What if 9/11 happened in another country?

[zehydra]

"Americans wouldn't care at all by now"

True. The reason we care so much about 9/11 is because it was an attack on civilians directed at our country. We had lived in decades of security, because nobody had ever tried something like this.

Basically, the reason we all (Americans) remembered 9/11 is because it shook the idea that America was a safe place to live.

A safe place to live? over 10000 people were killed because because of the first amendment which allows anyone to own a gun in the year 2000. I believe the figure for 11/9/2001 was around 3000.

What I meant is, safe from foreign power, from being nuked/invaded etc.

 

[funguy2121]

As sort of a response to this topic [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.312280-How-is-9-11-viewed-internationally], I want to cover a different side of the issue:
How would Americans react if this sort of thing happened in another country?
Sorry if you think I should just pose this question in the topic I linked, but I feel this is a different enough question that it can have it's own topic.

Personally, I don't give much to 9/11 even if I am American, and when it happened, sure I was sort of shocked but I also felt not much of a personal connection to it, and the only reason I thought about it was because everyone else was talking about it (I live on the other side of the country, sue me for not feeling all too connected).
I also feel that this thread is going to end up being "Americans wouldn't care at all by now." because chances are: we wouldn't. We looked at the issues that happened in Haiti and Japan, and promoted the hell out of relief efforts for both. After a month for both, people got bored of seeing "Help Haiti" or "Ganbare Nippon!" and stopped caring.

I feel sorry for you, I truly do. I don't know why you find it necessary to project so strong an image of indifference.

9-11 happens in other countries about once a week. Wake up.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

Reminds me of a really good (yet a little pretentious) song called 12/26 by Kimya Dawson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_and_tsunami
Over 200,000 estimated dead. I don't know why this disaster stuck out to me so much, but it rocked me pretty hard at the time. 9/11 did, too. It was probably the most traumatic "news event" I've witnessed that didn't affect me personally. That, and Hurricane Katrina. I didn't know anyone who died or anything, nor did I do anything to help. But still, ten years on I can't recreate that same feeling of sadness and hopelessness that everybody seems to be trying so hard to do. I guess I could rewatch United 93 (best 9/11 movie in my opinion), but I genuinely don't want to hurt myself again. Why do we have these national sad-offs any time a meaningless number of anniversaries come up? I don't get it and I don't want to.

 

[RichardThompson]

Have you heard of 7/7?

 

[OneEyeX]

If 9/11 happened in another country, you would get nothing but "that's for *insert retarded reason here*."

For instance, if it was in Europe you would get "That's for World War II!"

A little sad, really.

Sad that your hypothetical is probably untrue?

No, he's probably right. Everytime there's a disaster somewhere you can always find some group of American idiots claiming it was either "god's will because ___" or "That was for ____!"

Look to the recent Japanese disasters and the recent Earthquakes for evidence if you need to.

OT: 9/11 is about the most overblown crap I have had the displeasure of ever knowing of. When it happened it was a tragedy, sure... but now its just used as a tool for the GOP fear mongers at Fox News and the like.

This. I also think it's the reason a lot of Canadians don't really do much on 911; much like consumerism is replacing family spirit on Christmas, 911 went from Remembering Tragedy to Remembering Jingoism.

 

[Swiftkillz]

For most countries, it'd be a Tuesday. Terrorist attacks happen to other countries all the time.

Essentially, the US got mad it happened to them.

exactly

 

[maturin]

There probably would not have been a series of wars afterwards.
I can think of no other country on the earth that would use a terrorist attack by a small group of fanatics as a reason to declare war on another nation(s).

And Russia?

This. I also think it's the reason a lot of Canadians don't really do much on 911; much like consumerism is replacing family spirit on Christmas, 911 went from Remembering Tragedy to Remembering Jingoism.

That's because the jingoism is ongoing, whereas 9/11 was an event that already happened. Give it time.

But your analogy is extremely poor. 9/11 was a fiery ball of incomprehensible death and horror. Only our response to it (disastrous jingoism) has meaning, inherent importance and global consequences. Ten years is a good span of time to reflect on tragedy, but also a good distance from which to assess history. 3,000 deaths is just a statistic, a fraction of the annual drunk-driving body count, except when viewed through the lens of what happened next, what went wrong or right.

Edit: And for everyone mentioning tsunamis and earthquakes, natural disasters almost never have lasting historical or societal consequences. 9/11 isn't about the bodycount. Norway's small attack could be equally telling on that country.

 

[DannyHale09]

Americans would not care and barely anyone would know about it apart from people in that country. 9/11 has been 'blown' way out of proportion.

 

[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.

I poted that in another 9/11 forum andit is significantly harder to attempt to hijack a plane nowdays because of all the security going onto a flight.

 

[NinjaTigerXIII]

If 9/11 happened in Germany, England, France, Japan, any country on Earth I would be pissed. Terrorism is a blight on the human race and terrorists are worse then the scum of the Earth. I have never forgotten 9/11, and I never will, if it happened in any other country I feel like nothing would of changed, I would of felt the same and I would mourn for them the same way.

 

[Yopaz]

I can think of no other country on the earth that would use a terrorist attack by a small group of fanatics as a reason to declare war on another nation(s).

Austro-Hungarian Empire?

It is funny that you mentioned that, It came to mind when I wrote the post. But then I realized the question was not "What would have happened, if 9/11 happened in another country and in another point of time?"

Although that certainly would make for some fun scenarios. I wonder how the pharaos would have reacted to two planes crashing their pretty, shiny pyramids.

Dude, how do you think the Sphinx lost its nose?

OT: I was around when the terror in Norway happened and well, we didn't jump to conclusions. The bomb went off and the news called it an explosion for a few hours until it was confirmed it was a deliberate act of terror. Many didn't even believe it was terror before they heard the final confirmation. I remember I was paying a lot of attention to the news not knowing if any of my friends were OK.

However our reaction afterwards can't be compared with the reactions to the September 11 attacks. You were attacked by a foreign terror cell that even tried to get Pentagon. We were attacked by one Norwegian who was against our current government and immigration.
How do we reply to that? To separate ourselves from him we want more immigrants and we want to vote for those who rule now again. We answered by sanding together and loving one another. It's impossible to say what we would have done if it was caused by someone from Afghanistan. We probably would retort to racism, but we're not big enough to start a war by ourselves.

 

[Jazoni89]

As sort of a response to this topic [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.312280-How-is-9-11-viewed-internationally], I want to cover a different side of the issue:
How would Americans react if this sort of thing happened in another country?
Sorry if you think I should just pose this question in the topic I linked, but I feel this is a different enough question that it can have it's own topic.

Personally, I don't give much to 9/11 even if I am American, and when it happened, sure I was sort of shocked but I also felt not much of a personal connection to it, and the only reason I thought about it was because everyone else was talking about it (I live on the other side of the country, sue me for not feeling all too connected).
I also feel that this thread is going to end up being "Americans wouldn't care at all by now." because chances are: we wouldn't. We looked at the issues that happened in Haiti and Japan, and promoted the hell out of relief efforts for both. After a month for both, people got bored of seeing "Help Haiti" or "Ganbare Nippon!" and stopped caring.

We did, it was called the 7/7 bombings which happened in London on July 7th 2005.

Two bombs went off (one on a bus, and one on the tube) killing 56 people, and injuring 700 others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings

That's not even counting the London blitz in World War two, and the various IRA bombings that have happened over the years.

You don't see us going on about those now, do you? America seriously needs to bury the hatchet. That way, America can move forward from this.

America needs to learn that no country is safe from terror attacks, even the most safest of countries.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

I have a hard time believeing that anyone would care just as much as the americans did.

Terrorist attack here in Norway was just 2 months ago and people are already acting like it hardly even happened.

Personally i never felt anything about it even when it was recent so our 9/11 if you will had no impact on me what so ever. Some people got completely riled up though, but not many even talk about it now.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

I don't think people would care.
Also all these people talking about the IRA the worst attack of the troubles was done by loyalist paramilitarys with the aid and support of the British government who never even said sorry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_and_Monaghan_bombings

 

[renegade7]

For most countries, it'd be a Tuesday. Terrorist attacks happen to other countries all the time.

Essentially, the US got mad it happened to them.

Not mad that 3000 people were killed?

 

[Condor219]

For a 3rd world nation: "That's what you get for being a war-torn shithole."
For a moderately developed nation: "Seems you don't have everything in order, do you? Should have developed sooner like us."
For a major power: GO GET EM *insert country here*!
For China: "Who did this? Somebody give them a medal!" or "S'what you get for hogging all the world's people."

9/11 was way too hyped up.

 

[Scytail]

The thing that really really pisses me off about the whole 9/11 thing is that our government couldn't even pass the Zadroga Bill granting the heroes of 9/11 FREE HEALTHCARE for all the horrible crap they were exposed to. It took them 9 years to finally pass the bill, and leave it to our government to kick someone in the nuts while they are already down, IT DOESNT COVER CANCER! It covers carpal tunnel but not cancer. The one thing that is slowly and painfully killing those brave individuals and our government says there isn't enough science behind those that claim that toxic dust causes cancer.


And they are heroes. To selflessly give your time, money, and now health and life in most cases, to bring piece of mind to the families that lost someone in those towers by sifting through that toxic pile of garbage for even the smallest piece of human remains is an act of selfless sacrifice and they are getting shat upon by our fucking government.