How is 9/11 viewed internationally?

[SeeIn2D]

I'm American but I'll still put my thoughts into this. I think it should be remembered. In New York and DC especially where the attacks had such a direct effect, but it doesn't have to be remembered outside of the United States. If internationals choose to have a moment of silence for it then so be it, but it should not be forced upon internationals. And to be fair, it isn't. In very un-American fashion we have not forced any countries around the world to remember this in anyway, barring the TV show they aired on all A&E channels this morning. However one TV show is not forcing people to remember. You didn't need to watch it. It was aired mostly for American audiences. And anyone complaining that they're taking up your TV time or something, I really doubt anyone actually had any TV shows on Saturday morning that they had to watch. But long story short, it does not have to be remembered internationally, I think it should be remembered domestically because it was a horrible event. However internationals should not joke about it. It's not something to joke about. I can't count the times I've gone online on a game and had some british asshole make some comment about 9/11 and laughing about it. People saying "Oh you're a fat fuck American" or "Yeah, your british teeth are yellow, go eat crumpets" is very different than saying "9/11, haha, 3000 innocent people died. Sucks to be you". Also a little off topic, a youtube comment I read last night which read "39 people's families died in 9/11" was completely uncalled for and was probably some eight year old trying to be funny and trying to get the top rated comment on a Call of Duty video to show his friends. 3 people liked that comment and they all make me sick.

EDIT: Also I do agree that we should stop harping on about it. We should remember it around and on september 11th, but beyond that we shouldn't talk about it. And people posting on this saying "I don't give a fuck then some American had to remind me about it", you don't have to click on the link, there are plenty of other threads to post on here, and if you really don't care then it shouldn't be such a burden to be reminded of it. Just saying.

 

[SpaceBat]

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but the people I know never talk about 9/11 anymore. Sure, it was horrible what happened and everyone felt bad for the innocent people that died on that day, but it didn't take long before everyone moved on entirely (a year or so, I suppose. I actually stopped hearing and reading about it altogether after a few months).

Some get irritated that the US still hasn't been able to get over something that happened a decade ago (not forget, mind you, just move on) and regularly happens on a lot of other (even western) country's in the world which don't even see the light of the day in the news.

Same with me, really. I don't get irritated when I see tons of 9/11 threads, articles, video's, shows or whatever show up everywhere (Because I'm pretty sure tons of people had friends or families who died on that day and the country as a whole constantly bringing it up must make it hard for these people to forget and move on), but I won't spend my time on a single terrorist attack that happened a decade ago.

After having posted this message, of course.

 

[richardsza]

Well as an American, I think I learned something from this thread today. Don't expect sympathy from the Internet, and don't expect any sympathy from other countries. Especially if your an American.

Sympathy for who? You in particular? Did you lose family/friends? If so, then you have my sympathy. But;

If you expect sympathy just because you are American you are very naive. Does America as a country, have sympathy for the thousands of people who die EVERY day in Africa from malaria...? Nope.

No, I did not lose any family or friends. But I do know a few people who did and the sympathies are with them.
Also you ask me if America as a country has sympathy for people who die in Africa from malaria. Well of course not, because there are assholes in our country who act like everyone should just get over those people's death! People sorta like you.

. <--- That's a point.... My point to be precise. I think you may have missed it.

I see that point. So let me make my own. If you don't understand why it's such a big deal, don't talk about it. ---> .

Ermmmm. Kinda missing the point of a public forum there mate. Maybe you should go to page one and read the topic header again...

Sometimes I wonder (like I'm doing now) why I even bother with these forums. There usually just filled with assholes talking about how much people deserve it or at least just one person saying it.
Alright fine, I missed your point. But I guess I just don't care anymore.

Never stop caring. You have the right to voice yourself.

 

[Xzithelost]

http://www.youtube.com/user/DontFarkWithHoboZ?feature=mhee#p/a/u/0/TGYPjqMVjjs
My thoughts to 11/9 are in this link

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

there is a reason Americans write the date differently
if you were to pronounce every word in the date (today being 9/11) it would go like this
American- 9/11/11- when pronounced it says september 11th 2011
Europe- 11/9/11- when pronounced it says 11th of september 2011
the fact is Americans are just writing the way they pronounce it.
Honostly Ive never heard someone pronounce the date then the month then the year. (seen it written but never spoken)

It's probably been said, but the only date I know of said month-day is today. Sept 11. And only because it's practically a band name now. Also, it's an American tragedy, makes sense to use American date format.

I say all dates (as does every single person I know) in the correct, day-month-year format.

My birthday, for example, is the 28th of August. In August I say the 28th and people know it's this month.

It works quite well.

For reference, I live in Australia.

the reason i have known that we do it that way, is because of the number formatting

(smallest amount of numbers)/(second smallest amount)/(largest-infinite amount)
month/day/year
(1-12)/(1-31)/(1-99999999999999999999999999999999999999999)
also for computer purposes, dating them that way is much much handier when you are going through documents by date.

now i'm not saying that is the CORRECT way, as so many people besides americans seem to dictate, i'm just showing the reason why, at least i was taught, as to why we do that.

 

[hideomgskojima]

Right, here's my 2 pence...

America and its allies caused a bombing of a mass scale against themselves through a large chain of events which included the first gulf war.
Bin Laden and his Wahhabi friends offered help during the first gulf war to the Kingdom of Saud and were refused, because somebody else who had interests in the area (oil fields and petro dollars) had already gave them a better offer of help known as the US Military and co (AKA some UN countries and Arab league nations). The intervention of the Western militaries on Saudi soil was seen as an afront to the Wahhabi sect of Islam, which sees Saudi Arabia as Holy Land, not fit for infidel shoes to stand on.
This deepened the rift between Bin Laden and the Kingdom of Saud, also causing more hate for the Western Nations, didn't help that Afghan training camps that the CIA helped to set up in the 80's were hit by cruise missiles and other sites killing innocent civilians were hit at the same time.
Many attacks by Al-Qaeda against US soil and Sovereign soil have happened over the years, Embassy bombings, USS Cole bombing, 93 world trade centre bombing. This wasn't helped by the fact that the state that every "good" Islamic person "needs" to hate is supported by a large lobby in the US senate and Congress, Israel. Land stolen in '47, given to Jewish people from across the world, out of "guilt" and left to fight over it against the people who have been settled there under British rule for years, all under a UN mandate.

Can you see why some poeple hate the west and cause incidents like 11/9/2001 and the 7/7 bombings? Because they are treated like crap and taught in Wahhabi schools which tell them that the west is bad because we do everything that is not halal, that we are infidels, etc. this allows people like the now deceased Bin Laden to appeal to them and effectively brainwash them to their cause, not that they need much of it because the Wahhabi Imams have already done most of it.

11/09/2001 is a day that is infamous, but so is any day that mass amounts of people die, 26/12/2004, Natural but infamous, Oslo bombings and shootings, Columbine, 7/7, Lockerbie, Moscow Metro bombings, ETA Madrid train bombing. All are infamous and have cause and effect. Remember them but don't go over the top because 2,500 odd people died, look at what happened afterwards, many more people dead and just as innocent as the people in the towers that day, are their lives worth a countries revenge and money invested in contracts?

EDIT: realised I had a typo of the date of Asian boxing day quake and tsunami.

 

[thespyisdead]

my personal opinion is the people should honor the people who died, but when it all comes down to it: we should be moving on, because it happened, and there is nothing we can do to chance the events that happened 10 years ago

 

[richardsza]

there is a reason Americans write the date differently
if you were to pronounce every word in the date (today being 9/11) it would go like this
American- 9/11/11- when pronounced it says september 11th 2011
Europe- 11/9/11- when pronounced it says 11th of september 2011
the fact is Americans are just writing the way they pronounce it.
Honostly Ive never heard someone pronounce the date then the month then the year. (seen it written but never spoken)

It's probably been said, but the only date I know of said month-day is today. Sept 11. And only because it's practically a band name now. Also, it's an American tragedy, makes sense to use American date format.

I say all dates (as does every single person I know) in the correct, day-month-year format.

My birthday, for example, is the 28th of August. In August I say the 28th and people know it's this month.

It works quite well.

For reference, I live in Australia.

the reason i have known that we do it that way, is because of the number formatting

(smallest amount of numbers)/(second smallest amount)/(largest-infinite amount)
month/day/year
(1-12)/(1-31)/(1-99999999999999999999999999999999999999999)
also for computer purposes, dating them that way is much much handier when you are going through documents by date.

now i'm not saying that is the CORRECT way, as so many people besides americans seem to dictate, i'm just showing the reason why, at least i was taught, as to why we do that.

I can't believe this has turned into a date format debate. LOL.

FYI - For "computing" purposed, YYYYMMDD makes the most sense as it sorts numerically and there is no ambiguity.

 

[fudgemonkey118]

I'm British, and 17. so I was pretty young when it happened, I have no idea what I was doing when it happened, and I really don't think people need to talk about it quite so much. If I had family members who died on 11/9 (month-day-year makes no sense) I don't think I would want to be constantly reminded about it for weeks running up to the date, I would rather just mark it quietly and personally.

 

[rob_simple]

In Britain it's viewed as 11/9.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

there is a reason Americans write the date differently
if you were to pronounce every word in the date (today being 9/11) it would go like this
American- 9/11/11- when pronounced it says september 11th 2011
Europe- 11/9/11- when pronounced it says 11th of september 2011
the fact is Americans are just writing the way they pronounce it.
Honostly Ive never heard someone pronounce the date then the month then the year. (seen it written but never spoken)

It's probably been said, but the only date I know of said month-day is today. Sept 11. And only because it's practically a band name now. Also, it's an American tragedy, makes sense to use American date format.

I say all dates (as does every single person I know) in the correct, day-month-year format.

My birthday, for example, is the 28th of August. In August I say the 28th and people know it's this month.

It works quite well.

For reference, I live in Australia.

the reason i have known that we do it that way, is because of the number formatting

(smallest amount of numbers)/(second smallest amount)/(largest-infinite amount)
month/day/year
(1-12)/(1-31)/(1-99999999999999999999999999999999999999999)
also for computer purposes, dating them that way is much much handier when you are going through documents by date.

now i'm not saying that is the CORRECT way, as so many people besides americans seem to dictate, i'm just showing the reason why, at least i was taught, as to why we do that.

I can't believe this has turned into a date format debate. LOL.

FYI - For "computing" purposed, YYYYMMDD makes the most sense as it sorts numerically and there is no ambiguity.

i was just stating a reason why i knew that we did that, so many times people bash/troll on different things and don't care to learn why people do it.

and yeah, i knew someone would respond with that, and it does make the most sense, however it isn't as widely used as it should be.

 

[Soushi]

It was a tragedy, no doubt about it. It was an attack on civilians that resulted in thousands of utterly useless deaths that has only served to spread an atmosphere of fear and poison over this entire planet, an atmosphere generated by those responsible few who claim to stand for the majority.
Now, moving away from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan to what was used to justify them, the 9/11 terror attacks.

The way see it, is that America has to stop using the past to justify ignorance and intolerance in the future. Instead of using these attacks as a means by which to pull themselves together, to reassess where America and its people really stood as a unified and fortunate people who should care for each other, this tragedy has been used to justify political extremism, acts of violence and terror, the use of illegal weapons and illegal wars, treachery within their own country, torture of people both innocent and guilty (not that it really matters, its wrong always), the curtailing of the rights of their own people. The people have allowed this horrible, detestable act to be molded and spun to the point where America now seems like a country teetering on the brink.

Do yourselves a favor, let this 10 year anniversary mark the day that you stop using this tragedy as a tool. Build instead a country that you can be proud of, a country that the +3000 people who died would have wanted to see, rather than using their deaths as club and turning your country into a militaristic, intolerant, incompetent, ignorant, radical right wing cesspool (you know, the kind of country where the fucking Tea Party wouldn't stand a chance in hell of gaining any kind of power). Stop insulting the memories of those people who died and move on to build a better world.

Again, my sincerest condolences to the victims of this terrible crime, and its aftermath, and their families. I hope that in the end, the world may learn and grow from all of this and come together to build a brighter future in memory of those lost.

 

[Phas]

Ehh, I see it as americans being oversensitive, and I do find the entire "war on terror" thing that came with it ironic, considering america did kinda commit the biggest terror attack in history with the two atom bombs, which by the way killed many times more than 9/11 did.

 

[richardsza]

I can still remember where I was and what I was doing on that day. I'm sure most people can.

I can remember feeling gutted for the those poor people. I can remember the sickened feeling I had in my stomach watching the towers fall knowing people were dying at that moment.

It was a terrible thing to see and experience via television in another country, let alone in the same country, city or even street as with so many New Yorkers.

To this day, I do feel sorry for the people who lost their lives and their families and friends as I would for the victims of any tragedy; However;

Do I feel sorry for America as a country? Well, honestly no. For two reasons. Firstly, I don't believe in victim mentality. America as a country has (some may say controversially) picked themselves up, wiped the proverbial blood from their lips and given the other guys a bloody nose right back. Does that sound like a country that needs sympathy? Secondly, the world has bigger problems to worry about. There is no time for sympathy for a decade old event when things which are happening right now are much more serious.

So, my final say on the topic is. Remember the dead with honor but don't cheapen their sacrifice for ratings. Spare a moment to look over your shoulder to see where you have come from and what you have been through. Take some time to look at what is going on next to you right now. But, most importantly, look ahead and prepare yourself for what is coming.

 

[Snoozer]

Empathie for what happend, it was horrible. But when I hear 9/11 I rather think about how it was abused to justify any anti Terrorism activites.
The war against terror ruined the American image as well the country finances. The Patrot Act is just disgusting, the invasion of the Irak was just stupid. I lost all faith in the US, most reasons have something to do with the country not having develloped in the last 20 years ...

 

[Dawns Gate]

For me specifically I remember being really young and my dad just recently came back from a tour in Cyprus and we were watching the news and the attacks popped on, I remember my dad's eyes go wide and he said. "Son of a *****!" kissed me on the forehead grabbed his gear and ran out the door shouting to my grandparents "There probably gonna put everyone on standby I might be sent somewhere tonight!" It scared the hell out of me I thought that because it was in the U.S. we here in Canada were fine but seeing him in such a frenzy made me think that we were gonna get hit too.

A few months later he was sent to afghanistan.

 

[GamerAddict7796]

It's terrible that so many people died and that it sparked a war but no-one goes on about what the IRA did and the Americans funded it.

 

[Yopaz]

To those saying that Americans should "stfu and get over" 9/11. I'm curious, do you think the Japanese should "stfu and get over" the bombings in Nagasaki and Hiroshima[1]? They have a park to symbolize what happened, and every year memorialize those events. I don't live in Japan so I can't say if it is still as large a rememberance as 9/11 is to Americans toady. But it is much more recent to us. 50 years from now, when the majority of people alive on 9/11 has passed on, it will become more like Perl Harbor is today, where there are only a few left who were alive when it happened, and there are smaller ceremonies, and for most it is a date on a calendar that they might think of for a few moments, and then move on with life. 150 years from now it will be more like the Battle at Gettysburg: taught about in history books, remembered primarily because someone gave a nice speech about it (4 months after it happened), but for most people a date like any other.

But you can't deny that it was a major event in lives of the American people today. If you don't care, hey, whatever. But don't be so callous to other people's feelings. I wouldn't begrudge Japanese for marking important dates in their history, I wouldn't begrudge British people for marking the subway bombings. I won't tell you how to live. But I expect the same courtesy from you.

--
[1] Yes, I recognize the irony of an American using this as a counterexample, but I also recognize the extreme impact that would have on a people. Something some of our international friends on this forum apparently don't.

OK... so there are several differences here between the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and the September 11 attacks.
Japan might still have memorials for the dead, but they're not trying to convince the whole world that it's still a big deal to all of us and that we should show them sympathy. Japan did not start a war to get revenge ending up killing tons of civilians, in fact they pulled out of a war because of this. The death toll was a lot higher than in the September 11 attacks, even divided by how many years it's been they still got more deaths. For Japan the bombings are still relevant because the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima used uranium 235 which got a half-life of more than 100000 years meaning their cancer rates and the rates of birth defects will be spiked long after it's all forgotten.

The question here was how the international view of it is. I wont deny that it changed America somehow. It did not change the world. It did not affect us in any way but what we've experienced from participating in a war. You can't expect the whole world to have endless sympathy with you.

 

[woodsymoments]

I work as a baggage handler and i'll say that the americans were always lax about security in america to america flights pre 9/11 which was a contributing factor in allowing t terrorists easier access to hijack the planes as they iddn't have to go through stringent security checks.

 

[Kathinka]

To those saying that Americans should "stfu and get over" 9/11. I'm curious, do you think the Japanese should "stfu and get over" the bombings in Nagasaki and Hiroshima[1]? They have a park to symbolize what happened, and every year memorialize those events. I don't live in Japan so I can't say if it is still as large a rememberance as 9/11 is to Americans toady. But it is much more recent to us. 50 years from now, when the majority of people alive on 9/11 has passed on, it will become more like Perl Harbor is today, where there are only a few left who were alive when it happened, and there are smaller ceremonies, and for most it is a date on a calendar that they might think of for a few moments, and then move on with life. 150 years from now it will be more like the Battle at Gettysburg: taught about in history books, remembered primarily because someone gave a nice speech about it (4 months after it happened), but for most people a date like any other.

But you can't deny that it was a major event in lives of the American people today. If you don't care, hey, whatever. But don't be so callous to other people's feelings. I wouldn't begrudge Japanese for marking important dates in their history, I wouldn't begrudge British people for marking the subway bombings. I won't tell you how to live. But I expect the same courtesy from you.

--
[1] Yes, I recognize the irony of an American using this as a counterexample, but I also recognize the extreme impact that would have on a people. Something some of our international friends on this forum apparently don't.

OK... so there are several differences here between the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and the September 11 attacks.
Japan might still have memorials for the dead, but they're not trying to convince the whole world that it's still a big deal to all of us and that we should show them sympathy. Japan did not start a war to get revenge ending up killing tons of civilians, in fact they pulled out of a war because of this. The death toll was a lot higher than in the September 11 attacks, even divided by how many years it's been they still got more deaths. For Japan the bombings are still relevant because the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima used uranium 235 which got a half-life of more than 100000 years meaning their cancer rates and the rates of birth defects will be spiked long after it's all forgotten.

The question here was how the international view of it is. I wont deny that it changed America somehow. It did not change the world. It did not affect us in any way but what we've experienced from participating in a war. You can't expect the whole world to have endless sympathy with you.

and above all, the japanese don't get high and mighty and pretend that they did nothing to provoke this. (not saying they deserved to be bombed. you get what i mean)