TURN ON THE NEWS!

[Kaiddin]

(B)Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi, an Arabic-language weekly news magazine, said
Tuesday Islamic fundamentalists led by bin Laden were ``almost certainly'' behind the attack of the World Trade Center in New York.

``It is most likely the work of Islamic fundamentalists. Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he would attack American interests in an unprecedented attack, a very big one,'' Atwan told Reuters. (/B)

http://us.news2.yimg.com/f/42/31/7m/...aden_dc_4.html


[This message has been edited by Kaiddin (edited 09-11-2001).]

[Lancer]

First of, let me just say that my thoughts are with all of you Americans out there.

The more I think about this whole mess, the more I am afraid. Not that WWIII is coming our way, but about the changes this will bring about. I mean look at all those fingers pointed at the Palestinians. Most of the Palestinians (or Moslems in general) are just average people who try to get by from day to day, not much different from billions of other people on this planet.

Yes, it may be true that a few of them (and even some thousands are just a fraction of the Palestinians around) are celebrating right now, but I think they a certainly not celebrating the death of American citizens. They are celebrating the fact that America as a political entity got hurt.
Not because they see the American people as their enemy or hate them just because they are Americans AFAIK, but because they feel that America abandoned them in their recent conflict with Israel.
America was once the bringer of peace for the middle-east in Camp David and I believe many Palestinians had high hopes it could be the same way for them and we all know that isn't exactly what happened.

Now don't get me wrong. I certainly don't want to justify that they are celebrating in Nablus (or wherever) right now!

Only thing is, that I am very very afraid about what's to come in the time ahead.
I am afraid that we are heading for a world where every Moslem in the middle-east is marked as a potential terrorist and a threat to the free world, because that's just not true.

I realize a lot of you just don't want to hear this right now and I sort of understand this, but I am so afraid that because of what happened today the world will become a more hatefull place than it allready is and I just had to try to give you all a bit of a different perspective on a small aspect of this whole thing.

-Andreas

P.S.: No, I am not a Moslem myself. Actually I don't care much about god, but tonight I will be praying again after many many years of not doing so.

[Cdr Scot II]

I watched events unfold yesterday on Sky News live - I know I'll never be able to erase the image of that second plane hitting the WTC from my mind.

It beggars belief, and if it affects my wife and I this strongly then I can only imagine how Americans can feel, never mind New Yorkers. We have been talking to her brothers, who work in Seattle and Portland (thank God) and we all share your grief and helpless anger. Our hearts go out to anyone who was personally affected by these events.

Ireland is no stranger to terrorist death and mayhem, so perhaps we have a better idea than some what you are feeling, but the scale of this beggars belief. In the past 30 years 3500 people have been killed in terrorist activity in Northern Ireland. The US appears to have surpassed this grisly total in one hour.

Find these people. Make sure you are right. Eradicate them.

Addition: The first Irish victims have been identified. They were a 45 year old woman from Cork and her three year old daughter, living in Connecticut. They were on the United Airlines flight from Boston that flew into the South Tower of the WTC. I can't think of anything to say to this... I have a three year old daughter. It makes me feel hollow inside.

[Dan Gurden]

"Cool Heads Must Prevail"...

Never a truer word has been spoken.

I have had time to calm down, I have slept on the subject.

Like so many others on these boards, I was Shocked and Horrified by yesterdays events, hell, me and Styro were in mid conversation over ICQ when it happened.

It was only several hours later, when I left work and went home that the trueextent of the horror was brought home to me.

Right now there is a battle between my head and my heart. My heart stands with Styro, I want to see blood, I want the people that did this to suffer for their actions, Surely such a terrible event Cannot go unpunished...

Then theres the intellectual part of me, the part that points out that right now, NOBODY has 100% proof of the perps, anyone that did this cannot claim responsibility, doing so will likely bring the entire world down on their arse.

And that would make a Martyr. This is the problem, fanatics like nothing more than a Martyr, while what we need is a War Criminal... The kind of low scum that cannot be followed, we cant make their arguements just, simply by acting the way people like Bin Laden have claimed the western world acts like for years.

I stand shoulder to shoulder with you. I grieve for your losses, and the losses of everyone around the world, I shake with rage at the atrocities... But I fear for the future.

------------------
DanG.

"Hi, I'm Commander Troy McClure, you might remember me from other academy training holo-simulations as, Abandon Ship, the quickest way out, and I sense danger, 101 things you dont need a Betazoid to know..."

http://www.theventure.freeserve.co.uk

[Evan van Eyk]

Just wanted to say that I heard on news today, that only one quarter of the palestenians are happy about what happened and all the others are shocked.
I hope that this will not end in war, cause I think that will be the end of the world - at least as we know it, i.e. for humanity.

------------------
"I am a great one for rushing in where angels fear to tread." - Cpt. Kirk, Star Trek VI


www.farrealms.de

[Evan van Eyk]

This is strange...

http://boards.theforce.net/message.a...298&replies=23

http://boards.theforce.net/message.a...&start=4061579



------------------
"I am a great one for rushing in where angels fear to tread." - Cpt. Kirk, Star Trek VI


www.farrealms.de

[Dan Stack]

I've waited a long time to post, emotions running so very high. I remember being at work yesterday, hearing scattered reports before going down to the gym at work where there were several televisions on. I saw live the two towers crumble to the ground, I held back tears as they fell.

Though I only lived there a small portion of my life, I was born in New York City. As a child, I spent most of my summers there with my grandparents. My grandfather used to all sorts of places in the city - the Museum of Natural History, the Circle Line, the Day Line (anyone remember that?), Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the World Trade Center. He would always tell me how his parents came over from Italy, he'd point out the small tiny apartment where he and his countless brothers and sisters grew up in. He'd tell me stories about the Depression and WWII, how he'd write two letters a day, to his wife and his mother.

Sorry for the divergence there. But as a result of that, despite all the places I've lived in, I've always considered myself a partial New Yorker - it seems the city always stays with you. That made the tragedy hit harder, though thank God none of my relatives were in the area (most in the City have died by now, the rest are in Brooklyn).

As horrific as the disaster is, some of the more extreme reaction to it is more frightening, especially those who think we are about to become some sort of toltalitarian state. Legate Legion summed it up so well I'd like to quote him. And to Legate and all the present and former members of the armed forces, thank you for your service to this great nation.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Legate Legion:
This is also a good thing because for the first time in my life I have seen lawmakers embrace each other & really call for unity.

In the end, come what may we are all FREE PEOPLE LIVING IN A FREE REPUBLIC. & they will reap the whirlwind.
</font>

My fellow citizens of the United States of America, the government is not them, it is us. It always has been. It is the reason we have accomplished so much. It is the reason the horror of slavery could not endure, the contradiction of its presence in a free republic being an ugly, obvious scar. It is the reason that women gained their right to vote. This country has failed in its obligations at times, but those failures are revealed because of those freedoms. The Founding Fathers used powerful language when they said "We the people". Those words are more than an affirmation, they are a demand. A demand to be included in those people. The Founding Fathers may not have intended those words to include the African Slave, the woman, the non-white male landowner, but those words were too powerful to be denied.

This Free Republic will endure because it is us, it is not them. This country has never had a coup - no, the recent election was no coup - if anything, it showed the strength of our Constitution to the world, enduring, for all intents and purposes, a statistical tie. Did anyone die? Have the losers been vanquished, exiled? Is not Gore considering another run? Would the winner of a coup allow that?

But, in a way, that is what makes these horrific attacks all that much worse. For when they killed people for being Americans, destroyed American symbols, it was not a them they attacked, it was us, we the people.