Ten years after 9/11, did the terrorists win?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
As our country prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, there's no doubt we were forever changed on that sunny Tuesday morning in September 2001.
One of Osama bin Laden's biggest victories was to make millions of Americans afraid.
So afraid that most of us stopped questioning our government – whether it meant launching unnecessary wars, removing some of our civil liberties, eroding constitutional rights, ignoring international treaties like the Geneva Conventions or torturing detainees.
So afraid that intrusive government security, especially invasive pat-downs and X-rays at airports, became the norm.
So afraid that we let politicians manipulate our fear to win elections and use Americans' deaths to advance their own agendas.
So afraid that in the name of national security, we've allowed the ill-defined wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to drag on. Thousands of lives and trillions of dollars gone. Along with our once dominant position as the world's biggest superpower.
Bin Laden is, fortunately, dead and gone now, but not before accomplishing much of what he set out to do on 9/11.
On Thursday, a USA Today/Gallup Poll shows almost 1 in 5 Americans say the terrorists have won. Have they? Or have we defeated ourselves?
How much of the way our life has changed in the last 10 years is a result of that single act of terrorism on 9/11, and how much of it is because we allowed ourselves to succumb to our fears and in the process surrender much of what we have always been most proud?
Here’s my question to you: Ten years after 9/11, did the terrorists win?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Richard in Kansas:
Let's see: we’ve spent billions of borrowed dollars on security, invaded two countries at a cost of thousands of American lives and trillions of borrowed dollars with nothing to show for it, squandered any sympathy or good will the world felt for us, gone from being admired around the world to being loathed for our heavy-handed tactics, and we’ve seen the rise of right wing extremism here at home. Yeah I'd say that’s a good day's work for any nineteen men.
Bob in Orlando:
Jack, The terrorists did not win and here's why: We still have our democracy. Throughout our nation's history, our blood has been shed for the sake of freedom whether it be from the Revolutionary War to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our country is somewhat safer now and the one thing that has stood the test of time is our resolve. Our democracy gets stronger once confronted by any foe. The fact is that we have these cowards on the run. We took the blow (9/11) and continue to move forward.
Yuri in Florida:
I get patted down every time I fly. Having a repaired knee filled with screws and metal plates does not help. A few months ago as I was patted down, I was looking all around me and saw a team of TSA agents pat down a crippled lady in a wheel chair. And right across a breastfeeding mother was getting the pat down. Her baby was patted down too.
Stephen on Facebook:
We lost. We are still afraid. We are broke. Our status in the world is slipping quickly, as is every metric of health and happiness.
Jerry in Huntington Beach, California:
Yes, bin Laden won the war. He put the leaders of this country in a fear-frenzy and they panicked and overreacted. Trillions of dollars and thousands of lives have been wasted with no guarantee that some group of terrorists cannot attack us any time. The war on terror, like the war on drugs, is really a war on the fabric of America.
@jackcafferty on Twitter
Yep. Our nation is in tatters. We are mired in wars that we can't win. Air travel is a nightmare. Mission accomplished.
Bin Laden's stated goal was to bankrupt the United States. Mission accomplished.
the purpose of the 9-11 attacks was to BANKRUPT THE U.S.A.
Why is everything a win or lose? Consider 9/11 a tie. Did this country change? of course, but briefly. SHould we have kept an eye on the economy before 9/11? without question. Terrorists are everywhere, even here. At best we try to contain and prevent, before it happens. We are not stopping potential, we are trying to locate where it might be. Consider 10 years later a draw, for now.
No, but they are have come close to Osama's bin Laden stated plan, which was to get us in a war in the Middle East and "bleed us dry."
In my case .No they did not win. I DO NOT HATE THE MUSLIM FAITH .I did not go out seeking revenge by hating my fellow man.
I believe there is one God of many faces and teachings.Most ,if not all faiths teach us to love of our neighbor.
Love triumphs over hate everytime!
Ask the troops still mired in Afghanistan, families of those killed or maimed there. And ask Grandma every time she gets 'violated' at the airport. Hmmm. Good question, Jack.
They managed to assist the 2 party special interest congress to regurgitate the negative side effects of fossil fuel as an excuse to destroy our sustainable environment while insuring that $ Billions will empower the very 3rd world cultures that are getting more commitment to nation building than our own country and people
If the ultimate goal is to level the playing field in terms of the disparity in wages between American workers and those in other countries, then we should all prepare ourselves for a very very long period of high unemployment. This country doesn't need more construction jobs and shovel redy projects, it needs manufacturing jobs. This trend of shipping manufacturing overseas is not only a stab in the back of the American worker, its downright dangerous.
Not yet- the war's not over. If Afghanistan, Iraq, and the nations of the Middle East who support terrorists become democratic nations then unfortunately they lost. The war is not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, Quadaffi's fall in Libya is a huge step for the war on terror.
In the sense that they drove us to spend ourselves to the brink of economic extinction, I would say they have come close to succeeding. Have they won? Only when they pry it from my cold, dead hand, which is the only thing of worth to come out of the NRA.
Those that actually hijacked the aircraft died along with everyone else so No, they did not win. Those that they left behind however capitalized from the attention furthering their cause across the globe and recruitment went wild when America attacked Iraq and Afghanistan. Before that time the enemy was only a perception in the minds of the terrorists. Once America invaded Iraq and Afghanistan the enemy became America. It became a self fulfilling prophecy Jack. A small hand full of hijackers started a knee jerk reaction in Washington that created 3 different wars lasting over 10 years and costing America not just trillions of dollars and lives but it's respect and standing in the world. So much so that now America must borrow money just to function. Did the terrorists win? Lets just say that America defeated itself from within.
Jack: NO!! The terrorist lost the battle at every turn, but the cost in blood was over 5000 young men and women of our military. In addition, our fellow NATO military personnel from Canada and Europe. Freedom is not free, and the true cost comes as military veterans who were wounded or lost limbs need more support. The United States of America did not fold under the pressure, it got stronger. We killed many of the terrorist who attacked us on September 11th, and finnally Osama bien Laden was killed. HOORAY!! For S.E.A.L. Six. Remember, evil exist when good men and women do nothing, I wish that was my quoto. Evil will always lose in the end, Jack.
If bankrupting our country with Geo Bush and dick Cheney at the helm, then yes, they did succeed. By the way, GOP lower taxes champions: Economics 101 says you can't cut revenue (tax cuts) at the same time you greatly increase spending (by starting 2 wars without worrying about how we pay for them) without causing a huge deficit.
Yes. They flew an airplane into the side of American self-confidence and brought it crashing to the ground. So far, it hasn't been re-built.
Sure they have. Osama's goal was to bankrupt the USA. Mission accomplished. (Thanks to our government and the Great Decider.)
Yes they did Jack. They brought down our buildings, killed innocent civilians, and financially bankrupt the United States. They also spun us into a never ending war all over the world with unknown enemies. I don't know Al-Quida from the people walking around me. Not to mention the fear they have instilled in generations of Americans. Every time I look at the memorial built at ground zero I will be remembered for the complacentcy of airport screeners that got us into this mess in the beginning.
I don't think the terrorists won. I think our federal government won, and we citizens have lost. In the past 10 years. The Bill of Rights is not worth the paper its written on. We cannot travel freely anymore. You don't want a long comment, I know, but for 10 years now, the government has systematically destroyed the freedoms of the individual American. All under the ruse of 'protection' and 'security'. And we need to wake up before it's too late.
Having to ask the question answers the question does it not?
When you do not have to ask the question again, then you will know that terrorists have been defeated.
How do we get there? When governments of the world, including the US, can enable or provide all that is necessary for each man, woman and child to have peace, security, happiness and meaningfulness. Can this happen?
Al Qaeda has achieved in ten years on a comparable shoestring nearly the same outcome as the U.S. achieved when outspending the former Soviet Union to a point of breaking thier Communist bank. However, the real winners on the War on Terror turned out to be our very own Wall Street fat cats who still know how to profit from each and every available opportunity. True American ingenuity cannot be defeated by a few non-profit terrorists.
No, they are still playing the game. Until all terrorist are gone the game isn't over. We should bring all our troops home from the middle east and let them go back to their old ways. You can't have democracy where religion is the basis for all the evil they want to do.
Without question the answer is yes. Have you ever sat back and though about how much it cost the terrorists to pull off 9/11? We pay the price everyday in terms of $$'s and lost liberties.
John in Tampa
Yes. countries around the world big and small spend trillions of dollars each year on security because of what the terrorists did on 9/11. And the terrorists will continue to win until moderate Muslims around the world "step up" and realize the fear of being killed if they speak out will eventually destroy the countries around the world where they have immigrated and where most of the trillions of dollars is spent. It is simply foolhardy to continue to keep up this kind of security forever. Non muslims cannot destroy Islamic terrorism alone can't moderate muslims see this?
No terrorists never win. They only loose and they are bunch of cowards and loosers.
Yes, they did Jack, with the cooperation and lack of foresight of the Bush administration. We used to pride ourselves on our constitutional rights to privacy, and with Cheney's machinations we have the Patriot Act which no real patriot should ever abide. Now you know your phone conversations and emails are monitored. l We used to be the country that would not torture or accept violations of the rule of our law, and now we have waterboarding and Gitmo, and the ability of the government to disappear citizens without due process. They wanted us to bankrupt ourselves, and with two pointless wars, we have. Worst of all we have evolved into a fearful, paranoid, and (if the Republican debate was any example), crazy country. I thought it could never happen here, but I would say they might not have won, but we have certainly lost.
Look at us Jack. We get beat up, and the bully/killer still roams. The Seals killed bin Laden(thank you, very much). But, al Qaeda and the Taliban still controls our fears, movements, and Afghanistan. We damn near have to strip to get on a plane. We're scrutinized at every turn. Not to mention the world hates us, for invading the WRONG country. Bin Laden said he'd break us financially. And he sure did. So, yes Jack, the terrorists won, we are still in fear.... And it's just the way the Defence industry and it's Lobbyists, wants it too.
I'm not sure who has won. It's either the terrorists that have done what they said they would do: bog the US down into decades-long ground wars and bankrupt us. Or perhaps the progressives and neocons hell bent on stealing our liberties, our sound money, and our property.
Ron Paul in 2012...
unfortunately YES, Jack, esp in the airline industry. two years after 9-11, I retired as an atrline pilot early because I got sick and tired of being treated like a potential hijacker every time I went through TSA "security". it's pure "security theater". all for show and doesn't really make air travel safer.
so when it comes to ait travel, al-Qaeda has won because they have changed the way passengers and airline employees are treated.
No, but they achieved their biggest goal. Osama bin Laden said that he would bankrupt America and after two wars and billions spent on securing the homeland we are teetering on the brink of doing so.
If winning resembles America fighting 2 wars for to long, the death of 1000's of our brave American soldiers, 10's of 1000's of America's military with severe injuries & poor medical care, Billions of non existent dollars spent on preventing future attacks, A homeland Security Dept. that hasn't made us more secure, a country politically divided with no end in sight, +++++. Well Jack, I'd say it's a good start.
David, Las Vegas
No I don't think they did win or are winning. I think we limited their possibilities of attacking us. I think the way the Middle East is changing is not in their favor. Terrorist are like cockroaches there will always be some nut who wants to get a name for himself claiming god is behind him. There will always be a place to hide for them to hide. This a war that will never end. But invading countries who have known terrorist is not the answer either. All that will do is help to destroy us within. We need to hit them and then get the hell out the way Israel does it.
Bin Laden got his 70 Virgins, and we got Thunder Muffin. The Terrorist by a landslide. Doug. Pepperell, MA.
Dear Mr. Cafferty. The simple answer is yes the terrorists are winning. Their goal is to destroy western civilization as we know it. History shows that past Empires collapse. U,S.S.R. and certain Arab countries and their unfriendly leaders are examples. Let all people of principal united and preserve a just society for all. In the USA, Mr. Bush, his tricky Dick and the teabaggers have lower the standards of your home land. In BC, as an example. the right wing are dead wrong but they will destroy our "Best`place on earth status`. Mr. Cafferty and your main man Wolf, we need you help, as do others..
No. But eight years of George Bush, and about three years of Republican obstructionism on behalf of a de facto American aristocracy, has done more to damage my country than the events of 9/11. No foreign terrorist can strip us of our liberty, but our government can, if we let it.
Absolutely. We have given up our civil liberties, killed a million people, bombed and destroyed thousands of buildings and infratstructure in iraq, afghanistan, and pakistan, spent 3 trillion dollars and we are bankrupt from homeland security, cia, and defense spending. We are morally and fiscally dead from anti-terrorism overdose and now we have al queda rebels running libya thanks to obama. While we were bombing and occupying countries for the last ten years, the banks, and wall street stole trillons of dollars, and the big corporations took away all our good jobs to china and india never to return again. Charter schools, and tax cuts will not save us, we are done.
Ten years after 9/11, did the terrorists win?
In twenty years, perhaps, but now it is a draw!
Iraq is drifting toward the Iranian Camp. The opium poppy crops are the largest ever.
As the Americans draw down in Afghanastan, the Taliban is taking back territory.
Sodom Hussein and Osama bin Laden are dead. Maybe 150,000 Iraqii are dead.
But:
5,000 Americans are dead.
50,000 Americans are maimed.
Countless Americans' minds are messed up.
America is more divided than in decades–and this divisiveness has reached Congress itself.
America's debt has tripled.
Across America National Guard Units' equipment lies in shambles.
Useless equipment that lies unaccounted for
in the costs of the Moslem Wars.
America's economy lies in shambles!
Unaccounted for
in the costs of the Moslem Wars.
Is America going to manage to recover?
In ten more years we will know if the terrorists were victorious.
It will depend on America's leaders in the next decade.
Absolutely not. If we've proven one thing in the last decade, it's that even an attack as horrifying as 9/11 cannot deal permanent damage to America. I am sure that the majority of people who get on airplanes post-9/11 don't sit in anguish worrying that they might be the next flight hijacked. Rather, they remember the example of United 93 and the thwarted shoe bombing 3 months later and think about what they will do if something does happen on their flight. Ultimately, 9/11 has brought resolve, not terror, into our everyday lives.
Bin Laden's stated goal was to hurt us economically. He did, we started to recover, and now politicians are finishing the job.
HI jACK
Long time,No they didn't win.well, put it this way,they won against Bush and that guy Chenney,who went to protect their oil investment before they were going to be kicked out of the White House.but President Obama picked up the slack and got the Rat from out of his Fort that Bush and Chenney let him build.so no they didn't win.Our military will always be the best.
Clearwater Fl Gary T
Jack: I was wondering when someone would ask that question-- No they did not win. But we did not lose either, however, we are in a worse situation trying to coming out of war than going in.
In one sense Jack, Yes, they won. They succeded in changing the way we fly, increased the cost of security everywhere, nearly bankrupted the nation fighting two wars, cost us some freedoms and privacy, and continue to do so every day.
They broke our hearts, Jack, but they did not break America.
Yes - kind of like Japan won at Pearl Harbor. We got caught unprepared for a new kind of attack and were clobbered. We retooled, mobilized, got more savvy and took the fight to them in Iraq, Afghanistan and a number of other places. Many, many more of "them" are dead because of their "win" on 9/11 than if they had not done this. Their newly elected leaders can hardly get through their investiture meeting without getting whacked. It's still a dengerous world, Jack, but you decide if they won the battle at the expense of the war.
There are no winners except we have the upper hand on the situation. It should bring us all great pride to know that we will be celebrating the 10th year anniversity and Osama is not around to gloat! May he burn in hell forever...
Jack,
Like it or not, I truly think they did win. Terrorism goes on in other countries all the time. These murders destroy the Twin towers in New York, and totally ruin our economy, It sounds simple to me, but I still can't understand how this would destroy us as a country, but in my opinion, it has. I'am in no way making lite of what happened on 9/11. If people think back to that date, this is when our way of life started to end, since that day, things will continue to get worse for us. It just doesn't seem like we are bouncing back from this, as we should be?
No, Jack, they did not. Their goal was a global Caliphate with bin Laden as Caliph. For obvious reasons, that will never happen. They not only lost, they lost big.
I can't exactly explain it but 9/11 was the 'straw that broke the camels back'. Trust @ that very moment went out the window with the dish water. When "WE" can't protect this country from radical 'mopheads' we got problems ~~~ but they ((the terrorists)) still didn't do as much damage to this country as our own lawmakers have! inc: the "BIG!" " O "!
The terrorists have won a moral victory they have confused "US" on what's right and what is wrong. Just one example is should they be tried in a civilian court or a military one and look how long it's been and our government has done neither.
IRMC...I rest my case
Let's see, weve spent billions of borrowed dollers on security, invaded two countries at a cost of thousnds of American lives and billions of borrowed dollars with nothing to show for it, squandered any sympathy or good will the world felt for us, gone from being admired around the world to being loathed for our heavy handed tactics, and weve seen the rise of right wing extremism here at home. Yeah i'd say thats a good day's work for any nineteen men.
Unfortunatley YES. The amount of money spent in the name of security has all but bankrupted the US.
Admit it, they scored one hell of a payback on us we pay for, and are inconvenienced by, each day since, and probably will forever. You bully long enough and some little guy is going to fight back eventually. We allowed overzealous operatives and military people to plant the seeds that grew into monsters by seducing and interrupting their countries until it came to a boil. And as usual, innocent people died instead of so-called leaders, just like wars, makes me sick.
Jack,
The terrorists did not win and here's why: We still have our democracy. Throughout our nation's history our blood has been shed for the sake of freedom whether it be from the Revolutionary War to the Wars in Aghanistan and Iraq. Our country is somewhat safer now and the one thing that has stood the test of time is our resolve. Our democracy gets stronger once confronted by any foe. Time heels all wounds, but we shall always remember those who died that day and the fact remains that we have these cowards on the run. We took the blow (9/11) and continue to move forward. We still realize that we are the World's Greatest Hope because several countries wish they have what we have. Freedom is not a given because there are those who seek to destroy what they fail to understand or comprehend. We were staggered but are determined to seek proper justice. Gone are Bin Laden and the ones who were chosen to replace him. There's still much to do.and we are on the proper track. Kudos to everyone who are keeping our country safe both at home and overseas. God Bless All and God Bless the families who lost loved ones on that dreadful day. The fallen are never forgotten because they are the fiber that keeps us strong.
By all accounts yes. We lost a significant amount liberties and freedoms thorugh the Department of Homeland Security. They have made us fearful of Muslims as pointed out in CNN's The Muslims Next Door. The random security alerts like the one now on a 'lone wolf' terrorist have made us even more nervous. TSA and eavesdropping agencies have taken away our privacy. Over 4,000 dead American soldiers and 13,000 wounded during a decade of two wars. Those wars have cost us over a trillion dollars. I'd call that a victory, and they made us do it to ourselves.
We spent a lot of money, sent troops where they didn't need to be, gave up personal and civil liberties along with privacy of any kind all in the name of making us feel safer. To quote FDR "we have nothing to fear except fear itself".
Gary MO
Not yet – I hope.
We blew it from 9/12 on – all of us. What no one understands, then and now, is that 9/11 was the first salvo in a financial war, and we all walked right into Osama bin Laden’s trap. Those of us who sold our stocks at the earliest opportunity after 9/11, fell for it. Bush, who dropped the ball in Afghanistan and went into Iraq, fell for it. Congress which has done absolutely nothing to bolster our financial system and continues in every imaginable way to wreck our economy, fell for it. The Tea Party which eggs on Congress in its war on the middle class, fell for it. And the Supreme Court which, by overturning the more intelligent lower court’s ruling on Citizens United v. FEC, allow foreign entities (such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban) to secretly fund political agendas in our country, fell for it. And we are still falling for it today by putting all our effort and resources into fighting an all but non-existent war on terrorism, instead of fighting the far more important war on our economy.
Although OBL is dead, his legacy, for lack of a better term, is winning up to this point. If we are smart – and this president isn’t – we will redirect what is left of our resources and fight the real war – if it isn’t too late.
The terrorists have not won nor have we won. The danger of a terrorist attack will always be in our future. we may defeat one group but another group will take its place.
The battle against terrorism will never be over. We must be vigilant forever more. There will be terrorist incidents, but nothing close to the magnitude of 9/11. Living with airport security is just the way it is. Our presidents don't ride around in open convertibles anymore either
es Bin Laden won the war. He put the leaders of this country on a fear frenzy and they panicked and over reacted. The appropriate response should have been a covert police action coupled with targeted military attacks and not a full scale invasion. Trillions of dollars and thousands of lives have been wasted with no guaranty that some group of terrorists cannot attack us any time. The war on terror like the war on drugs is really a war on the fabric of America.
Jerry
Huntington Beach, CA
Well, bin Laden wanted to destroy us financially, and with a big heaping help from a war mongering, tax breaks for the rich, deregulating Bush adminstration, that's what happened. So, yes. As an added bonus, Republicans saw what they wrought and have doubled down on the crazy. Who could have guessed that these "patriots" would try to finish what bin Laden started?
Oh yes they did, big time. All we need do is look to Russia and see our future if we do not change our ways.
The USA on its way to self destruct from the inside. Pres. Linclon said it quite well lo thos many years ago.
A house divided cannon stand.
We are broke, and yet pump more money into a war that cannot be won., a war that broke Russia and we did not learn, can;t happen to us, jus can,t but it is.
Remember your world history and Bible lessons.
A man came to light a little over 2000 years ago. He light an smoldering idea and it took hold. The romans tried to put it out, The Jews healped as much as they could. The jews lost thier homeland and the Romans went bust and lost all they had.
You can't kill the fire of an idea once it gets a good hold. The more one trys the brighter it burn. Trying to smother it just feeds it and it burns brighter until it destroys every thing in its path.
I will say again, the only way The US wins, survives this is to let it go. You cannot save your house by letting your neighbors burn. It will take yours with it
It is almost past time to save one another get along, work togeather and not against each other. An idea can only be changed trough giving a better idea and not by killing some who have that idea. The rest will just get stronger. We do not have enough gold and bombs to stop it. METALWORKER IN IL
No absoultly not. In fact they made the biggest mistake of their lives. You never awaken a sleeping tiger and that is what the USA has always been if attacked. Even as a tiger sometimes we take to long to stalk the prey before we pounce. You see we have something the terrorist do not a heart and true care for mankind in general. On 911 they proved it is not a religous war against us it is just pure hate. Not one Muslim I know has any hate in their heart but the terrorist thugs thrive on it and they could be of any religion.
There is no "winner" in war, Jack. That is a lesson learned centuries ago but has gone unheeded or intentionally ignored and buried to allow for more wars that cannot be won. War is Hell, Jack, as the saying goes and war is one Hell of a business. Just ask Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove and the Bush's. Here's a question you might answer for us, Jack..."What was Cheney's monetary worth before taking office and what is his worth now?" We just might have ourselves a winner there, Jack.
Thom Richer
Negaunee, MI
The terrorist won at demonstrating that the USA is vulnerable. We have become a fat empire that is following the footsteps of many before us. The good old USA is spreading ourselves thin and unable to protect our country as well as we should. If we would get the meatheads out of office, bring our troops home and reduce our government, we may be able to get to a point of learning from our mistakes and only then can we say that the terrorist have not won. Unfortunately, too many polititions that are making a career out of it and expanding our govt. to a point were we are no longer effective at much.
There are no winners when humans kill each other Jack.
Since 9/11 we invaded the wrong county Iraq, costing a trillion dollars and thousands of innocent Iraqi lives, including our own wrongly deployed soldiers lives and limbs. That’s a loser.
We are still in Afghanistan ten years later, Bin Laden is dead, and the casualties and body count continues to pile up in 2011’s Viet Nam like war. That’s a loser.
The terrorists haven't won, but they are ahead on points. This is not the county I grew up in. Much of what is being done today in the name of anti-terrorism is the same type of government surveillance, repression and coercion that we used to condemn in the Soviets and Maoists. Leaders in the Republican party advocate torturing people. To its discredit, the Obama administration has not prosecuted violations of American law regarding torture. It is now accepted practice for police to taze and beat people, sometimes to death. Civil discourse has been redefined to mean shouting down anyone who tries to speak, and stomping anyone who stands up for their right to speak. Civil rights means the right to openly hate, suppress the vote, and occasionally kill children for the crime of being brown citizens of Hispanic descent. Rather than condemn these vigilante killers, many politicians encourage them and court their support. The lower the rate of violent crime, the more fear of violence is used to turn one group of Americans against another. The economic devastation caused by the overreaches of the financial firms will be around for years, but no one seems to be interested in actually addressing any of the causes of the disaster. Laws are broken repeatedly, with impunity, by the "job creator" class. Now that I think about it, the terrorists have destroyed America. With a lot of help from our own citizens.
I think it has changed the posture of our country. It has put us on the defensive and away from the offensive position we have practiced since WW2. Maybe time itself and the reality of the world today has dictated such a change, but 9/11 has put it in a very tangilbe perspective.
Ten years after 9/11, did the terrorists win?
Let us Thank God and take that as a Win, that He has kept us for 10 years without another.
The terrorists took away our common sense and morality. We allowed our own government to use the attacks as the excuse to run roughshod over the Constitution and our treasury. Put worthless security procedures into place because we feared ourselves and go into wars that had nothing to do with our security or well being. Bin Laden pulled the pin but Bush and Cheney threw the grenade. They were looking for any excuse to invade Iraq and 911 was it. Then they totally mismanaged everything causing unnecessary loss of life until we are now broken morally and financially as a nation because we were fearful sheep unto our own “Bad Shepard”.
If their goal was to destroy the American way of life then I would say yes, but only because we allowed this to happen. Im sure Al Queda was thrilled to see America go all the way into two costly wars, they like to see our freedoms erased and nothing makes them happier than a failing US economy. Aside from Bin Ladin's death, how have we benefit from this War on Terror? No one believes that we are any safer than we were the morning of 9/11 so with all the money we have spent and the thousands of American lives we have lost, who do you think the winner is?
By no means have they won. Sure we have more policy's that invade our privacy, but because of those policy we have caught more of the bad guys. So if their original goal of the 9/11 attacks was to unite us and self destruct themselves, then they have succeeded.
Yes, because they showed the world that we are cowards, not our brave military men and women, but us ordinary citizens who allowed our government to re-write the way we live. They proved that we are a society of immediate gratifiers. They planned that attack for year and we revenged that attack in weeks. Our goivernment satisfied our needs as spoiled citizens to feel immediately safe. We were supposed to be better than that, they proved we were not. It wasn't like they were going toi invade us like D-day, bur we reacted like they could. We got schooled Jack, like the bully does in so many hollywood movies
In the fall of 1969 as a combat Marine I boarded a plane and left South Vietnam.
I was extremely fortunate and left no body parts behind, but it took me over thirty years to recapture the piece of my soul I left there.
It wasn't until I learned to love myself again in order to no longer wish to live with that injustice and that fear. I became whole again, as the soul is pure love.
I've watched how my fellow Americans have acted and felt these last ten years, and believe me when I say you must give up all hope of changing the past, let us all learn again to love ourselves and all others so we can go back to living in peace and liberty.
As a child I asked my Mother why most cars were black, factories had widows painted and Church Towers had no Bells. She answered it was the war. We did what we had to do. Cars painted black to conserve, Factories painted windows to work at night. The School Bell Towers and Churches donated their bells to build the greatest Army the World has ever known.Our Union made the scarifices to our government to secure our Life Liberty and Pursuit of Happines as paramount.
When terrorists of 9/11 attacked our government demanded our union to step up again. They didn't ask us to work at nite or donate materials or buy bonds. They demanded instead our Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness. The reason of coarse is a government Of, For and By, the government. We lost by default!!!
Jack,
I don't believe so. People still travel by plane, and still travel to foreign countries. Also, new World Trade Center buildings are being, or will be, built. So long as life goes on, in spite of what I feel are, for the most part, minor inconveniences, the terrorists haven't won. Though it is time to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Expat – Vancouver, BC, Canada
No. But eight years of George Bush, and about three years of Republican obstructionism on behalf of a de facto American aristocracy, has done more to damage my country than the events of 9/11. No foreign terrorist can strip us of our liberty, but our government can, if we let it.
Yes many politicians capitalized on 9/11 until we began to remember the Words of A great President who reminded us "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself". Then my soul said we are being taken by our own president and the money and fame that can be taken from this sad event. And now another man of the people was able to capture and kill the root of the attack. Thanks for publishing that information today.
It also makes clear that a majority of our government leaders are taking advantage of "we the people" by corrupt methods to further take our country down a path of destruction while lining their pockets with cash. We the people had better begin to think twice about who will profit from the corruption in congress, they or we the people. Another great quote is "what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul"...It's time to stop supporting politicians. And support the American people and a way of life that benefits all...We once called this "In God we Trust" until a group of politicians stole the quote and perverted it..
I wouldn't say they won, but they may have a slight lead if you don't count the economic defeat that we severely suffered.
Jack,
I would say to a good degree the Terrorists did win. They accomplished a lot of their goals of causing turmoil in the U.S., causing people to surrender their rights to the government and causing the U.S. to waste trillions of dollars both domestically and abroad. They wanted to "gum up the works", and they have succeeded.
But the amount of contribution by them was about 1/3, the other 2/3's we did to ourselves. This was done by acting out of irrationality, fear and anger. We let the Bush/Cheney administration get away with a lot, and they did a great job of fearmongering and lying to get what they wanted. Now the current administration is following suit. We need to get out of Afghanistan & Iraq, bring our people home. Spend that money on projects here at home that can help the U.S. economy. We also need to get the Robber Baron's on Wall Street under control, they are bleeding this country dry.
Finally Congress needs to do its job and serve the people and not the special interests and its lobbyists. We need to clean up our house first, then we can worry again about the rest of the world. And next time we should be smarter about it.
Jack, thats one of your most eloquent and well written opinions I've heard in a long time. I wholeheartedly agree with everything you wrote and can't add much. The terrorists planted the seed of fear in our minds, and our collective psyches did the rest. Our obsession with security at all costs ironically cost us all some of our own freedom and peace of mind, and dare I say exposed us as the fearful society we are.
No Jack the terrorists did not win. If anything the attacks on 9/11 has made the U.S. stronger. We now have a better sense of awareness, preparedness, and tighter security as preventative measures. For the terrorists to have won they would have had to accomplished another successful attack on the U.S. Which they have not! They may have won a battle on 9/11 but the U.S. is winning the war.
They did win, and continue to win not from their action, but from ours. Osama Bin Laden certainly wanted to attack the financial center of the United States to cripple us, and look where we are now. Financially crippled. The 9/11 attacks were just the pin prick to the heart. We will destroy ourselves in the aftermath through war, fear and arrogance that we are invincible. It's brilliant if you think about it.
The terroists of 9/11 killed over 3000 people. Our government let over 4000 of our military get killed by sending them to Afganistan and Iraq. Did the terrorist win? U Betcha!
Jack,
I'd have to say we defeated ourselves and would have without 9/11. 9/11 was tragic, espescially for the families of the World Trade Center and now the First Responders who are dying much too young. My point is even without 9/11 we'd still be where we are today. We became complacent as a society and let all that is good in this country be usurped by those who believe "Greed is Good", to quote movie character Gordon Gecko. We've voted for people who use emotional arguments like abortion or gay marriage to distract us from thier real agendas which are getting re-elected and helping the rich get richer. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would have happened one way or the other given the propensity of the former administration to make war.
No. The terrorists were just lucky because we weren't prepared. I thought at the time the best way to get them was a small, super-trained strike force using superior intelligence to strike the leadership and base camps. Instead, untrained militarily, Bush went after a fly with a sledge-hammer. This is where the failure was and still is. You do not use a large standing army to go after terrorists.
Perhaps 10 years ago we needed the fear, after all our country was under attack. Sometimes to deal with a crisis the government needs emergency powers. The scary part is that even after the emergency the powers are still there, originally I voted for Obama because I thought a change in the administration would mean a change in the policy and direction of our nascent police state. Yet the patriot act still remains in effect, government officials are still virtually unaccountable due to interests of "national security" and guantonomo still blemishes our national character.
All this while al-queda is a hollow shell of it's former self, it's image is actually enhanced by fear mongers in Washington who continue to tell us there are terrorists hiding under every bed, I'm sure al-quedas leaders would love to have the capabilities that our leaders ascribe to them, while the people in our military who actually know better keep their mouths shut to keep away the threat of reduced funding. America seemed more relaxed at the height of the cold war facing down nuclear annihilation than it does today, and that just seems wrong.
Yes, Jack, the terrorists most definitely, won. Our economy is destroyed because of fear. Our civil liberties are non-existent. Most of the population is like sheep, just following along wirh the masses, afraid of their own shadows. President Obama engineered the killing of Osama Bin Laden in one night using trained military personnel to carry out the mission. The previous President invaded a sovereign country and is responsible for thousands of casualties. Our pride and dignity went up in flames on that Tuesday morning along with the Twin Towers.
Their goal was to demoralize Americans by creating an atmosphere of fear and paranoia and to burden and break our financial system with a predictable overreaction. Game, set, match in my opinion.
No , we aren't speaking Arab are we?? Bin Laden is dead, so we must be the winners. Actually there is no winners in a war because of the losses of lives on both sides. We should never have been in either of the 2 wars that Bush got us into. It is hard to stop a war after they are started. As far as the airport security, It is a necessity. If 2012 goes Republican, god forbid, then there will be wars galore.
Do you remember that one of Bin Laden's stated goals was to ruin us financially. Drawing us into Iraq made him succeed at that as well.
President Obama is slowly getting us back on the right track, let's not go back to the wrong headed policies that got us to this place. If insanity is doing the same things over & over and expecting a different result, then the Republicans are insane. The Corporate tax rate the lowest it has been for 70 years and they are still not hiring. In the late 40's & 50's some folks paid over 90% – that was to pay for world War II. It worked and we had a period of affluence for many middle class people.
American's understand a clearly defined enemy and can address it accordingly. Take the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as an example. A defined enemy that we defeated unconditionally. The 9/11 attack offered no such "defined" enemy other than the figure head Bin Laden which we eventually killed. But his followers are shadowy figures who actually walk among us. They fight like the cowards they are - in secret because, if they were to assemble as a group, we could take them out in a New York minute. They've merely awakened, as Japanese Admiral Yamamoto said after Pearl Harbor, "a sleeping giant" and we have a firm and unending reslove.
Gary in Scottsdale, Arizone
I think they did win, because of all the things you cited - talk about having our freedoms taken away! Some day I want to corner a Tea-Partier and ask what THEY mean when they say that. I'm not terrified of anything but seeing one of these Republican morons become our next president.
Yes they've won, with that single act they were able to show what a corrupt and inept government we have. At the same time they've virtually bankrupted our country fighting wars where they spend a hundred dollars to make an IED and we spend a billion to defeat it. They might be poorly educated, but even they can do this math. Our only hope is to get the hell out and stop the bleeding.
Dave from New Hampshire
Jack,
Yes, in some ways, Bin Laden and others of his ilk did succeed, for the reasons you noted–we've given up some of our freedoms and stopped questioning our gov't (remember how people swallowed the whole WMD in Iraq fairy tale, which Bush told to justify his invasion of Iraq, a country that did not attack us on 9/11).
You might, had you been a reporter at the time, asked the same question of Americans on 12/7–the anniversary of the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor, another seminal event in our history. But think about the differences in the reactions–in 1941, Congress formally declared war on Japan, troops were mobilized and we began fighting back as well as fighting the Germans and Italians, who were Japan's allies at the time. This time, we picked on a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, there were no formal declarations of war.
Another big difference–in 1941, war went the whole country participated–those who stayed home worked in munitions, were subject to rations, bought war bonds (which helped finance the war), etc. This time, huge tax cuts were given to the wealthy and to corporations, and we didn't finance the war but borrowed. No draft meant that the burden fell to an already small armed services and national guard, while private contractors made out like bandits, getting huge profits.
Back then, Americans of Japanese descent, even those who had been in this country for generations, were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to internment camps (those of German and Italian descent were left alone). While no one has suggested removing Muslims of Egyptian and Saudi descent (the ethnic and religious background of the 9/11 bombers) from their homes and putting them in concentration camps, many will say that they feel watched and targeted in airports, etc.
One of Bin Laden's goals was to ruin and/or change our way of life, to bring about economic chaos. I believe we have that, but Bin Laden didn't do it–our own elected officials did it to us.
They only win if you let them win. Your posting here basically points out that some of us, namely you Jack, believe they have won. Airport security even before 9/11 was all theater and still is theater all in the name of making people comfortable with air travel. Airport security has never, ever stopped a hijacking or terrorist taking over a plane prior to or after 9/11. And while you focus on air travel, there are trains as well as places like malls and stadiums that are prime terrorist targets, yet we do nothing about those threats and will not until something bad happens. Only then as it was after 9/11, we will do the knee-jerk reaction and lock those down just like airportsand you will write another blog entry about fear all over again.
bin who?
Oh, the dead guy?
As I see it the terrorists lost, and lost big. Sure, they struck an extremely painful blow to America, but in doing so they relegated themselves to the dogpile of history and placed their society, their economy, and their religion back into the stone age.
tampa, fl Well we're broke, billions of $$$ gone, going to close our own military bases here (but not those abroad), borders and Ports are still nt secure, illegal aliens up the ying yang, no jobs, middle class decimated, and our politicians still don't even have a clue. so, yeah, they won. oh, we don't have to take off our shoes in the airport though.
I don't know did you have to take your shows off in order to board an airplane before 9/11/2001
Considering it was a false flag operation, I say it worked out splendidly. Dick Cheney got rich, Rumsfeld got rich, halliburton, blackwater, exxon, Koch brothers, etc., etc.. While the public is distracted with Washington flag waving every year, they managed to help wall street, corporations, and the obscenely wealthy walk off with the countries' treasure. This was better than oceans eleven if you ask me.
Jack actually the poloticians have won. They used the fear of Bin Laden and wars to keep us fearful as they shipped our jobs overseas, deregualted, and spent trillions on wars we had no business being in. It took Obama a little over 2 years to get Bin Laden something Bush did not want to do in 8 years to keep the fear going. Who won is not the point who lost is all Americans, and all those who have died in the wars on both sides.
Jack, the put our focus on national security and gave George W. Bush a soapbox to stand on to wave the flag, thus all but guaranteeing him a 2nd term. Yeah, they won.
They sure did. They knew that eventually our greed would bring us down and just look around.... the proof of that happening is everywhere and about to get worse if another Republican is put in charge.
I don't think so. But I do not know what the terrorist set out to do. I think they thought it would kill our economy so badly that America would fall to the ground like the buildings. We have not fallen. Our economy was ruined by high oil prices and free credit to people who could not survive a financial crisis, economically. If we fall, they will claim they caused it. But they did not.
No, the terrorists didn't win. I'm flying across the country on Sunday, Sept 11. I'm traveling on that day to show that the terrorists have not won. It takes more than what they have to scare us.
Total win for them. Throw in the fact that the average american cheers torture – the absolute antithesis of due process. Beyond all the practical wins mentioned here, that's the biggest – they've shown what cowardly hypocrites most US "patriots" truly are. Oh, and enjoy your "freedom fries" – nothing in our history shows what fools americans can be than those two words.
American's appreciate a "defined" enemy and will address it accordingly. Take Pearl Harbor as an example. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor awakened America who defeated them unconditionally. The 9/11 attack had no such clearly defined enemy other than Osama Bin Laden whom we eventually killed. But, his followers are shadows and actually walk among us. They dont assemble as a group because we would erase them instantly and they know it.
The enemy are cowards using women and children as sucicide foils, IED bombs and all manner of other means to invoke terror. But, as Japanese Admiral Yamamoto said after Pearl Harbor, "All we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant with a terrible seeking of revenge". No Jack, they haven't won - America won't let that happen.
Gary in Scottsdale, Arizona
I haven't changed my lifestyle in the slightest.
The terrorists didn't win. The only problem that this country has right now is its political system. If we can fix that, then everything else would be fine in a few short years.
it all depends on how you look at it. I'm sure if you wanted to perceive this as a victory for the terrorists, all you'd have to do is look at it from a certain angle.
Of course they didn't win! Osama is dead and look at all the Arab countries that are fed up and breaking free.
Jack, it's a sad truth that the terrorists did win. Compare our lives today to the lives we had in 2000. Post-Clinton years, budget surplus, jobs a plenty. Bush and company did exactly what the terrorists wanted: Started a wild goose chase in the middle east that cost this nation over a trillion dollars and endless American lives.
It's a shame. But that's what happens when you demonize intellectualism and fly off the cuff in a reaction like a bully on a school playground. No thought equates to bad moves that literally destroyed this nation from the inside out. While our infrastructure crumbled, war contractors were making billions and they systematically tore down and rebuild Iraq.
Someone remind me: What did Iraq have to do with 9/11? Nothing at all? OK. Just making sure we're still all talking about the same gigantic waste of American taxpayer funds that drove us into an economic black hole. Bush will always be the person who destroyed the prosperity of America. His cronies on the right are just doing everything they can to finish the job and bury Americans and the middle class once and for all.
Of course the terrorists won. Osama bin Ladin had a number of agenda iems, all of which he accomplished – cause the United States to actions which would make Muslims believe the United States people are at war with them (We are not.), enter protracted conflicts in the Middle East, spend huge sums of money on those conflicts, and change the way we live in the United States. With limited force bin Laden exercised great power, much of it through the neocons misguided and self-serving influence.
Winchester, MA
Klamath Falls, OR. – Jack, Unfortunately, I believe they did. This country has yet to fully recovered from that fateful day and by what I am still seeing we may never fully recover. Just take a look at our first responders. The people of this country should be outraged that "ALL" of their medical bills are not covered. They gave everything that day, and we still give nothing back! Shame on us all. Our first responders are still dying to this day from 9/11so I would have to say yes, they won, if by no other means than by default to our own government.
The oil companies, the military contractors, IMF, and the aspects of the government that want to lesson a persons right to privacy won. The losers include the average citizen of this country, service men and women, middle eastern governments and the Al Quada leadership.
Which terrorists? Al Qaeda, or our own politicians here in the U.S.? Al Qaeda wounded us, but ever since 9/11 the politicians have been making things much, MUCH worse as they battle for political advantage.
Of course they won, how can anybody not see it any other way? They got us to change our principles, surrender our freedoms. They made us become a twisted and evil nation in constant war, steeped in hatred, deeply divided, and in decline. Our economy has been in a steady free fall and we have forgotten how to care about each other. We are no longer able to compromise. This is all exactly what they wanted.
Brian VA
In a word, yes. The act of 9/11 was enough to push us into a police state - and into a political system with no humor at all nor empathy for regular people.
It seems that democracy itself has been eroded since 9/11 along with our civil liberties. Could Bin Laden himself have predicted such a dramatic win for our enemies?
This was a double edge sword in my view. They won in the fact that they changed forever the way America thinks and acts in regards to terrorism. However, in the same respect we lost. We were to naïve to think something of that magnitude could happen in this county. They will continue to attempt strikes against this country and its people and we still need to be on alert 24/7/365 to prevent it.
The terrorists won in spades. Not only did they murder thousands of people but to announce this win to the world they're putting up a mosque close to ground zero to glorify their success. We like fools in an effort to be politically correct are permitting them to do it. What are we thinking?
"Have they? Or have we defeated ourselves?" This is the same question, repeated. A terrorist's goal is to inflict terror on others. They choose to inflict terror, because they have no other weapon against a more powerful opponent – so they choose to make the opponent defeat itself through fear. Fear does all of the things listed in this post and more – it cripples people for life, stunts development, and when applied to a large population such as an entire nation, it sets the population as a whole back generations in progress. The world we live in today is built around our fear, our fear is controlling us, and we have those who successfully instigate that fear to hold responsible.
Since 9/11 we have been at war in Afghanistan and Iraq and with ourselves. So I'd say, yes, bin Laden was successful.
No. The equivalent of Power Control Group of the 1960s is responsible for bringing the World Trade Centers down, not the hoax about terrorists from wherever. "Terrorists" were never involved. The question should be, "Did the PCG win?". Answer. "Yes." They've gotten away with it. And yet with all of the conspiracy evidence, no plane debris or passenger's dead bodies at the Pentagon or in Shanksville PA, the legend of the "terrorists" will live on, unless someone stands up to boldly demand a thorough investigation of the true events of what happened 9/11/2001.
Can people please stop saying the US is bankrupt, or could go bankrupt. It isn't possible. If that was Bin Laden's goal he has an even worse understanding of modern monetary systems than our politicians do. The US can't go bankrupt because it is the monopoly supplier of its currency and its 'debt' is entirely donominated in that currency. Inflation can theoretically be a problem, but bankruptcy is impossible.
As for airport pat-downs, please. If you honestly think a quick search at the airport is a bigger infringement of your personal liberty than someone blowing up the plane you're travelling on your priorities are seriously out of whack with reality.
no they didnt ; they overlooked a small problem the fed can print till the cows come home; all the managed to do is to wake up a whole lotta people that didnt even know they existed and the muslims will never have any american dream or peace they will always be viewed as evil where ever they go on this continent and hated and in other countries as well; sad they onlyruined it for the possibly few good ones; kinda like judged by the company you keep
Let;s see.. they made CNN a lot more money
You got a job Jack
Now the nation is in a crippling crisis of political correctness
we're broke
Liberal chickens have stunted any progress in any of the wars we are fighting..
yeah.. they won bigtime.
Well lets see,
We can't draw pictures of mohammed, we can't make jokes on TV about islam, we can't speak up about the islamic terror that is stretched over the entire world and happens daily, we can't call out sharia law as being the unholy, disgusting, barbaric practices it is...
yes, i'd say islam has successfully terrorized us into submission, into being "subjugated and subdued" as the unholy book the quran tells its followers to do to us the non-believers.
Experts who studied Bin Laden say his goal was to destroy us economically. With the help of the Bush administration he succeeded. This country was founded on liberty and freedom, with the help of the Patriot Act and those who cry terrorist to further their own political agenda, they succeeded in severely curtailing our freedoms. Give me liberty or give me death – remember those words? That means having the courage to stand up and demand your rights; not to allow the fearmongers among us to take them away under the guise of protecting you. We've allowed – and continue to allow – the weakest and most cowardly among us to use 9/11 as an excuse to take us the direction they want to go: backward.
That depends on your definition of winning. Did the terrorists cause us to be afraid? Yes. But they also focused American might on them like never before. A vast percentage of their leaders is dead, and most of their infrastructure is crumbling. Whether we wrongly gave up our freedoms is not the question; that was never the terrorists' goal.
Yes, they have won the mental war so far. They're doing a happy dance at the pitiful excuse for government we now have, and the shameful economy. They are probably also taking credit for the earthquakes, hurricaanes and floods.
In the short term, yes. The terrorists distracted us from growth and prosperity, and for the past decade we have been stricken with fear and paranoia, but in the long term, no, America continues to be the most powerful nation on earth and it will continue to be so for some time.
Bin Laden said that his biggest goal was to hurt America economically...He definitely succeeded.
US got owned HARD
Hi Jack:
You read the list–what the point in asking the question?
Laith, Columbus, IN
Bin Laden wish was to economically break us. Mission accomplished. He played Bush and Cheney like a Stradivarius.
Like John Boehner, bin Laden got 98 percent of he wanted.
No the terrorists have not won. They will only have won when we let our national psyche begin to believe that they won. In the mean time, things like the potential erosion of civil liberties continues just as it did before 9/11 ever occurred. Fortunately for the American People we have organizations like The Electronic Frontier Foundation who are diligent in protecting our rights in a rapidly evolving world !
yes, to my dismay all i can say is yes.
Yes jack. Yes.
We let the terrorists win by letting our fears win. We've spent far too much money, pride and blood in reacting to isolated acts.
We have met the enemy and "it R us" to quote those immortal words. They have won because of the paranoia that they have created and the fact that as a country we have become our greatest enemy. We are spending and wasting billions of dollars to fight a a war that has is invisible.
Randy from DeLeon, Texas
I think a trust was broken on 9/11. Americans became chronically suspicious of others and our government. We are on such a heightened alert all the time now, that we have forgotten how to enjoy life. With the very thing this country stands for, freedom, taken away from us by such suspicion and terror, I feel we are lesser as a society now than before 9/11. So, yes, in a sense, it was a victory for evil.
Jack,
The terrorists won but they did not beat us. We gave them the game.
Come off it America!
We went thru THAT nearly every night for almost 6 months in London during the Blitz!
It made US (Brits) TOUGHER!!
Unfortunately the terrorist have accomplished their goals. When you consider the purpose of a terrorist attack is to throw the opponent off balance and into confusion they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Just look at our economy and see what they have accomplished. And it appears the damage is going to be inflicted upon our nation for year's to come.
Yes Jack, they hit us and then the country went crazy and instead of us picking up and continuing on with what we hold dear, we allowed ourselves to be manipulated by our President into a war against innocent people making us not much different then those flying the planes. How are we any better...an innocent life lost is an innocent life lost.
Well Jack, I'd have to say that the terrorists didn't do near the harm our own politicians have done. Don't get me wrong, I think 911 was a tragic an horrific day that changed our country. That's what makes all the political posturing over the last 10 years seem even more absurd. Our elected "leaders" have created this mess we are in. It's not what happens to you in life, it's how you react, and what you choose to do about it. At this point, the terrorists don't have to do a darn thing... just sit back and watch the "self-destruct" happen.
The game is far from over, this is a 30+ year proposition. Developments in this have been building since the 1920s, and actually long before that. The end game is to have terrorists conclude that terrorism doesn't work.
To say that [Bin Laden] bankrupted the US is completely inaccurate. The American consumer along with our govt bankrupted the US – not Bin Laden. Even if 9/11 had not happened, little would be different financially speaking. Lets start taking responsibility for our own actions. And for that matter, lets start minding our own business and stop being the bully on the playground.
It depends on how they define "win". They achieved at least a partial victory. We didn't question the Bush administration's illegal wiretapping (the same could have been done legally), we didn't question Bush's obviously false pretext for going to war with Iraq. Why weren't the plans for invasion scrapped when the yellow cake was quickly shown to be fraudulent? Why didn't we scream for impeachment of the Bush, Cheney, and indictment of his cronies?
Anyone who says that they haven't won, at least thus far, are either in utter denial or dont truly understand what the terrorists goals really were. Almost every aspect of our society has changed and not for the better. I wont even fly anymore, at least not if I can avoid it. Its an absolute joke. What happens if they wind up bombing a shopping mall? Will we install naked body scanners in every mall across the US? The Patriot Act in itself is all anyone really needs to look at in regards to just how successful the terrorists have been. MASSIVE loss of freedoms, a bankrupt government. What else do you need to see to understand that we have lost. We lost a long time ago.
They won-and continue to rack up victories. They don't have to actually do anything to accomplish their goal, other than issue threats. Those cost very little to do, and we spend trillions reacting to the verbal threats. Remember, the Tea party is telling us we're broke?
Ourt BIG goverment won! George jr was just looking for a reason to finsh what his dad started. Isn't it ironic that just when we all become complaincant in regard to terrorism that there alwasy seems to be some type of crisis that justifies the need for the wars and tjacking up the level of security in this country ( job security?). Bring our kids home and have them help us re- build our country and defend our borders
Only if we let them.
-Stephen
Yarmouth, NS Canada
During 9/ll–few days after I was in Rotterdam discussing with people who had Moslems fears in Styruggart, Germany what OBL was up to–we all decided it was an attack on Western Capitalism as per his being kicked out of the wealthy Bin Laden Family business, always trying to take over the world economies and move back to a agrarian, pure, Shia based economic system. Ten years, trillion dollars of wars, TSA spending billions on unecessary searches of citizens, fear controlling the capital system to the point of spending billions more–with economies sinking. Yes OBL won.
In creating fear, of course the terrorists won. And their biggest helper is our own media. Why can't we just let it go?
The media constantly reiterates every detail stoking fear in everyone.
Sadly, we did give in to bin Laden. He has shown us who and what we really are....hypocrits!
The winners are Haliburton, Balckwater, Lockheed Martin and all of the rest of the private military contractors.
If by terrorists, you mean the U.S. Government, then yes Jack, "They" won. What happened to all of the footage played the day of 9/11? The footage clearly saying that it wasn't a commercial flight. Where was the wreckage at the Pentagon? Yea they were able to scare the American people into patriotism; making the "War On Terror" acceptable. Way to go!!
The terrorists clearly won, think about in, in the last ten years we have spent over $8 trillion on national security, and trillions more on wars that were in direct reaction to the attacks. Our economy is in pieces, government spending is at an all time high, and I can't help but think that our current situation is tied to the attacks ten years ago. This situation is just what BIn Laden wanted from his attacks, therefore I would say he and the terrorists won, and it was the American public, and government that helped him do it.
No, they have not won. Its not a game to win or lose......its our future!
Yes, Jack they have won. Look at how bankrupt the American economy is. Look at the high unemployment in America and mostly importantly, noticed how in ten years nothing has been built over the spot of the World Trade Center towers. If that isn't proof the terrorists won, I don't know what is.
We have harmed ourselves. By feeling we could define another group of people as "other" we have allowed ourselves to polarize our country into innumerable groups of "us" and "them". Now, everyone who doesn't believe as our small group does is automatically "other" and not to be trusted or dealt with.
No, the terrorist did NOT win. We, as a nation, LOST. The terrorists did ONE coordinated attack on one day, WE ran in fear for ten years on Sunday, threw our rights down behind us to trip up whatever might be chasing us (our shadows), WE demanded total security that could not be accomplished, WE laugh nervously at the TSA and all their blunders and we throw money at any charlatin that will promise us a "safe room" AND WE let those in government lie to us daily about how safe we are, how much safer we could be and how many more of our rights we should abandon for that safety. Ben Franklin was absolutely 100% correct!
they have and they haven't. they have becuse much of our way of life has changed sinse then. and they haven't becuse were still here, America is still here and going some what strong.
Yes Jack, They did! When we decided to allow fear to rule our lives & we allowed the politicians to use word & phrases like "terrorist", & "Weapons of mass destruction" in every other sentence & we buy into it.
Jack' From their perspective they won a victory. Look around the news. The first thing anyone thinks is a terrorist attack. We are spending more time, money and resources on preparation and intelligence. They want us to get tired of it all. They hope we will give it all up. They are trying to Bankrupt us.
The terrorists did not win. But we lost. Our nation is diminished – financially and morally. A hardness now permeates our spirit and actions, and we will never be young again.
I get patted down every time I fly. Having a repaired knee filled with screws and metal plates does not help. A few months ago as I was patted down... again I was looking all around me and saw a team of TSA agents pat down crippled lady in a wheel chair. and right across a breastfeeding mother getting the pat down. Her baby was patted down too. Have terrorists won? Lets see: economy bankrupted by wars, we are on the verge of 2nd recession, liberties have been taken from us in the interest of "public safety". Even if terrorists have not won, we have lost regardless of how you look at it.
I read the replies here and I realize just how screwed the US is.Apparently most still have not succesfully identified who the terrorist really are.
No The terrorist only made us more prepared for this form of evil.
America has defeated itself.And now with the political stalemate the terrorists are sitting back with a big smile hoping the tea party can render the government usless(they already are).So yes in that sense they have one.
I keep saying it over and over! Are we really going to give in to fear? It sure looks like it. Anybody over 50 should be ashamed they created this environment of fear and cowardice. Anybody under 30 doesn't even know they are not supposed to be fearfull cowards!
Ten years after 911, the terrorist did not win, but we have lost something...ourselves...our American vision. We become so paralyzed by fear and anger, that we have become a nation of fear and anger. These days, we are so afraid of everything, and fear only keeps you in a position in which you cannot move or advance. The economy shows that we have put ingenuity, unity and determination aside and traded it in for the blame game and finger pointing r us.
Let's not blame Ben Laden and the other terrorists for the condition of our economy.
Our economy is in shambles because of twenty to thirty years of irresponsible fiscal policies. Our leaders have done this to us; they have become corrupt and have allowed lobbyists to corrupt them.
We did this to ourselves. (Or, rather, we allowed this to be done to ourselves, while we looked the other way.)
We should blame (and hold accountable) those who are truly responsible for the housing market crash and the terrible condition of our economy.
When Bernie Madoff was interviewed recently, a reporter asked him what he would do to fix the economy, and he said, “I don’t know”.
Bernie also said that he can’t believe that no one else went to prison.
I think Bernie makes a good point.
Why don’t we put those responsible for the economic collapse in prison?
The American peopole would have won if they had gotten up on 9/12 and went to work, buried the dead and
proceeded to clean up the mess-an announcement of what occurred should have been the only News posted
on the event-for less than 20 Radical people to have inflicted as much turmoil and expense throughout the
country was a win of gigantic proportions!!
Sure they won. Americanos are big fraidy cats. We still have troops in Europe for absolutely no strategic reason. We're still afraid the Russians will start WWIII by going after East Europe again. We're in Iraq 10 years longer than we should be. The military-industrial complex keeps the fear stirred up.
People often think that the primary weapon of a terrorist is a bomb, or gun, or some sort of weapon that we can protection against. However, terrorists are called terrorist because they use terror as their primary weapon. So yes, the terrorist won because spend ourselves into oblivion, change our morals and rights, etc. all to protect ourselves from fear… or perhaps the fear of fear. Just as Bin Laden had planned.
Bin Ladens goal was to bankrupt us, almost there. Our goal was to eliminate terrorism, not close. We lose.
They haven't won, but they've done some damage. They've also done damage to their own culture, making other nations wary and mistrustful of the Arab world and of Islam.
But we're salvageable: We just have to be able to adapt, something Americans are good at, if we haven't grown too spoiled and lazy. (We've had it pretty good for a long, long time.)
80 years ago a president said we had nothing to fear but fear itself. He also said that day our great Nation would endure, as it has endured, that it would revive and it would prosper.
I think we have forgotten.
You cant WIN an ideology.......
I don't think they won when it comes to creating an atmosphere of fear, but they accomplished something I bet they never even dreamed of. They took what would have been the most unifying moment in the history of the country and used it to make Americans despise each other. The word "unifying" even has a completely different connotation now.
No, they didn't win, but we lost. We surrendered our freedom for security and gained neither, as Ben Franklin predicted long ago. We started to fight among ourselves, divided along lines of religion. We lost our trust, our compassion for our fellow man. We lost even more young men and women in the wars that grew out of that fateful day, than the numbers lost on that day. We have weaked our great army, made our soldiers war weary and their families broken. And we have gained nothing in exchange.
Unfortunatley what happened ten years ago was a crime NOT AN ACT OF WAR, and because we let ourselves submit to fear and chaos, we are now paying with our sovereignty, rights, and freedom. I think we need to prosecute certain individuals for these war crimes, but unfortunatly they seem to be out of reach hiding behind lies and proxy functions..
Of course they've won, naive American believe, the act of 9/11 was to kill americans. It wasn't , it was to send us into panic, a frezny , to war. And with that war, fueled by anger and hate , it would bring our economy and our country to its knees. Chaos at airport secuirty for our own people, billions spent in every other country but our own, this is exactly what they wanted.
Jack, The terrorist have indeed won what they set out to do. They knew an attack like that would open America's pandora's box and that we would bankrupt ourselves trying to revenge. And now they sit back and laugh because we fell into their trap.
And shame on politicians who play or have played on this to push an agenda. They are almost equal to terrorist themselves
We won. Hussain and OSama are DEAD! They can't be brought back. USA will always win.. If it was up to me we would've bombed and killed all of them. Why take all of these precautions just so terrorists won't attack us again?? Because the farmers and common people there are innocent and don't even know about 9/11. Well, I am a common person. When I was 14 the terrorists attacked us, and there is nothing that we could do to repay them for that. Not if we knocked down all of their sand fortresses, not if we knocked down their sky-scrapers, on that day... Nothing could have prepared out goevrnment for that. And I APPLAUD George Bush for what he did in that circumstance... because if I was President I would've attacked as well.. but MORE harshly.
We will always win to the terrorists. Because all they ARE is terrorists. No one cares about WHERE they are from, or WHO they are. All you want is to inspire terror, and I know that WE WILL COME OUT NUMBER ONE.
Sadly but true.. We hurt ourself more then the terrorist did.. Now china is placing their chess pieces to fight the USA.. And we are placing our pieces to fight little gangs... Wake up america.. Worry about the big problem not the little people..
No, our two major enemies are the US Chamber of Commerce and the American Civil Liberties Union. Americans have always been afraid of everything. 9/11 should have united us, it did, but only briefly. We believe everything and question nothing. the majority will follow any idiot that tells us what we want to hear, sic Palin, Bachman, et al.
To be honest, we haven't had the type of freedom that this country is known for since many years before 9/11. The one main freedom that we have is an important one being the "freedom of speech" and people in China are literally dying for that important freedom.
However, other than the freedom of speech, the government – at the hands of lawmakers, bureaucrats, and the judiciary – does just as it darn well pleases to anyone it darn well pleases in spite of the will of the people they are governing.
There's little doubt that those in charge in our government have used 9/11 as a handy excuse to impose their own agendas on the people who they were elected to serve but the historic record for at least the past 100 years shows that they would have done it anyway, regardless, and that they most likely always will. That's not just a knock on the US government but most of the other governments who do exactly the same. It's a flaw in humanity that has existed from the beginning of governance.
No Jack, the terrorist have nit defeated us. We have done that ourselves. Remember old "Pogo's" comment many yeas ago: "We have seen the enemy and it is us". Ed. R.
Its not so much that the terrorists won, its more the fact that we lost. We seem to be able to do such a good job in turning the loss of several thousand citizens and first responders, into thousands of more losses via the "fighting of terrorism" and then being convinced we are somehow winning. We loose more US citizens to senseless gun related violence, and drug abuse then we ever will through terrorism.
No the terrorist didnt win America was bought to it's knees by stupidity it was bout to its knees be the EPA the Unions by such things as having a 1mile long bridge being built in China and then transported to San Fransisco no we wasnt fighting a war overseas for America we was fighting a humanitarian war for the middle east we are in trouble because of electing the wrong leaders and letting old leaders guide us such as Al Gore .
of course the terorists won, all the jobs have left the US,unless you're in the securuiy business or work for the government.
I view the terrorists' winning by the process one must endure by travelling through our national airports. Where I see the US truly losing is with every job that is sent overseas, including my own through the outsourcing model. I worked for a company that accepted TARP money and I am not even being considered for re-employment because they laid me off when there are openings for which I am qualified; 10 months of unemployment and all I want to do is work. Is this what my ancestors fought for over 200 years ago??? Shame, shame, shame....what would they think if they could come back?
They made us fear, our lives are fundamentally changed, and our economy's gone down the crapper in part due to the massively expensive wars we ended up fighting. America has peaked, and historians will see these events around 9/11 as the beginning of the end of American dominance. We fought and won a war against Germany and Japan, but in the end our decline is brought about by terrorists and China, because we let them.
Yes, Jack. Far right Muslim fanatics delivered us to far right Christian fanatics who have stolen our ideals, our freedoms, and our middle class. our final demise is only a matter of time.
Jack, I'm a Vietnam combat veteran and close to WWII, Korean, Iraq and Afganistan combat veterans. We have won the War on Terror and must keep the pressure on. The free world is involved in a different kind of war that is not conventional, or non-conventional, but an Ideology War. We, of the free world, must get use to it. We got to be smart because of the type of combat were in. It's going to take three or four generations (50 to 75 years) to gain control and win this Ideology War.
Of course they won. Sure we've killed Bin Laden and some other top Al Qaeda members, but their goal was to disrupt and bankrupt our way of life. One of our two major political parties is pretty much anti-Muslim and has lost grip on reality. We've been stuck in a Middle East quagmire for a decade now, costing the US trillions of dollars that could have been better spent at home. We've engaged in preemptive wars, torture and the dismantling of the Bill of Rights. This does not show the America that I learned about in school as a student, nor does it show the America I try to portray as a teacher now. It's absolutely shameful Jack.
Jack, Bin Laden has almost accomplished what he set out to do.Destroy the US economy. We now have over 1 million people employed in counter intelligence and we still have to worry about underwear bombs. Do you think we could save a little money by cutting this intelligence force back to something reasonable say 500,000? 500,000? That's larger than our standing Army. Thanks Bush & Cheney!
In a way they did.
After 9/11 Universities and schools across the country adopted Islam classes in order to teach people about Islam. Imagine if a Christian blew up an abortion clinic and schools across the country added classes to tell everyone that Christians don't blow up abortion clinics or anything for that matter. Instead, Universities and schools make up lies about Christians in order to make them as radical as the terrorists.
After 9/11 our News and Media industries put a full court press into destroying America's reputation by reporting on what we were doing to catch terrorists. Formerly in WWII Hollywood and The News Media worked together with the US Gov't to ensure the war was WON and ended quickly and decisively. Iraq could have been over in months, instead, our media gave aid and comfort to the enemy.
The US will never win another war with our media at work to sabotage our Armed Services Efforts.
Political Correctness was the original cause for 9/11 as no one wanted to admit minorities were at work to destroy America and it has gotten worse.
Congrats CNN, you were at the forefront of all the above.
Yes Jack...They have won! The America I have known is gone and never to return. On top of the murder of our citizens, our economy is in the gutter, and the Spirit of the middle class is breaking day by day. I am truly sad.
No Jack, the terrorists didn't win, George W. Bush won the Presidential race and as such, the people, and the legislature came together in crisis mode and supported their President, allowing him to lead us down a road not taken, sadly, the wrong road. Now, while our new President tries to lead us out of the mess, he can't get any bi-partisan support from the lawmakers or the people. First off, you can't blame Bush, oh no, that was in the past, were beyond that. And, we can't look for bi-partisn support either, look what happened last time we rallied behind our president. Gee whiz, we're damned if we do, damned if we don't. No wonder we continue wallowing around in our own slop.
The terrorist victory is not complete, but, with the bickering and power struggles that are continuing, it seems closer every day. The Soviet Union fell from bankruptcy and we are very close. Not from outside forces but from internal power struggles and hidden (for security reasons 😉 budgets. There seems to be a group that wants our constitution gone and their version of "right" put in its place. The American Taliban (religious groups that want to control our country) have grown to such power that they now tell (at least one) political party how they WILL govern or else. So, we are not lost yet, but, we are trying.
Of course not. They haven't won nor will they ever win because their success is based on our psychological collapse. What they don't understand is that righteousness and justice never lose against iniquity and violence. Even if they reign for a season they will ultimately evaporate like the snow before the rising summer sun.
Absolutely, with help from the terrorist allies, George Bush and Dick Cheney.
No, Jack, they did not not win. I was not afraid then and I am not afraid now. Yes, we may have adapted defensively to the potential threat of further attacks – and given up a great deal of convenience in the process – but that does not mean they have won. The Tea Party scares me much more than Al Qiada and could ultimately harm our country far more than Bin Laden ever dreamt of doing.
Tucson, AZ – Objectively, the 9/11 attacks caused less destruction than a single large hurricane, and less death than one busy Fourth of July weekend. At the simplest level, the objective of terrorism is to strike fear in the public in order to create pressure to change policy. To that extent, Al Qaeda succeeded – we did become afraid and we did change policy. However, Bin Laden made the same mistake as the Japanese on December 7, 1941 – when you anger and frighten the United States of America, instead of retreating, we respond with massive retaliation and utter destruction, which we rained in Bin Laden and his allies all over the world. American troops are still stationed in Arabia, so the Al Qaeda objective of removing them was not achieved. The Bush Administration, over its head and without a real clue, did a great many things, a lot of them of no actual value and great expense. The Republican claque in Congress has prevented the Obama Administration from ending some of the more stupid programs, but we are leaving Iraq, and "our" side is winning in Afghanistan, a testament to President Obama's willingness to continue policy of a prior opposite party Administration when that policy is sound, a behavior of which Republicans seem incapable. We are still ahead on points; if we can, as a nation, undo the Bush blunders, while continuing to harry and destroy Al Qaeda, we, not they, will eventually win.
The terrorists haven't completely won ... not yet. But the fear they engendered on 9/11 seems to be growing, not diminishing. To see Americans increasingly turning on each other with fear, hate, and paranoia is far more alarming than the one day of attacks we endured. Today I fear my irrational neighbors and my own overreaching government far more than I've ever feared some anonymous terrorist boogeyman.
Susan
Denver
yes it seems they have won in ways they never even imagined. We the people defeated ourselves and the only way out is to admit the approach towards fighting terrorism is wrong and remove our troops from the middle east. The people of the middle east are waking up as you can see from the rebellions there. You can not fight an IDEA with guns and bombs. Of course out politicians have to much PRIDE to even suggest the approach is wrong, so we will continue to live a Greek Tragedy until someone grows a pair and admits the US is wrong.
At this time I would say they are winning. As a Christain American I believe that the worst thing Osama Bin Laden was able to accomplish was that we become like them. We began torturing people and our Government was able to sell it as OK to a majority of the people of our country using fear as the leverage. Not only did we condone torture we allowed our Government under Bush to erode many of our civil liberties. I have faith that our country can overcome these setbacks but we have a lot of work to do to show the world we are different and the USA is a beckon of live and liberty.
Although horrific to the ones personally affected, terrorism cannot inflict any measurable damage on a country like the United States. It is our reaction to terrorism, the self-inflicted wounds, that can bring us to our knees.
No, the terrorists did not win…George W. Bush won. He won a second term, and yes we did it to ourselves. The real problem facing America now is the GOP/TEA party, and “Too Big To Fail.”
Yes, ever since Pearl Harbor, the American people's one confidence was homeland security. Despite economic ups and downs and by-partisan mayhem, we the people could feel secure in the fact our government kept us safe. That one last security evaporated during 9/11. I believe it wrecked havoc on any substantial trust we had left for the powers that be and divided us as a nation.
Economically and Physically; yes. They did what the wanted to do; embarrassed us, killed many of our people, and crippled the economy of the west, particularly the U.S.
Spiritually;sort of. They showed devotion to their cause by sacrificing many lives; they truly believed they were right. Yet, many in the west were taking advantage of the "backwards" middle-east, and it could be said, instigated the disaster. The problem is we had little perspective on their religious fervor. It caused a religious backlash and creation of a new prejudice; but it made many of us aware of the root goodness of most Muslims.
In the long run; no. They made us kill hundreds of thousands of their believers, made us drag them (kicking and screaming at first, then willingly) into modern politics (democracy), and made us look more closely at alternative energy sources.
NOT QUITE! All the outcomes you describe are spot-on, but I don't believe al queda-type terrorists were behind the so-called attack. I think it was an 'inside job' employing middle eastern 'bad guys' to achieve the attributed results for the benefit of the powers that be WITHIN this country.
The terrorists didn't win, we lost.
The terrorist won. Ten years after those attacks we are talking about in disbelief still. Ten years later we are still in a war or military operation which is costing us an incredible amount of money and costing us lives. The terrorist won. We are still paying for what happened 10 years ago on 9/11.
Jack,
Have you been fighting bouts of depression lately? You're recent questions certainly sound like it. We were plenty scared after Pearl Harbor, too. Did the Japanese win? In this era of easy travel, homemade bombs, and the Internet, it's all too easy for someone or some group to commit an atrocity that frightens us. What was done on 9/11 was horrible, but people still fly. We still shop and travel and take the kids to the park. It was the conservative Republicans under Bush that started a needless war and stood by while Wall Street trashed our economy. The terrorists are probably cheering all the damage conservatives have done, and continue to do, to this country, but they're not to blame. They're neither that smart nor that powerful.
Jim
Reno, Nevada
Everybody lost. 4th ammendment is walked all over in the airports, borrowing billions a month from China to pay for unnecessary military interventionism, government interventionism in the economy will not allow markets to correct, foreign policy is making more enemies, and the halt of habeas corpus. Then all the unnecessary collateral damage in the middle east. Giving up any amount of liberty or freedom for any amount of security we will get none and deserve none, free trade with all and alliance with none is the history lesson we have seemed to have forgotten from our founders. Return to the American Republic abondoned the idea of the American Empire!
I would have to say yes to a certain extent. We are definitely bankrupt, mired in endless wars, and crumbling as a country from the inside out societally. And I certainly don't trust my so-called government that seems hell bent on inserting itself more and more within my life in places where it has no right. Yes, I would say the jihadists have accomplished quite alot.
When it comes to fear, yes the terrorists won. And their largest helper is our own media. Why can't we just let it go?
The media repeatedly airs every detail stoking fear in everyone. The stress is killing us!
Jack,
you said it all, there's no way we will have freedom,like we used to have, again. Not only is the fear factor here to stay but it also created billions of dollars, that will be spent forever and continue to add millions every time we turn around. It's like a temporary tax, it will never stop increasing yearly.I think that if people really think hard the score would be 3 out of five.
Bin Laden's goal was to Bankrupt our economy. Despite the facts he's been defeated & killed we are still engaged in Iraq & Afghanistan & our national budget is on the brink of bankruptcy. Make matters worse our politicians continue to go for each others throats. Neither party working together to find & support solutions to fix this mess......
In a Nutshell
We the middle class American citizens have been sold down the river without a compass or a paddle by our politicians and corporations for the last 50 years. What should have been our shining moment for a great society was perverted by the selfish greed of a few into a dark age of toxic waste, dependency on foreign oil, and ultimately the economic disaster engineered by corporations and their cohort politicians whose terroristic tactics rival the worst of Osama bin Laden and company:
-74 million Americans live within a 4-mile radius of a superfund site;
-Most middle class Americans spend more on gasoline alone than on anything other than their housing costs;
-An energy policy and market controlled by foreign powers and corporations which affects the cost of everything we buy;
-Millions of jobs outsourced abroad;
-Millions of jobs outsourced here to illegal labor;
-An unprotected border allowing narco-terrorist to do immeasurably more damage than Al-Qaeda could possibly achieve.
These corporations and politicians are now asking us to trust them to show us the way forward.
Jack,
Yes, they definately did. Bin Laden's stated goal was to bring down the US economy. With the of help from our "leaders" he not only accomplished that but he caused serious erosion of our basic freedoms. A once united and proud nartion is now viciously divided. He created fear which has been exploited and exaggerated. While our future hangs in the balance, we face an election dominated by those who would tear our country appart to satisfy their own petty agendas and inflated egos.
No, the terrorists didn't have to lift a finger. Our government won. THINK about it.
Yes, they of course they won. We are a bankrupt nation with 20% real unemployment and severe underemployment. If you try and stop the TSA from putting their hands in your wife's panties you'll get arrested. The new "freedom tower" has a windowless bunker of a lobby that requires elaborate security to get into, and the outside deck and restaurant were cancelled for security reasons.
Bin Laden's definition of "victory" may well have been bankrupting the U.S., but although our balance sheet is in rough shape, we are not bankrupt or even close (yet) and our economic issues are more the result of other factors, such as the worst recession in over 70 years and Obama's response to it. More importantly–while we certainly don't want a bankrupt U.S.–who cares about Bin Laden's definition of victory? What matters is that we haven't had a major attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.
Yes they have won Jack. And now there are new terrorists we have to fear, that are hell bent on finishing us off! CONGRESS!
My take is this. Yes the terrorists have won but we need to ask ourselves who has received the windfall from this terrorist attack. Apparently the existing defense industry and the new and booming security industry has certainly profited tremendously from the fear generated by the attacks of 9/11. Who are the real terrorists? This is the question we should be asking ourselves. The truth was murdered on that day and we entered into an empire of lies and half truths. The idea of a false flag operation is not new. George Orwell in his landmark book 1984 introduced the concept of a political party using perpetual war and terrorism that is actually carried out by the state against its own people to keep them in constant fear and working harder and sacrificing more for the state, but more importantly for the party. I don't have any proof, but my spidey senses are telling me that there is a shadow party that sits above the dialectic of GOP and DNC that uses the so called two party system to keep us entertained and distracted with a side show circus while they rape and pillage the middle class and the "proles" as Orwell put it. These people in our government on both sides of the aisle all have really comfortable incomes and are out of touch with the real American suffering and struggle. They legislate away our jobs, our security, our food sovereignty, and our national sovereignty without batting an eyelash, while those who have worked hard physical labor their whole lives loose their jobs, their homes and their self respect because they don't have adequate health insurance coverage. This is a crime that those in government pay themselves richly and take care of their own, while they keep us all afraid with the threat of terrorism. The trillions poured into these wars didn't just evaporate like thin air, it went into the coffers of all the myriad of contractors that have profited from a decade of perpetual war.
In a word: YES. In a paragraph, of course they won. We have been stumbling over ourselves for the past 10 years. Unlike Pearl Harbor where there was a unity of purpose; now there is chaos. We have a leaderless nation; an overcommitted military, and an undeliverable economy. We need EXPERIENCE; we have now had our share of inexperience both in the White House and in Congress. Or we can just keep rearranging those deck chairs on the Titanic.
I say watch the young people: the young people of the Arab nations, and the young people of our own country. The "Arab Spring" is afoot, and our own youngsters are so much smarter than we were. It's a new world, and it's theirs. I see hope.
Boy did they! Just look at what is going on in this country! With in 6.5 years after the event, the masters of fear and greed, bush, channey et al raped this country!.WE are a shadow of our former self. A wise man once said:" people get the government they deserve". There is a lot of blame to go around. But I falt you guys in the Media the most ! You are supposed to be the smartest guys in the room! But now I realize you are just as dumb as the rest of us!
Of course they are winning! The long term effects of 9-11 have accomplished more than an Atomic Bomb! Wasted lives, wasted treasure, fear, monumental lifestyle changes, and most of all a collective sense that we are powerless. If only we had vision to understand that we brought this on ourselves with bad policies, meddling, our own forms of terror and now we have lost so much that every emergency response at home has to be financed. When all is said and done 9-11 will rank as the greatest military victory of all time! Hate to say it but, we are in deep do-do. When will we wake-up and figure out we can't bomb our way out of this mess.
They have temporily won. The President and Congress need to realize that Americans have become a boiling pot of fear. Afraid to travel, spend, hire, expand, lend, speak, and even worship. We live in fear and our Congress is even more fearful. There is more fear of failure than desire for sucess...which leaves all of the country and our government in a state of coma. They will continue to win, unless our leaders are willing to stick their neck out and do something collectively and at least give Americans hopes that our system of goverment may once again work for the very ones that elected them. A continued split, with a line drawn in the sand, is a slap in the face of all Americans. God forbid that America begins to act like Congress..or a " fixable fear" will result in anger and violence. Then they have won.
Jack, there are days I think the terrorists won, then I think of what this great country has been through in the past and I'm reminded that Americans are capable of doing so much good, but we must never be complacent.
They did their damage and took too many lives and they will never rest for that. Our economy, our safety and our morality is suffering for those American's who still think that we can use all we want (oil,food,water etc.) and just import more. The days of American gluttony are numbered, and I hope you are all ready to minimize and save anything possible...
Seems the fear mongering conservatives and their constituents of defense contractors have been the biggest winners. The Patriot Act and other "Big government" that the republicans say they hate becomes more intrusive with each day. Seems they manipulate governmental powers and reach to meet their own needs. Not the needs of we the people.
After the Arab Spring and the death of Osama, saying that terrorists won is absurd.
They didn't win. We in a democracy are all citizen soldiers and may be called upon to make sacrifices. It comes with the territory absolutely no way around it. Our guard is up and we continue on as Americans; the same path, goals and hopes. We may fight among each other but keep your hands off my fellow Americans.
Going through all the press statements that bin Laden made prior to the 9/11 attacks, his main priorities were listed as –
1) To draw the US into a prolonged battle in Muslim lands, something that would involve an unsustainable and unwinnable occupation, and
2) To make the US government scared of our own shadow, that would result in us not only loosing our freedom, but force us to spend so much on security and military aparatus that our economy would collapse inwards (much like the Soviet Union).
Going by the results so far, bin Laden and his cohorts HAVE WON HANDS DOWN!
Thank you Pres. Bush & Cheney!
Nope. We're still here and they're dead. They lost control of the crappy country they ruled and they haven't been able to attack us since (Thanks, Bush and Obama!) We won. They lost. USA! USA!
Yes Jack, they won. They won because we had a blind Congress and two administrations that trampled common sense along with the Constitution. Look around you ~
The only thing those terriost did was drag us into their "little game of tag." They "tagged" us by hurting our precious loved ones and scard us for life and made us feel like we lost our freedom hiding and being scared of everything we do and regreting every single flaw. We chased behind these terriost and they ran like little dessert rats while we tried to "tag" them back and finally we "tagged" them by killing their "main squezze."
No, the terrorists did not win. But their being able to hide in plain sight among us gives an advantage to them. In fact, I wonder how we can go to fight them with uniforms as an army, and do as well as we do. Unfortunately, you are right that we have had to sacrifice freedoms to be able to control for their attacks. But that does not mean that they are victorious. When there have been enemies among us, we have always had to be on guard.
According to who you ask. If it's a Rightwing politician or the Media the answer is yes.
Well Jack. I would say yes. the skys are not friendly for flying. You take off your shoes, nickeled and dimed for everything. Airlines can can bump you at amoments notice planes allways seem packed to the max. With all the security measures in place costing billions there are still soft spots. The general public cant even go an watch planes land and takeoff for fear of attack. I will steal a line from a song from BB King. The thrill is gone.
No, they didn't win...at least, not for the first time. First, we were afraid of Witches. Then of common people voting. Then of free black people. Then Unions. Then women voting. Then the Japanese and Germans [though more afraid of the Japanese, because they were easier to recognize.] Then Commies. Then blacks people with equal rights. Then liberal hippies. Then metalheads and punk rockers. Power lives by terrifying us enough to listen. Every time we stop being afraid, they point at a new Frankenstein Monster. Sometimes we panic and chase it with torches. By the time we see it's just one heck job by a good make-up artist, it's often too late. We swear it won't happen again. But we lie. Why are we always more afraid of the puppet than the puppet-masters?
If you look at the American economy and well as those of the world’s western societies you can’t help but come to the conclusion that Al Qaeda has won. What is truly sad is that America’s corporate and political leadership are still sucking on the delusional crack pipe they have created for themselves. It is truly their delusional greed and thinking that gave Al Qaeda their greatest victory.
I think the lack of any credible jihad and the arab spring is proof that the terrorist are just taking pot shots at the US. We can't possibly attribute other problems with government on 9/11. How about we needed to take the war on terrorism long before 9/11. What about Beirut? Besides the "terrorist" are anyone against the US vision and willing to conduct terror about it.
Me being a Puerto Rican and proud American I can proudly say that Bin Laden and Al Qada have not freightened us true to heart Americans. My father served in the military and he instilled in us a sense of pride in country. I know there is a majority of Americans who feel as I do. The fear we Americans have is not of terrorists trying to destroy our bravado or our resolve but it is our elected officials dragging this country down to levels that Bin Laden could never have even dreamed of. Come on elected officials work together to give this country back its' swagger.–Daytona Beach,Fl.-
This is a war being waged by religious terrorists on both sides and we're ALL caught in the middle. Pat Roberson is a Christian Mullah no different than Mullah Omar. Both of these religious dictators want to rule our lives. The sooner humanity rids itself of ALL religions the safer we will all be. Religion brought down the twin towers.
No they did NOT win , we worry not fear; Fear didn't stop our Us Navy Seals from taking him out & completing this mission, fear didn't stop those brave firefighters from entering the towers to save people. Our American defensers & America overall are WAY beyond fear as we know it. Yes, Bin Laden's plans didn't fail but it's not the fear of Americans he only wanted to target but hit our power & strength. We all know America has had some harsh hits in the past including the Japanese bombing of the Pearl Harbor but Bin Laden missed his true goal: ruining & taking full power of America. We still run strong & proud; & no matter how many times America falls we always get back up for a fight. We live true to our name : UNITED
American resolve and democracy will never be destroyed, have we changed, will we morph as time goes by absolutely. The world is changing and economics as we knew it has changed, most emphatically. Only when our second amendment is taken will be no longer be Americans. Bin Laden, radical people world over have killed scores. The Axis of WWII killed and destroyed the world ecomony and we rebuilt. Never Never give up!
Well Jack, in a way they did. No we aren't scared of anyone and will go after anyone that tries to hurt us. But look at the costs of Homeland Security, the inconvenience of flying, the encumberances on some of our freedoms, and two wars that we are fighting. We're broke, we still don't trust Muslims and there is no end in sight.
I don't think Bin Laden or the terrorists had anything to do with us sending our jobs overseas only to consume the end products in our own country. It is also not the terrorists that have us with an inept government and a president that has us bent on socialism. We need to bring the jobs back and employ all american citizens that want to work. The remainder that can work and want a welfare check instead can rot.
Welfare and poverty breed crime. We need our own people employed yesterday!