15 Years Ago Today, The World Stopped.

"G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3" (gbodyman) 09/11/2016 at 11:52 • Filed to: None

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Over less than 24 hours, the world was divided between what was and what will be. There had been attacks on innocent citizens before, but none with the sheer scale and graphic imagery as the September 11th attacks. Some say after the world stopped, it became a safer place. Some say we gave up our freedoms for security. Whatever your viewpoint is, there’s no denying that this event has shaped our world far more than anything in the past 15 years. Not computer technology, not popular culture, and not even the tragedies that happened in Nice just a few months ago. You may not like or get what I’m saying, and that’s okay. Just stand aside to let people pay their respects. That is all.

duurtlang > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 09/11/2016 at 12:17

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The world certainly changed. It didn’t become safer though, quite the opposite. I’d argue that while the Sept. 11 attacks and the following Afganistan war have changed things, it’s the poorly thought out (and utterly stupid) Iraq war that has changed the world the most in the last 15 years. Besides being the perfect propaganda tool for terrorists it created the power vacuum in the Middle East we still see today. As such its logical result is Islamic State and the wave of international terrorism in the Middle East and Europe nowadays.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 09/11/2016 at 12:21

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I think this event showed us the sheer power that hatred holds. Yes war has shown the ugly violence of humanity for most of our race’s history, but it’s easier for average western citizens to ignore events on foreign soil. This hit close to home and it hit hard. Many terror atrocities have occurred since, but none had the sheer power over us that 9/11 did.

I think in some ways it has helped people to understand the plight of those in less privileged countries where terrorist attacks are a regular occurrence. However unfortunately it created a lot of hate due to fear and of course helped begin another war.

It’s important for us to be mindful of every effect of that day and of course to pay our respects to all directly affected.

Urambo Tauro > duurtlang 09/11/2016 at 12:34

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It’s hard to say just how safe the world is compared to how it was, but I think that 9/11 changed (or at least heavily influenced) the way we look at safety. Today’s concept of safety is much more focused on making it impossible for bad things to happen. Prior to that, safety was still very dependent on personal responsibility.

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > duurtlang 09/11/2016 at 12:36

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I didn’t say that I thought the world is safer now, but I have to agree with Urambo Tauro. It’s changed the way we look at or feel safety.

duurtlang > Urambo Tauro 09/11/2016 at 12:42

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I’m 33 years old, so (roughly) half my life took place before 9/11 and the second half after 9/11. Multiple places I’ve visited in my life have been hit by terrorist attacks linked to the Middle East. I’ve been to Brussels, to Nice, to Paris, to Munich, and more of those places that have been hit. All of those attacks took place after 9/11. There’s an elevated threat level right here in my part of Europe as we speak.

As such, from my own perspective, 9/11 (the Iraq war to be more correct) has made the world a much unsafer place.

duurtlang > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 09/11/2016 at 12:46

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That is true. We’ve lost some of our innocence after 9/11. Which is a shame.

Urambo Tauro > duurtlang 09/11/2016 at 12:53

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I think I see what you’re getting at. As much effort as we put into making things safer, there’s an escalation that takes place as terrorist groups do what they can to get around (or take advantage of) those safety measures. The more loopholes we close, the more desperate and devastating their attempts become.

Axial > duurtlang 09/11/2016 at 12:53

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Even after the Iraq invasion, there were several opportunities to head off the formation of ISIS that simple were not capitalized on, the most glaring of which would be the sluggish and/or non-existent US responses to Libya and Syria.

The past 16 years have been a national embarrassment.

Jayhawk Jake > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 09/11/2016 at 13:30

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No offense, but you likely don’t remember anything of the world pre-9/11. Hell I’m 27 and I don't feel I could accurately describe how it changed the way we look at safety

Wheelerguy > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 09/11/2016 at 14:20

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9/11 was the ultimate act of villainy, short of The Holocaust, but even the latter would have been much easier to telegraph and stop compared to the former.

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > Jayhawk Jake 09/11/2016 at 15:44

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9/11 is the oldest memory I have. I was helping my grandad wash his red B12 Sentra (I think I still have a picture of me scrubbing the wheels), when the music on the radio stopped. There was screaming and crashing noises and everything. He took me inside and immediately called my mom. When she came to pick me up, not a word was said in the car. My dad was home really early then, and stayed home for a couple days. Even though I was way too young to know what was actually going on, I could tell that something had happened that was big enough to weigh on the heads of everyone . As I grew up, I learned more and more about what happened that day, and it just got worse in retrospect. Maybe it fucked me up for life, who knows. All I know is that there was a then, and there is a now, and the divide happened on September 11th, 2001.

Spridget > duurtlang 09/17/2016 at 22:15

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You have no idea how much the Iraq war divided the US. It shaped the republican party into the glamorized war, gun -toting, bible snorting, racist Trump hole it is now and the democrats into the strongly anti - war, anti - gun snobbery it is today. Much of the US’s current political situation can be traced back to the Iraq war and President Cheney and his puppet leader’s poor choices.