where were YOU on 9/11? where were YOU on Shock And Awe???

ME?

9/11: i was in my home office. i watched all day. i was FURIOUS. i was ANGRY. i was SAD. I wept.

Shock And Awe: i was in a restaurant with a fellow DUer (and good friend). i watched along with him. i was FURIOUS. i was ANGRY. i was SAD. we FOUGHT with the manager cause SHE was cheering the slaughter.
i went back home and THEN i wept.

both were terribly, horribly, barbarically, disgustingly, tragically WRONG!!!!!

disgusting. it is ALL disgusting. there are no winners.

peace.

both times.

in spirit, both times. the details aren't that important.

well said.

In the towers at a university on Long Island. Woke up just as the second plane hit. Turned on the tv, saw second one get hit, then looked out the window of the tower and saw the smoke rising off in the horizon.

I called in sick and the attacks happened an hour later. I was home on the couch in Whitesboro, Texas - saw every bit they showed on TV.

For shock and awe, I had the day off because of previous on-call time - and again watched it all on TV at my apartment in Plano, Texas.

It had happened an hour or two earlier but I don't turn any electronics on in the morning (apparently when my clock radio went off it hadn't yet happened).

I turned around and went home and turned on the TV. The 4th plane was reported to still be in the air.

after a few minutes of air-raid sirens, there was a loud blast. A few moments later, an ambulance sped past the camera on its way to ground zero. I had to turn it off after that...

Iraqis have firefighters, EMT's, police.... when THEY run into burning, mangled buildings to rescue people, THEY are heroes too. That's right, heroes. The way the people felt in Baghdad that day was THE GODDAMNED SAME!!!!!

Sadly, I can get my ass kicked in America for daring to say such an outrageous statement

:grr:

sadly, even those of us HERE on DU of all places are more worried about how we are "perceived" as "supporting the troops" more than supporting the VICTIMS of this fucked up war.

i wonder how many feel hypocritical about their rhetoric in the face of reality knowing that THIS country may NOT be "ethical" in their thinking.

it is sssoooooooo easy to throw stones for some :eyes:

do not justify the deaths of more innocents. Some have a hard time with that..

still others will tell you there are NO innocents in Iraq

:mad:

was when the Iraqi ambassador left the UN and all the reporters were poking mics in his face. Couldn't they see that he was devastated and facing an unsure future. I admired his strenght leading up to that point.

And, I could get in trouble for saying that also.

Just a note: I know that wasn't as sad as all the innocent casualties of this war, but still I thought it was a very sad moment.

It was early, here, on the west coast. I woke from the sound of a
long series of messages coming in to my icq and realized someone
was frantic .. or something ? They were from a friend in Florida. Starting with Oh My God .. are you there ... We're being attacked.
If you haven't turn on the television etc. On doing so the second plane had not yet hit but did in a matter of minutes.
My first thought was - Oh my god for once it's not the US attacking and killing innocent people. Wonder how people HERE will deal with it. I called the girl who was coming over that morning to do a massage and asked if she wanted to cancel. She said no and that she'd be here soon. The first thing she said to me was "Well what did people expect. That only this country has the right to go around blowing up innocent people. Look at what the US did in Iraq. Those people .. children ... are still over there dying". Then she mentioned something about Clinton blowing up a medicine plant that they desperately needed because it was supposedly being used to make weapons". It wasn't that there was no sadness or grief on our parts but neither of us were the least bit surprised and wondered why others were saying they simply couldn't believe it.

and freaked. I turned on my TV 7am PDT and saw NYC covered in smoke. I totally freaked. Both of my sons were in NYC and I tried to call them but couldn't get through. I called everyone I knew, I was hysterical. About an hour later my guys checked in and I calmed down enough to go to work.

Shock and Awe - I watched the lightshow from the safety of my livingroom. I cried. "Why are we doing this?" I must have said that 100 times.


On edit: At work I spent a lot of time on DU. It helped me feel a bit more grounded.
MzPip
:dem:

I was in Bio, waiting for class to end. About to go to mass for the first time that year. The new principle got on the PA and told us. Then he prayed the Rosary faster than I had ever heard before and have ever heard since. All we did the rest of the day in class was watch TV. And when I got home. My mother monopolized the computer, but I was satisfied with the TV.
Shock and awe, I'm not sure...

9/11 - Teaching. First full week at my current position. I was about to have a kindergarten class when I read about the first plane on Drudge. 30 minutes later...

The school in which I teach has no cable (or TV access at all, for that matter). My info was all from the radio and what little I could get from the Internet. I went through the day in a completely different manner than anybody else I know. This explains my strange obsession with seeing the coverage from that day (and my frustration that the 9/11 video archive website barely works).

Shock and Awe: Putting up primer in our master bedroom. Sort of had it on in the background while listening to the long (good) version of Genesis' "Abacab" album.

9/11: midtown manhattan office tower. ok? was listening to the radio as the first reports were breaking. emailed a couple of friends and told them to turn on a radio. then, the second hit. and you're under attack. i really didn't want to be in an office building--and I really needed a smoke. went outside. had a smoke. the march of office workers started coming up Lexington.

the Pentagon got it. OMG jumpers. collapse. collapse. a really bad day in NYC overall. bits of paper drifting out of the smoke plume which extended over my neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Shock & Awe: At home. Breaking News. Called a friend: "It's on." Wanted to cry.

and students were acting crazy saying that a plane crashed into the wtc.
I thought it was a little plane crashed by accident til I say it on tv. RIght then I saw the second plane crash and said "It's happening, they're attacking America" because I expected a sneaky terrorist attack but not planes crashing into buldings. Then some kid said the planes should have hit lower and I think I punched him in the stomach and left.

Everyone was acting crazy and there was tension in the air for days.

I was registering voters on a local college campus.

and had ABC on, not paying a lot of attention until someone said "one of the WTC towers has a fire burning in it"...something like that. So I started watching...somebody said an airplane had hit it. As a commercial pilot, I got REAL interested...and just about then the 2nd plane was spotted going at the south tower.

By then, I realized there was no accident and thought "something bad is going down, surely NORAD will have some action in a few seconds (thinking back to the Payne Stewart incident) - but no. The minute details are fogged by all the subsequent information, but I'm almost 100% certain I either knew or was told by the media that it was KNOWN that there were either 1 or 2 other hijacked planes by then. Wish I had thought to stick a tape in the VCR but the immensity of the whole thing had me transfixed.

funny how "we" don't remember that nor do we give it the same "weight"

sorry.

NOT trying to slam "you" but you kind of made the point of THIS POST!

understand???

that while I remember where I was and what I was doing, I can't tell you offhand what actual date the S&A was :evilfrown:

I too was noticing how many posters didn't notice the 2nd part of the question. We hear 9/11 so much, but the S&A has kind of been pushed back to make room for war news.

Imagine 9/11 x 1,000. THAT'S Shock and Awe(tm)

:grr:

and one i am FASCINATED with on how my fellow DUers will react. IF the tables were turned..............

as a VET, i must admit that i am conflicted here. no, not really......

WHO indeed is "right" ?????

what I thought you were asking. The phrase "shock and awe" had not at that time, as far as I know, been coined. I understand your point, but I don't think you made it very clear with what seemed to be just a bit
over-wrought post. Sorry I did not respond with "YEAH, IT'S THE SAME GODDAMN THING!!!!!!!!!!!!"

:eyes:

Do I think Bush or someone close to him had some information that 9/11 was likely? Yes. Do I believe he should be impeached, tried and convicted? Yes, again. And do I believe his cadre of neocon comrades,
Cheney, Rummy, Wolfie, Rice, Pearle, and a dozen others should be charged with international war crimes? Damn right, I do.

have been in fights here regarding the "patriotism" of one who questions the "effort"

my point in this thread was to show WHO remembered AND EXPRESSED their 9/11 memories and those who EXPANDED their memories to include SHOCK AND AWE

its staggering so far IMHO

after all, its all about us "'Muricans" ain't it???

:eyes:

the jury is still out

NOTHING PERSONAL.... hope you understand

LONG before the war started

and btw- a blown-up building full of people looks the same from the ground whether it's from a hijacked plane or a 500lb bomb :eyes:

I don't remember - the date. Was too furious and numb. Wondering how could this even be happening. How could the voices (of reason) of so many thousands be totally ignored. How could anyone support this slaughter (2nd we might add) of innocent Iraqis. There was no doubt, by then, that Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11. It was so clear that this psychotic boy with a bomb was out to destroy this country all the while pretending to protect it.

1. I had been on the beach for an hour when I heard a shout come from one of the beachfront bars. I sat at a beach bar in Hollywood, FL for six hours getting as drunk as I've ever been in my life. Terrible day.

2. I was driving through Georgia and listened to the attack on the radio. They had a reporter in Baghdad reporting on it, sounded like the bombs were dropping on his building.

in Vienna, Austria on 9-11-01. Learned about the tragedy on CNN when we got back to the hotel.

The people of Austria were wonderful in the circumstances. We were to return to the US via Munich. The train ride was terrible -- not only because I understood that this was the beginning of a very bad time for my country. A sudden stop brought the baggage down on my wife and she was somewhat injured.

We were only delayed one day -- thanks USAIR! -- and while that day was difficult, the people of Munich, a beautiful city, were no less wonderful than the volk of Austria. The cafes were pretty crowded with Americans doing our best not to be depressed. Hotel Kempenski, at the Munich Airport, did what they could to make our delay as comfortable as possible. A little pricey, but great folks and worth it if you have the brass.

When the airliner landed at Philadelphia, the passengers applauded the crew and spontaneously sang "God Bless America." Once in a lifetime.

What I resent about this government, more than any other single thing, is the sneering arrogance with which they dismissed and disrespected the views of the good European people who did what they could for us when we were the ones in need. Brothers and sisters in Europe, here is one house where you are never forgotten, whatever our crooked, unelected government may do.

All in all, though, it is not as bad as I expected. If we had a smart villain in charge here, the world would be in far more danger than it is. If the boss is a crook, it is better that he is an incompetent boob of a crook.

wasn't THAT THEIR 9/11???????

HOW MANY DIED?????

i want to know where YOU were during THEIR 9/11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

boy, i am SO glad I answered both parts!

:scared:

<poof!>

A little testy eh?

am sick to DEATH of the Iraqi civilians being overlooked here on DU. i MARCHED FOR PEACE (nomatter the color of the skin) and am DAMN SAD that THEY are being forgotten

Perhaps people don't have exciting Shock & Awe stories and could only offer "I was sitting around watching TV and getting drunk".

Why don't you just respond to peoples stories instead of berating them.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

i hope to HELL that means that you are SHOCKED and AWED by the LACK of compassion for Iraqi's here on DU and NOT a "shallow" attitude twords the "people" of Iraq

Instead of just yelling at him for not providing some sort of fantastic Shock & Awe story (Which he didn't have).

I'd have responded the same way.

9/11 I had just gotten home from taking my kids to school when my spouse called to tell me the first of what was going on. He was home within a few minutes and we were together watching the towers fall. I was stunned for the longest time. The sadness came a little later in the day. I was livid later that night when I heard some jerk on the radio mention increasing the military budget. It was as if he was excited about upping the spending and not at all concerned with the horrific events that occurred that day and the rescue efforts that were still going on.

I accidentally saw part of shock and disgust because even though I can't stand to watch him his address to the nation was history in the making and so we were all going to watch. The bombing had started in the background and I was shaking. I couldn't stand to watch or hear the noise coming through the tv. My kids were very upset. My 8 yr. old asked tearfully, "Mom, don't they know that there are kids and parents under those?"

For Shock and Awe, watched it at home, feeling disgusted and sad.

i was in a contracts class. amazingly, nobody said anything. we didnt know what went on till later in the cafeteria when everyone was crowded around the tv's. i was on the phone with my mom (rest her soul) when she yelled out "Oh God the tower just fell!"

it was creepy as hell. I went home, and saw some guy from the Nation of Islam selling papers on the street. He was saying something about Bush causing it all. I didn't pay him any heed then...

.... then drove to a friend's, in time to catch the second plane going into the building.

The first thing in my head and out of my mouth was "Israel. This is what we get for supporting Israel. The chickens have come home to roost."

Where I was:

Plane hits North Tower - Chambers St. and Broadway
Plane hits South Tower - Wall Street and Broadway
South Tower Collapses - South Street and Old Slip
North Tower Collapses - 0n foot: entrance ramp to the Brooklyn Bridge from the FDR (where the westbound ramp turns 160 degrees east onto the bridge)

Shock and Awe:
In my brother's apartment, Park Slope BKLYN, drinking Sidecars and shaking our heads: shockenahw. The next day I had to go to a conference in midtown, but just before I left I checked out the TV. This time they had the real shock and awe, with the sound and everything. It sounded just like 9/11 to me. I got so pissed off watching it that by the time I got to the conference, I could barely contain my rage. Fucking Shock and Awe! The "branding" of shock and awe makes it even more repugnant.

waiting for shock and awe. We all knew it was coming and when I saw the bombs, I started shaking. I remember the mushroom cloud that first night of bombing. The picture is etched in my mind. The TV coverage made it look like a video game but I knew real people were dying and being injured.

I heard about 9/11 from my husband who called from NY. I told him he was telling me a sick joke until I realized it was true. I turned on the TV and watched way too much of the coverage.

Sept. 11th 2001 it was 6:50 am when I found the phone
unplugged and put the plug back in the wall for the day .
The phone rang the second I plugged it in . A friend
franticly calling and had been calling . She told me to
turn on the news and that we were under attack . I imediately
started cursing bush saying "I knew this shit would happen
if he got in the white house" which irritated my friend .

The day before shock and awe and the day of shock and
awe I was home and spent those 2 days crying and just
devastated that we couldn't stop it 10s of millions of
people tried with all their might to stop it . I prayed
to god that he sees us , "oh please sees us peacekeepers
we tried , oh lord we tried so hard" I cried for the
children both my own 7 yr old son and the Iraqi children .
I called The white House to let them know the day we
bombed Iraq scared me as much as Sept 11th . Woe unto
us what we sow .... :-( I called all my policy makers
to let them know the same . That day hurt so bad .

self deleted.

9-11 is the kind of thing I expect from radical, fundamentalist, terrorists and former mujhadeen.

I'd like to think as Americans we'd know better.

I cried for 2 days so so devastated

I had a flight physical 0n 9/10/01, which I busted due to hypertension. During the events of 9/11 my B/P hit 215/110 for most of the day (I already had a B/P cuff, since it had been creeping up for a couple of years).

On 9/12 I went to my internist for a B/P work-up. Two years later, and two hypertension specialists later, I am still on long-term-disability. Problem is, I cannot tolerate ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, angiotension-2 inhibitors, or alpha-blockers. All four classes induce wicked coughs and bronchitis. So I am on a beta-blocker and a diuretic, which cause mild lethergy and dizzinness. Want me as captain of your MD-80? No? Thought not. Neither do I, the FAA, my company, nor my union (ALPA). Hence, my LTD status.

I really miss my work. I was an MD-80 captain for a major US airline. I had a bid position to return to my beloved Boeing 737-300 as a captain. But 9/11 didn't do me in. Hypertension - or rather hypersensitivity to certain classes of B/P meds - did. Atenolol and Diazide control my B/P tp 120/75, rock solid.

On 911, my husband and I were doing some "cold-calling" on potential customers. We first heard it on the radio and I could hardly believe it. A few places we stopped at had the TV on and I saw bits and pieces. Other than that, it was a pretty normal day with a very surreal feeling. It seems really wierd to look back on it now and realize that, in our travels that day, it really wasn't the focus of everyone we met. I guess the poor economy, which was evident even then, was top on everyone's mind - just trying to make a living.

During Shock and Awe - I don't remember specifically when it started, but when it did, I was glued to my TV ever chance I got. I sure did not want to miss it when the crap hit the fan and it was time to run for cover. I was so sad, because I kept hoping that somehow it could be stopped before it started. I was ashamed. So many emotions. They have NOT gotten better with time, I might add.

Also, during the early stages of the war, I spent lots of time on the net checking out overseas websites. I wanted to compare what they were saying with what we were being fed over here.

During the runup to the war, I spent lots of time at "WhatReallyHappened.Com" and "Rense.Com" and various other alternative sites. There was some great info on those sites but I had to break myself from them because they were so depressing and tended to induce paranoia and a sense of helplessness.

I woke up early on September 11th. My new boyfriend (now husband) had stayed over that night, and he had an early class. I am not really sure when we started dating, as my first memory of us being together is September 11th, but it was sometime in early Septmber of 2001.

Anyway, I kicked him out of bed and into the shower and I got myself out of bed shortly after he left for school. I got online and checked my email. The top news item of the day on aol's news ticker was something about stem cells, but there was this curious picture of the World Trade Center with flames and smoke coming out of the top of it.

'Weird,' I thought, 'it must be the aniversary of when those people blew up the bomb in the basement.' I read my email, and then looked at the photo again.

Up until that point, it hadn't really dawned on my that the carbombing caused no flames in the upper stories. I was really out of it. I clicked the link and then said, "Holy Shit!"

I ran into the living room and turned on CNN and then called my mother on the phone. I was really surpised that my mom hadn't called me first, since she's normally up at 4 or 5 am watching the news, but that morning she had turned the news off.

You see.... my folks, and my mom's cousins were planning on leaving on a 3 week long trip to Italy, retracing the family's roots, on the morning of the 12th. She was trying to get in some last minute Italian-phrase-book cramming, so turned the TV off so she could pay attention.

She thought I was joking.

It does sound pretty absurd though doesn't it? Hey mom, in the half hour you've had your TV off, terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center. Hahaha.

She turned on the TV and then yelled at my dad to turn on his TV. I could hear him say, "FUCK" from across the house.

I didn't go to school that day. I spent most of it either on DU (the only internet news source that wasn't crashing) or in front of CNN. I cried for a little bit on my floor. I had two former roommates I was worried about. One was flying from Boston to LA, just like one of those flights that hit the WTC, and the other worked in Manhattan. Luckily, Brian (fying out of Boston) had actually flown a few days earlier, and Pat (who works in Manhattan), as I remembered later in the day, was in Niger of all places!

I had just moved to Montana, leaving my job, family, and most of my loved ones behind. I never felt more alone in my entire life than I did crying on my living room floor watching the second tower collapse.

For shock and awe..... I was at work, and a coworker got a call on her cellphone indicating that it had begun. I was surprised that my manager started complaining about Bush in front of customers. She was not happy, and she correctly predicted that it would only cause more problems, and solve none.

I came home that night and avoided TV as much as I could.

Graduate course -reading comprehension in German- my wife calls me on the cell phone and tells me a plane hit one of the towers.

When I got back to my office a couple of colleagues were saying that it might of been a terrorist act. I said, 'Naw, if it's really a terrorist attack, they wouldn't hit just one target'. 5 minutes later...

the same indignation?????

I kept thinking, 'there are people under those explosions'.

I was 'shocked and awed' that Bush* had actually launched an unprovoked invasion. It kept running through my head that he had just validated the thought process behind the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; something the judges at the Nerumburg Trials had pointedly rebuked the Nazi's for.

the kids to school, came home and as soon as I walked inside the house flipped the radio on and Bob Edwards on NPR was saying, "Reports are a little sketchy, but it seems as if an airplane has hit the World Trade Center." This was obviously a story with a great visual so I turned on the tv, and was watching just a few minutes later, like so many people, when the second plane hit.

The first one might have been a terrible accident, but the second one was clearly deliberate, and at that point I tried to call a couple of friends who are ticket agents for USAir, because I knew that they'd know exactly which flights were missing. You cannot believe how quickly news of any kind of accident is spread within the airline industry. DemoTex will back me up on this one. It's as if airline employees are all psychic and know immediately, or as if some master news-spreader gets the word out even before the wreckage has settled.

As it turned out, I couldn't reach either guy that day, but they both told me when I spoke with them that yes, they knew exactly which planes had crashed into the WTC and what other ones were unaccounted for before they crashed.

As for Shock and Awe, by which I presume you mean the bombing of Baghdad, we were in Toronto, and participated in a peace rally that night. It was wonderful. Traffic stopped politely -- we got off the trolly we were on, and later got back on using our transfer and continued on to the restaurant we'd headed out to before joining the demonstration.

I was in Tennessee on 9/11 visiting a very dear friend of mine who sold us our female wolf Bliss. She and her husband are elderly and they've devoted their lives to taking in domesticated wolves from people who could no longer care for them.

We all grieved together on that day and sought the comfort of their wolves as a means to stay grounded amid the chaos and uncertainty we were all feeling. I don't know how I would have survived the day if I weren't in the company of such wise people and the ancient spiritualness and wisdom of their wolves.

My husband and I dreaded the day of Shock and Awe and hoped up until the very end that we wouldn't attack Iraq. When we learned the bombing began, we turned off the television, went out to our own wolves, built a fire and shared the evening and our tears with them. I don't think we've ever felt such a greater sense of helplessness as we did that evening. We knew this country would no longer be viewed as a beacon of hope by the rest of the world, and our lives would forever change.

Just came out of the east bound I-70 tunnel in Wheeling WV.

I didn't even know about what had happened until 10:00 eastern time. My class was dismissed and I was doing hallway duty when another teacher walked by and somewhat calmly said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I went to the library and there were some teachers watching local television that was very grainy (we don't have cable.)

It was very surreal in the library since it was open enrollment for insurance and the library was filled with representatives helping teachers sign up for their health insurance. It seemed very far away.

The day went on but I didn't realize all that had happened. Some kids asked about it and I said a terrible thing had happened; that people had used airplanes as weapons but that they were safe. A few parents came and got their kids out of school but most of us kept on teaching; I think I gave homework. A couple of us went to a bar after school and for the first time saw the Towers come down.

My roommate and I had stayed out late the night before drinking at a bar down the street. I sat down at my computer to check my email and news before work and the phone rang. It was my girlfriend calling from grad school telling me to turn on the Today show because a plane had hit the WTC. I turned it on and saw the smoke. I went to wake my roommate, but he was too hungover. When the second plane hit I screamed "Holy Fuck" and then went to wake him up. He came out and we watched the day unfold , in awe. My boss was in a meeting and called us to say that we didn't have to come to work. I called 2 other coworkers, who were already out in the field, and they kind of brushed me off. When I heard about the other planes (particularly the one over Pittsburgh) I told them to get to my place immediately. They then realized the severity of the situation.

I also remember my friend from Chicago calling me because he heard a plane was off course over Pittsburgh. I told him I was fine and then the phone cut out, and cell service was dead until about 5:00 PM due to overload. I drove to WV that night to be with my girlfriend and watch the news. It's the first time that I remember ever crying in front of a girlfriend. I was sad, but that soon turned into anger. By the time Bush gave his "big" speech, that anger was redirected. I knew that this whole story didn't click. Enough about the tinfoil stuff though.

As for S&A, I remember being in a local dive bar with some friends from high school and college just bullshitting. We knew it was coming and they knew how I felt about it because of the protests I had attended in New York and DC prior to this. When the bombs started dropping, I remember everyone in the bar saying "Oh yeah", "Holy Shit", etc.... These same people now say NOTHING about the war. I think Operation Iraqi Liberation "jumped the shark" at that moment.

Sleeping, my alarm had just gone off when the DJ came on and announced that he was sorry to report a plane had just hit the world trade center. I turned on the TV immediately and watched as the second plane hit and then the ensuing replays. Very surreal. Then I drove to work and was on Northbound I5 just outside of Des Moines, WA when I learned that the first tower fell. Went to work and watched the events unfold all day.

but for some reason Shock and Awe did not have the same impact on me as 9/11 did. Maybe because I live in Brooklyn and it happened in my own backyard. Shock and awe happened far from home but it doesn't make it less of a tragedy. I hate what is happening in Iraq and I hate what has happened to this country.

Because it wasn't some TV event, it was for fucking real, you know?

On 9/11 I was at work (uptown manhattan) and just happened to turn on the TV, we had one, right after the first hit when nobody knew what the hell was going on. Everyone was speculating and I remember clearly that some local anchor said something along the lines of it possibly being deliberate, everyone thought that was stupid and a minute later... the second plane hit. Then we all knew.

A lot after that was a blur, trying desperately to call people who worked and lived in the area, which was impossible, feeling frantic and helpless. Then seeing the unbelievable: the Towers falling down. The smoke covering half of the island, the noise, the people walking home over the bridges... horrible, horrible day. And a lot more horror in the days to follow, but that's another story.

"Shock and Awe". I was glued to the TV because I knew what was coming. What I remember was being so shocked by the incredible violence of what they were doing, it was like watching Apocolypse Now in Baghdad. It was frightening and terrible and I cried. What in Gods name did these people do to deserve this? How could they get away with this?

But, no, of course it was not the same as 9/11. It is impossible to feel the same way about "Shock and Awe", I'm sorry if that offends some people, but my city was attacked. I'm sure the people in Baghdad feel the same way.

Where were you when millions were being killed in Rawanda? It is too much to ask that we feel exactly the same way about something that happens thousands of miles away in another country. What was different about Iraq, and why it was so painful, was because "we" were responsible for it. But it will never match what happened on 9/11, from a total shock perspective. SA and Iraq will be a long bleeding rather than being shot, if you know what I mean.

nope. it isn't. that is precisely why i am asking it.

i think you have hit the nail on the head as to the purpose of this post.

thank you.

I don't expect Americans to react with as much emotion towards S&A as they do towards 9/11, but then I don't expect Iraqis to react with as much anger towards 9/11 as they do S&A. An attack close to home, on our country, possibly with friends and family being hurt or killed will always get more reaction than an attack on the other side of the world. I'd expect a citizen of Australia or Indonesia to be more angry at Bali than EITHER S&A or 9-11. It's human nature and being more angry at one than the other doesn't mean one is callous. Anger isn't an on/off switch, there's a range and people will feel more deeply towards whatever feels closer to them. What's worrysome is those who fell nothing towards the suffering or those 'others' who are distant, or who actually feel joy at the suffering. A freeper who cheered the bombing of Bagdad is as sick as the Muslim who cheered when the planes hit the WTC.

A co-worker came and told me what happened. Luckily, we have a TV in the conference room, so pretty much saw the whole thing.

Shock and Awe: I was home and was definitely shocked, but not awed.

I'd just been released from a week in intensive care for a head injury. I was recovering from nerve damage and a severe frontal lobe concussion. I couldn't remember half of my vocabulary. My son called and demanded that I turn on the tv. I told him, "You know I don't watch tv news." (Something I could remember.) He insisted, so I turned it on. I watched a picture of the destruction and listened for about 5 minutes. My reaction: "That's too bad. I'm sorry for what those families are going through." I turned it off and went back to whatever it was I'd been doing, without a second thought. I left it off over the next several weeks, and never did relate to the emotional upheaval the rest of the country went through. I still don't. Not that I didn't grieve for those who lost lives or loved ones. I felt just like I would for anyone else facing destruction and loss in their lives. I just never felt the national outrage. I've tried to figure out why, and come up with these reasons:

1. The head injury. I wasn't firing on all cylinders.
2. The head injury was the final event in a year of personal destruction. In addition to being injured, I was angry and devastated at the personal losses I'd suffered, and felt a sense of rage at a nation who indulged in horror, compassion, anger, etc. over 9/11 when they didn't give a shit about the destruction of lives, "business as usual," going on in America on a daily basis. It stank of hypocrisy to me.
3. I'm not patriotic. I look at the country, and I appreciate the good, want to change the bad, and accept all. But I don't feel like a family member.


And "shock and awe?" I didn't watch it on TV. I turned on the tv long enough to know we were there. And then I turned everything off and sat in my living room and cried. I sent out a prayer for all, and became even more determined, if that were possible, to oust Bush Inc.

I was asleep. I was working night shift computer support for the US government (yes, I am a former ‘govie’, and how did a historian get a job as computer support? long story!) We worked 12 hour swing shifts making sure everything from phones to servers were running. A great job, good money, fun work (I liked being a trouble-shooter!!!!). I got home at 6 am and went to bed. My wife was working and her building was evacuated. She finally got home (DC traffic was a zoo that day) and let me sleep knowing I’d not get back to sleep once I heard the news. I woke up at 1230 or so to visit the bathroom and found my wife at home watching TV. I thought she had come home sick. She said my jaw dropped and I turned white when she told me what had happened.

I immediately called my office and they said come in a couple hours early. Now mind you, my office building had been evacuated! I went in a few hours early and gave my name to the guard at the door. He told me in case of another attack my office would be “a tomb” and they wanted to be able to identify bodies. I’d never seen our guards, usually armed with pistols, carrying what appeared to be submachine guns before. I went into my office and stayed for a 16 hour shift, just me and a few other workers making sure the government’s IT systems kept running during an emergency. And no, it wasn’t in the White house which was NOT a target. (Another shrub lie)


I quit six months later to start a second career. 9-11 motivated me to do what I LOVE to do, and what I was trained to do, be a historian, and not wait for retirement to practice my vocation instead of holding just down a job because it paid well. It helped that I could no longer look out my office window without expecting to see an airplane heading for my office and I still am afraid to fly, but that’s what I did on 9-11, I went to work. In my view I served my country more than some fat-assed flag-waving Freeper who sat at home in fly-over country and watched it on TV eating cheetos and waving his flag for bush and god screaming at Muslims everywhere. I didn’t know if I was safe or not, everybody was expecting another attack, but I did my job.



As for S/A, it wasn't shock becuae I expected it. More like a feeling of "fuckers got their damn war."

before with the TV on (CNN), so there it was - one tower smoking and the other one nonexistant. I was stunned. Thought at first that it was some special effects footage from a movie somebody was making (ever the Hollywood reporter!). I watched for a few minutes, stunned, woke the husband who thought I was making it up until he raised up and saw the coverage. Took the kids to school, came home and stayed rivetted to the TV until the school office called to say they'd closed down for the day and the kids were being sent home. My neighbor across the street was frantic - her son was in 8th grade there, one year older than my daughter, and we carpooled. She was on her way to pick Brian up and she was utterly wigged out, so I invited her to come with me and I'd drive. She was darned near out of control and I had to hug her a few times to calm her down a little. She kept babbling about how she'd taken those same flights so many times in her work and HAD been about to accept a big job with AOL - where else? IN Manhattan, no less! (She turned the job down that afternoon, by the way. Apparently she and her husband had been fighting about it in the days leading up - he'd wanted her to take it. He didn't object to her decision now.) I said I suspected Osama bin Laden because it sure looked like that kind of terrorism to me.

Details were still sketchy. Kids were brought home. My son and daughter just sort of hung out with me and their dad that day. We were pretty much glued to the TV, speechless, fearful, horrified. I started thinking of friends of mine still in the news biz in NYC and a girlfriend whose husband was a broker for Morgan Stanley (IN the WTC - turns out his office had moved several blocks away from there beforehand. By the way, everybody we knew in NYC that day wound up safe and accounted for, thank you Dear God! But that didn't assuage the grief I felt. Felt like I'd been sucker-punched all day and could ONLY worry about the consequences - I kept thinking "what have we wrought? Nobody would do something like this to us unless they were really outraged." And I KNEW few others would see that. I knew instinctively that we urgently had to rework the way we deal with the Israelis and Palestinians. Because I felt that this was the root cause. A tiny bit of me was further discouraged about bush because I feared this would probably make a lot of people rally around him. Didn't know how correct I'd be.

Shock & Awe Day - that day I'd had a friendly argument with a couple of girlfriends in Starbucks. It was midmorning and I was off to the nearby anti-war protest in Westwood, which I'd attended for the past two days. My one friend joked that if I got arrested, she'd be glad to bail me out. My other friend was desperately grabbing my arm, begging me to go home and at least fly our flag in front of the house to support our troops. I was really mad by then. I turned to her and said - I'm supporting our troops by trying to keep them OUT OF THAT, and BRING THEM HOME!!!!!!!!!" She couldn't understand this. Then we got into a debate where I managed to debunk several misconceptions she clung to, since she's a republican and apparently hangs out mainly with other republican friends (my other girlfriend there and myself being pretty much the sole exceptions, from what I gathered). For example, she was sure dick cheney had actually worn his country's uniform. She wouldn't have taken my word for it if my friend hadn't also confirmed this wasn't true. She then kept burbling "well, I'm getting bad information then. I'm getting bad information then." But it didn't seem to make much difference (she's remained pretty firmly in denial).

When Shock and Awe finally hit, that night, and we'd been out protesting as the 5 pm deadline had come and gone, the day before, and the next day when everybody was pretty much resigned to watching the clock tick down until the bombs started dropping, I was feeling - I guess - quietly desolate. It was hard to accept that everything we'd tried to do as marchers, protestors, and truth-spreaders, had been for naught. It'd still heartbreaking. I just felt empty all that night and into the next day. Or two.

As I came in, the television monitor above my desk was on. One of the techies told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I really didn't take it in; it didn't register that this had been a jet full of people and that it was very, very deliberate. I was still envisioning a small plane hitting the building.

Then the news started to become even more horrible. In an order I can't recall, we started hearing about the plane hitting the second tower, another one hitting the Pentagon, the Capitol being evacuated. There were rumors galore flying: that BWI (the airport in Baltimore) had had an explosion, that there was a fire down on the Mall in D.C., that there was an explosion at the Capitol, etc.

My office at the time was about two blocks from the White House, and there were already fears that additional attacks might take place -- right in our neighborhood. Our accounting staff announced that they were getting the hell out of there. They were soon followed by most administrative staff.

As the day wore on, I grew more and more heartsick about the news. I cried a little but felt strangely stiff and constrained. I exchanged e-mails with relatives and friends to let them know I was safe. Little did I know that some of my friends and relatives had lost colleagues and at least one family member in the attacks.

When I went home that night, the streets were eerie and deserted. A deathly quiet had descended on the city. Most people had left work early, and a lot of businesses had closed up. Waiting in the Metro station for the train was a lonely experience.

That weekend I watched part of a service at the National Cathedral. At home I played John McDermott's recording of "The Green Fields of France" again and again. It seemed an appropriate thing to do (the song is about WWI, supposedly the "war to end wars," and how in fact the truth proved to be very different).

I was at home on the night of "Shock and awe," cursing intensely at the remorseless, short-sighted Bush on my TV screen.

He really has neglected national security in a ghastly way.

My boss told me about the first tower being hit by a plane, but we have no TV in our department so we couldn't see what was happening. I had my radio on all day for details. I felt sad, and also mad - I knew Bush would use it to his benefit (and boy, did he ever.)

Shock and Awe was so upsetting. After all of the protests and peace vigils that I attended, I was sad and angry that it still happened afterall. I knew lots more innocent Iraqi people would end up dead than those Americans who died in the towers.

I was taking the subway to work when two people came in all dirty and messy one was crying and the other kept shaking his head. I heard someone ask, Where you by the towers? I asked what happened and they said a plane hit the twin towers and the police pushed them to get the hell out of their on to the subway, they were so disorientated, they did know where they were going. I really thought it was an accident until I got to my office and we started receiving calls from Europe asking if we were okay. Then I turned on the news and saw the report the second tower was hit, then the pentagon, I thought it was the end of the world.


:wtf: