9/11, what were you doing when it happened (Mainly American)

[Forboding Angel]

As the thread title says, this is mainly directed towards other americans here.

For me, I was on my way to work when the first one hit, there was an interjection of news and I was in disbelief. It didn't make any sense.

On my first break at work I saw it for the first time. The first tower smoke billowing out of the side *jaw dropped*. Then as I was about to turn and get a soda, some movement on the side of the screen caught my eye and I said "You gotta be fucking kidding me!" and blam, the second plane hit.

TBH it was surreal. I was working in a government building at the time and we were somewhat nervous that we were gonna get hit (a complex in KC makes parts for nukes deep underground). You should have heard people in the room when the second plane game in. Shouts of NO!, Oh Shit!, things of that nature, as if by yelling at it we could make it not happen.

For me personally, it wasn't so much the people that died that day, it was moreso the fact of "How could anyone do this". 10 seconds from impact while you are muttering or screaming "Allah Akbar!", in that final moment, at what point did it strike you that "Holy shit, I'm a dumbass", or "This is a GREAT idea!".

The only part that got emotional for me was when people started jumping out of the building. Screaming all the way down, knowing full well that they were going to die the whole way down. That shit is really messed up.

I sincerely hope that there is a hell, so that Hitler and Bin laden can high five themselves while getting cornholed with pineapples all day long.

[Otherside]

Well from a non american PoV i can tell you what i was doing

the 10th September is gibraltar's national day < which pretty much means you go out the day before spend all day drinking dressed and white and have the mother of all hang overs the next day.

Ofc i was only 13 at the time so i wasnt drinking the day b4 but had still stayed out late. I got woken up on the morning by a phonecall from a relative all i heard was "a plane hit the statue of liberty" i was like wat the Q_Q i turned on sky news and the first plane had just hit the First tower. I saw the second plane crashing live i was quite shocked and all kids skipped school that day to watch the news.

Yeh and like forb seeing the people jump out of the windows to there death was sadening ;/

[Jazcash]

I was probably masturbating.

[Sleksa]

While the attacks on 9/11 were horrifying, they were also the first real attack done to the US soil.

in scale, they are relatively minor compared to things like the us carpet bombings upon germany and japan which killed hundreds of thousands of people. (excluding the use of nukes on japan)

Thinking why they did the attack , you should take a look at the US politics on the middle east.

as to where i was during the attack; at a confirmation camp and i remember one guy coming to our cottage , saying that united states is under attack (by like the russian army or something)

[Forboding Angel]

Thinking why they did the attack , you should take a look at the US politics on the middle east.

Would you personally do a suicide bombing run? I should think not. That's what I was getting at, was on a personal level.

[Argh]

While the attacks on 9/11 were horrifying, they were also the first real attack done to the US soil.

Oh, wait, what about the first (mainly failed) bombing of that same Trade Center building?

Bombings of our embassies? Lebanon? Assasination / bombing / kidnapping of aid workers in all sorts of places? The Iranian takeover of our embassy? And for every success, how many foiled plots, goofed up attacks, etc? We'll never really know.

There was a lot of history, and not all of it was "not on our soil" by any means.

9-11 was, very simply put, just too large to be a minor political crisis any more. There's a certain threshold where it's very stupid to cross, with any nation.

Even Al Quaida apparently has had debates on the Web about whether or not they did something counterproductive- they wanted to hurt us, not make us mad enough to get serious about destroying them and their movement.

For the record, I was at work when the first plane struck. We pretty much didn't do our jobs that day. It was the first major piece of news that I can recall, where access to realtime feeds from the Internet meant that practically everybody in offices everywhere could actually see what was going on.

The second plane, and the collapse of the building, are things I'll never forget- up until then, we were all like... "this has to just be a horrible accident". And the second plane hit... and we KNEW that somebody had done this to us, deliberately...

[KingRaptor]

Thinking why they did the attack , you should take a look at the US politics on the middle east.

That's a common line of reasoning, but the US is hardly the only target of such attacks. The underlying motives run a lot deeper.


Myself, I was going to bed at the time (GMT +8). My dad woke me up when he got a phone call from a friend who was watching the news. Broadcast was delayed, so I saw the towers collapsing and everything.

I was pretty detached at the time tbh. I wouldn't realize the full implications of this until years later.

[Michilus_nimbus]

Just got home from one of my first days in high school, heating pancakes to eat them with ice cream and hot chocolate sauce. I was taking my first bite when the second plane hit.

[smoth]

walking to class when the aircraft hit. When I got to class I didn't care and I still don't. I hate these sort of threads.... "what were you doing when Kennedy was killed? What were you doing when collumbia went up, blah blah..."

Doesn't really matter what I was doing and all these people stopping to mourn, unless they were the family of people who were lost they should just keep working! Want to honor those people? Do it by being a productive american and not using it as an excuse to bawww. I recognized the deaths of the those people when it happened and did the best thing I could do, went to class and studied. Some assholes went home to mourn/play xbox/jack-off/feel sorry for themselves.

[smoth]

While the attacks on 9/11 were horrifying, they were also the first real attack done to the US soil.

the Alamo, I have been there... happened a good bit before alkaida. It's cool, not your country so I understand you not knowing out history but there has been a rich history of war, including colonization, revolutionary war, texas vs mexico blah blah.. nothing like Europe but still we have had attacks on "our" soil and on the soil when it belonged to the native americans.

[Gnomre]

I was taking one of the statewide standardized tests. One of the school's officials (dean or counselor or someone, I forget) came in and notified us of an attack on the WTC and then told us to resume our tests.

At the time there was only one TV in the teacher's lounge in the school and a couple in the library, so they were much too crowded to get to. I didn't see or know anything else until about 3 pm that day when I got home.

[tombom]

9-11 was, very simply put, just too large to be a minor political crisis any more. There's a certain threshold where it's very stupid to cross, with any nation.

Even Al Quaida apparently has had debates on the Web about whether or not they did something counterproductive- they wanted to hurt us, not make us mad enough to get serious about destroying them and their movement.

but no terrorist movements have been destroyed and it's actually been made worse

11/9 was pretty horrible and the way it's been milked and abused by people is crazy

[Gota]

I was watching cnn loling thinking this was some kind of joke.

[Gota]

While the attacks on 9/11 were horrifying, they were also the first real attack done to the US soil.

the Alamo, I have been there... happened a good bit before alkaida. It's cool, not your country so I understand you not knowing out history but there has been a rich history of war, including colonization, revolutionary war, texas vs mexico blah blah.. nothing like Europe but still we have had attacks on "our" soil and on the soil when it belonged to the native americans.

What about that time when the russians and yuri attacked the us?

[RogerN]

I was in class (Georgia Tech) when the first plane hit. A couple of students had their laptops on and were browsing the web during class. They saw the first reports and interrupted the class to tell everyone. Afterward all classes were canceled for the rest of the day, and the school advised us to leave. There was some concern that the CNN building (down the street from us) might be a target.

[manored]

I first knew about the attack then my father got home for lunch and told us to turn on the tv because the twin towers had been destroyed, so we just saw the new after, we didnt saw then falling.

At that time I though something around the lines of "its not my country, not my towers, not my familiars and I am too insignificant to do anything about it, so its not my problem either" and forgot about it... or would have if the news had allowed me to. I hate how the news like to tell everthing about something big like that in a day and then repeat it for a month

[El Idiot]

I was watching the news. And then the WTC came on. I was thinking "Holy sh*t". Not much.

Oh, wait, what about the first (mainly failed) bombing of that same Trade Center building?

Didn't one of the leaders of the first WTC bombing get sent to jail, and claimed that if he went to jail, they would absolutely bring down the WTC?

[SwiftSpear]

Thinking why they did the attack , you should take a look at the US politics on the middle east.

Would you personally do a suicide bombing run? I should think not. That's what I was getting at, was on a personal level.

The USA isn't directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of most of sleksa's friends or family yet. Make it about revenge and religion and rationality goes out the window. Absolutely it doesn't make them right, but they're still human beings, and what they did is within the ability of the rational mind to understand. USA's ham fisted foreign policy has made some really nasty enemies... sure, not powerful, but if you piss people off enough they will even do stuff like 9/11 at their bid to fight back.

[PicassoCT]

I was called up to the TV- by my Dad, and i was about telling that i was not interested in a another poor "burning Skyscraper" movie, especially not before lunch- when i noticed that the music was missing- and CNN babbling...

I don´t know much, but the American Empire for shure ain´t the worst Thing that happened to the world. Shure it ment Tech-Stagnation (Great Entitys always produce that effect - but Mankind has a Hobby unifying)- and when i take a look around on what China - or Russia do in Africa or the Asian Backyard for comparison... it wasn´t the worst of worlds, before the One-Bullet-Watchmen of this World got his one shot in Iraq breaking his Powermonopol all by himself, so we have this Multipolar Sit we have know..

I admit my thought was Surprise, surprise it didn´t came worser. For a Terrorattack, there was mutch more teribble Possible (Think of the Anthrax-letters later), it was a quite well balanced Thing between Great Effect, and minor enough Damage, to not moral-backfire on the Puplic-Supportbase of the Terrorists.

Also, i´m not so shure anymore why the allmighty US should be so guilty of Everything, when they even can´t conquer a Third World Country.. they are a fine Scapegoat, and i think thats the second best part, they were a Scapegoat that felt the Beats. Dictatorships laugh out loud about the People they damage for there interests, so even the most dumb Antiamerican wouldn´t waste a second, a Gulp of Air to condem Chinas Support-Dictators worldwide for Ressources Strategy, simply for one Reason: They don´t give a Damn..

One last Thing, as we are Democrats, have chosen the State we live in, and are therefore the Souvereigns of it- we are a legitimate Target for anybody who want´s to return his revenge for the chossen-by-us political meassures. So if i get blasted in a Bus for having my freedom till that day, i won´t complain, the Kings head has always a Tendency for rolling, and we in the West have the Chance to be king for votingday.

I´m sorry for those Tragedys burried beneath the Politics..

[smoth]

The english was pretty bad on that post but I agree with picasso. Any of the morons babbling about how bad America is have not looked at the rest of the world. Compared to other countries Americas transgressions are small and laughable in comparison.