can be tied to this administration. And I don't think this administration would have remained in power were it not for the fear-mongering that followed 9-11.

 

And that is America's fault, not the fault of a bunch of guys cutting each others heads off in the desert. [/mattdamon]

 

In other words, the Bush administration has become the terrorists.

 

I didn't have the balls to type that, but I agree.

 

The administration played right into their hands, that's for sure.

 

I see what you're saying, but the reason we have done what we have done is because of 9-11. The terrorists accomplished what they wanted with that attack. They made us so scared, half the country immediately gave up on many of our ideals. The terrorists weren't just trying to kill a few thousand people. This was their goal and they accomplished it.

It's tempting to say, "It's our fault," because it means we don't have to admit that the terrorists made us this way, that they didn't accomplish their goal. But the bottom line is, if they hadn't been successful in their attack, we wouldn't be giving up our civil liberties left and right. We wouldn't be so quick to torture people.

 

Exactly. The government, and much of our citizenry, reacted exactly the way they hoped we would.

 

Our government scared the dimwits in this country into believing there was a terrorist lurking around every corner. How many orange alerts have there been in the past four years? NONE because the Moron in Chief and Darth Vader VP don't have to scare people into voting for them again.

I can look out my window and see the New York skyline. There is, and always will be, a huge hole at the southern end of that skyline. It will never look the same to me again.
But I haven't changed the way I live; I do not walk around fearing the next terroist attack; I do not look at every Muslim as a threat.
I have taken subways and PATH trains into the World Trade Center station and realized that there is one stretch where I was actually walking on the last remaining piece of the original building's "footprint". It gave me a chill but it did not scare me.

The terrorists might have beaten some people. They have not beaten me.

 

It's all about your individual mindset. I've never felt unsafe due to another attack, and, aside from the gas prices -- that probably weren't a direct result from the planes crashing anyway -- I don't think my life is any different than it was seven years ago.