Questioning The Real Significance of 9/11

[irinmisfit92]

Everyone has been hyped up about 9/11 because it has indeed been ten years since it happened. I may be biased because I'm not American and even though I'm planning to go there to study and live there for some time, but I really feel that the hype around 9/11 is extremely "overrated".

No, I'm not saying that the lives that have been lost are not important. It was a great shock to the world, including to my isolated country, and obviously everyone here knows about how devastating it was, and we always use it for examples in our English essays when the theme concerns terrorism and safety. I give my utmost condolences for those who have lost their loved ones in the attack.

However, honestly speaking, after studying history and reading many current affairs magazines, there are soooooo many more events other than 9/11 that reflect how terrorism has plagued mankind. In Africa, there are many countries that have so many rebels terrorizing against the government YET thousands of lives are killed. The Somali Civil War itself has already deprived around 300,000 - 400,000 people of their lives, and I'm pretty sure majority of them are civilians who just want to lead normal lives. This is also the case in the Middle East, where people are honestly killed every single day. The Gulf War itself is known to have killed around 30,000 Iraqis; out of which 3,664 innocent civilians are killed. It is also a known fact that many soldiers tend to rape and kill women and children during wartime, which I think is seriously sick. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. Don't you think that these kinds of events are somewhat tantamount or even much worse as compared to the brutality portrayed in 9/11?

I understand that 9/11 is very significant to many people because it is a turning point in which we now know that we are no longer that safe anymore. However, I really feel that there are so many other events that portray how much terror has been used to kill so many innocent people; sometimes these events in Africa and the Middle East are a lot worse than what happened in 9/11.

I know that many people here are Americans but I really don't want to be offensive; just reiterating my view that 9/11 may not be as significant as it seems. Of course, because of 9/11, we now have an ongoing "war on terror", but that in itself has caused so many unnecessary deaths and I feel that it is not as justified as it seems. It's complex, I suppose.

What do you guys think about it? I apologize if I sound offensive especially to those who have lost their loved ones in the attack.

[JBI]

It also marks the anniversary of the US backed fascist takeover in Chile, coincidentally, as well as the moment where China took advantage of the world's distraction and decided to massacre various political and religious factions in Xin Jiang province.

[MarkBastable]

It's going to be fun watching us attempt to discuss this one without being political.

[stlukesguild]

JBI is always good at pointing out the shortcomings of the US... and certainly this nation, like any, has had a less than perfect history. It is telling, however, that he rarely ever points out Canadian shortcomings such as one I recently came upon.

It seems that the very term, "The Final Solution" (surely not unknown to JBI) was not a German invention, but rather one of the Canadian poet Duncan Campbell Scott. Scott, it seems, was also the head of the Department of Indian Affairs and ordered the forced "assimilation" of the native "Indian" population, declaring, "I want to get rid of the Indian problem. I do not think as a matter of fact, that the country ought to continuously protect a class of people who are able to stand alone…"

In order to achieve this end, it became mandatory for all native children between the ages of seven and fifteen to attend one of Canada's Residential Schools. The children were taken away from their homes, their families, and their culture, with or without their parents' consent.
"In all, about 150,000 aboriginal, Inuit and Métis children were removed from their communities and forced to attend the schools."[8] Many of the children who attended these schools lived in terrible conditions; in some cases the mortality rate exceeded fifty percent due to the spread of infectious disease.[9] Students were punished for speaking their native languages.[8] In some cases they were physically, mentally, and sexually abused,[10] actions either covered up or tolerated in the drive to achieve the objective.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Campbell_Scott

[Scheherazade]

Since this discussion cannot carry on without evolving into a discussion of current politics,

this thread will now be closed.