How is 9/11 viewed internationally?

[Sticky Squid]

As somebody from Blackburn most people don't seem to care about the event, caring more about football being on today.

 

[niqw]

It's like a woman whose kid was hit by a car ten years ago and is still crying about it. At first it was viewed with sympathy and concern. Ten years later, and no emotional or mental change, and it's viewed like a crazy ***** who has defined her entire life around one tragedy that she desperately clings to like it's her only excuse to act like an ignorant ****. Plus the kid kept running back and forth across the road and had it coming anyway. That's how it's seen by most of the rest of the world.

 

[Hosker]

I don't think anyone here really cares, including me.

 

[Dr Jones]

In Denmark people care about it simply for respect. As said before most people care about the Oslo/Utoya attacks in Norway seeing as they were way closer, and maybe even more devastating (Seeing as tons of kids got murdered).

 

[JamesStone]

It was the wake-up call for America.

You are not all powerful.

You are not immune to the consequences of your actions.

Your civilians are not somehow sacred when you stomp across the world causing thousands of innocent deaths every week.

It was a terrible tragedy, but people act like it was an unprovoked attack. It was the consequence of decades of American interference in the Middle East.

Oh, and I wish our news outlets would stop going on about it. I want to know what is actually happening in the world, not what happened 10 years ago.

This was the part that was missing.

 

[jonyboy13]

Israel. Dgaf about it, we got a lot tougher crap to deal with every year.

 

[Ch@Z]

Here in Britain, me and most people I know didn't give a flying duck. That hasn't changed in these 10 years.

It has changed EVERYTHING. It has caused racial profiling, fear and 2 fucking wars.
It has also changed how we look at war. No matter how big your army is or how advanced your weapons are, a few men with only small knifes can still kill thousands.

 

[rokkolpo]

My sis told me, otherwise I would've missed it completely.

But yeah, I guess newspapers made notice.
And we get a lot of specials on tv about it.

Dutchmen here btw.

 

[Haagrum]

Being American, the 9/11 attack is a big-ish deal, especially with the buzz going around about the 10th anniversary.
However, I have no idea how other country's view it, and am wondering how you see it? Do you remember it, or recognize the day? Has it affected you guys too?

Sorry if I sound really American, but these are honest questions.

I'm an Australian, and none of my friends or family were in New York or the Pentagon on the day of the attack. The Bali nightclub bombings have greater resonance for me - and even with those, I don't have a sense of national calamity. More people die from starvation, preventable disease and civil warfare on any given day than perished in the attacks on 11 September 2001 (or 12 October 2002). At the risk of appearing callous, what made that event exceptional was that it happened on US soil and was a strike at both its people and its symbols. What made it more tragic was the hysteria it set off, here and elsewhere (and the anti-Muslim sentiment it stirred up still hasn't ended here in Australia).

Personally, I remember the destruction of the World Trade Centre towers and the attack on the Pentagon as being the catalyst for some of the worst foreign policy decisions in decades. This is a shame, because a lot of good people died because of nineteen men armed with box cutters - both on the day and in the years that followed. I accord the event and the date no special power or significance beyond that. I refuse to allow the actions of a handful of maniacs to undermine the better values of Western society.

I've marked the day as a sad anniversary, a day when violent men murdered a lot of innocent people. I feel sorry for the people missing a friend, a partner, a child, a parent. I feel sorry for the people who survived and are suffering from diseases stemming from the destruction of the WTC towers. I feel angry because this event was invoked to legitimate invasions, torture and state-sanctioned murder in the name of "justice". And then, like the mayor of London in 2005, I've gone back to living my life the same way I did beforehand, because I refuse to live in fear because this happened.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

NZ. Not cared about in the slightest. In fact[footnote]Though to be fair this is just from people I have spoken to about it.[/footnote] people find it distasteful that americans still go on and on about it like it was such a big thing. And the whole "They attacked us!" is disgusting.

Simple fact is this, unless you actually lost a family member in the attack then you really need to stfu about it and stop acting as if it had anything to do with you.

Oh and internationally its viewed 11/9. <.<

And let's not forget how America treats this like "the biggest tragedy of all time" when at the end of WW2 over 60 million people died and i find it rather disgusting if they or anyone else keeps treating the next death like it's some sort of fad.

OT: Du to my own opinion on the matter i do care for those that lost family members however i do not care for those that hate and want to destroy another country over what went down because it makes you no better than the ones that "did it".

Also i won't be replying to quotes for this topic in general because i know exactly what to expect as such and i know it will lead to someone's disagreement with my quote but let me tell you this: "over 60 million people died at the end of WW2" you cannot deny that more life was lost than that of what happened 10 years ago and you are lying to yourself if you think that's not much of a bigger deal than 9/11.

 

[Elsarild]

Well, I don't care, to be honest, this is the first time since it happend that I acually noticed the date, and thats properly only because it's 10 years ago? I remember what I was doing when I got the news though, I was paying Black And White when my brother got home and asked If I heard the news, I said no, we watched TV, and after watching the same clip 4 times of the planes hitting, I went down and play some more.

It dosen't affect me, and in my honest opinon I feel disgusted with the way america treats the day.

 

[Death_Korps_Kommissar]

It's sad but I can't feel any sympathy for what Americans let their government do next. You know starting a war that would cost the lives of 9 11 times 68.5.
There was a graph that I found but I just don't know where it is now.

 

[electric_warrior]

People in the UK seem to see it as a terrible tragedy, and it was, but I personally don't think its such an awful thing that it needs this much commemoration. I mean Americans have done far worse things in other countries before and since (notably their bombing of Laos and the Japanese, which have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians) that they seem to gloss over in order to portray what happened to them as being particularly awful. Equally, other countries have had just as bad or worse things happen to them that don't get nearly as much fuss made over it, such as the UK being attacked by the IRA (which actually had some support in the USA, somewhat ironically). Yes, it was a national tragedy for the USA, but the main reason it sticks in the mind for me is the iconography of those aeroplanes hitting those towers, which was pretty amazing in a terrible sort of way. Its really most notable for being the most successful act of terrorism ever and for ushering a new age of paranoia.

I would just like to say that I feel every possible sympathy for the victims and their families, no one should die like that and their deaths were a terrible thing.

 

[DeadXV]

The year was 2001. I was a fresh-faced young lad back then, full of hope and ambition. Every morning I would wake up and watch Cheese TV before school. I loved watching Pokemon and DBZ. DBZ was my favourite show at the time. If I remember correctly, they were at the Cell saga. I woke up like normal, got dressed like normal, ate breakfast like normal, and turned on my TV like normal. But then... there was no DBZ. Only news. I waited, and waited, and waited, but there was no DBZ. There wasn't even any Pokemon. I was so sad. Those gosh darn tourists stole my childhood.

More on-topic now: I don't really care about 9/11. Yeah, it was bad and all that, but I'm not gonna have a minute of silence or anything like that.

Pretty much this, although i'll just add that i remember it took 3 days for the news to shut the fuck up and put something else on. As i recall the first none news program on at the time was Seinfeild. Also i was 8 at the time and didnt care, i wanted my cartoons dam it.

 

[Rayken15]

Here in Britain, me and most people I know didn't give a flying duck. That hasn't changed in these 10 years.

It has changed EVERYTHING. It has caused racial profiling, fear and 2 fucking wars.
It has also changed how we look at war. No matter how big your army is or how advanced your weapons are, a few men with only small knifes can still kill thousands.

By "changed" I meant that we still don't give a duck.

 

[newdarkcloud]

I'm an American. I was in 3rd grade when it happened. Yes, what happened on 9/11 was tragic. Yes, many innocent lives were lost. It happened. We move on.

Also, I think it's important to remember 9/11, but not relive it. We do far too much reliving in this county.

 

[OTCIXS]

NZ. Not cared about in the slightest. In fact[footnote]Though to be fair this is just from people I have spoken to about it.[/footnote] people find it distasteful that americans still go on and on about it like it was such a big thing. And the whole "They attacked us!" is disgusting.

Simple fact is this, unless you actually lost a family member in the attack then you really need to stfu about it and stop acting as if it had anything to do with you.

Oh and internationally its viewed 11/9. <.<

Let me preface this by saying that while I am patriotic, I like to consider myself as very well cultured (much more so than the average American). I don't even plan on living in the U.S. too much longer. With that said...

Do I think 9/11 needs to have some sort of ceremony EVERY year? No. But to say that 9/11 had no effect on people who didn't lose a loved one that day is so completely ignorant and misinformed, I can't even think of a witty comparison. 9/11 was that catalyst that caused my brother and I to join the military. 9/11 was the catalyst that started one war and indirectly started a second. 9/11 created a whole new department in the American government and basically reshaped our transportation system here in the U.S. (whether it's better or worse is questionable). 9/11 wasn't an attack on just 3 buldings (4 if you count 93 that crashed in PA), it was an attack on AMERICA. How is claiming that they attacked us disgusting? No matter which way you slice it, that's what happened. I completely understand that other nations might not care too much about that day specifically or the fact that 3k+ people died, but your statements are ignorant, childish, misinformed, and just plain stupid. I sincerely hope you are either a 15 year old who was too young to understand 9/11 when it happened or a troll.

And yes, I created an account just to respond to you, so congrats on that.

 

[Jandau]

A tragic event that was blown out of proportion and you people should get over it already. Don't get me wrong, people died, it sucked. The ones who did it were arseholes. But it's hardly a world-shattering tragedy that USA seems to make it out to be. Considering the fuss you are still raising over it, you'd think they wiped out 10 million people with bioweapons or something.

Granted, a lot of this was simply scare tactics by your government to get you people to support their wars abroad, but those wars ended up hurting you a lot more than 9/11. Hundreds of times more. And I'm pretty sure that my use of the word "hundreds" isn't a hyperbole, considering the loss of life, money and resources due to your subsequent two wars.

I grew up during a war. I missed the worst of it, but I still had to take cover in bomb shelters every so often and I know people who had to locate their family members in mass graves after genocidal purges. Telling me that someone knocked down an american skyscraper is sad, but hardly something I'll keep in my mind, sorry.

P.S. I'm not trolling. I apologize if any of what I wrote offended someone.

 

[Thaluikhain]

And let's not forget how America treats this like "the biggest tragedy of all time" when at the end of WW2 over 60 million people died and i find it rather disgusting if they or anyone else keeps treating the next death like it's some sort of fad.

OT: Du to my own opinion on the matter i do care for those that lost family members however i do not care for those that hate and want to destroy another country over what went down because it makes you no better than the ones that "did it".

Also i won't be replying to quotes for this topic in general because i know exactly what to expect as such and i know it will lead to someone's disagreement with my quote but let me tell you this: "over 60 million people died at the end of WW2" you cannot deny that more life was lost than that of what happened 10 years ago and you are lying to yourself if you think that's not much of a bigger deal than 9/11.

Remember when the UK ran that survey about what people thought were the most important events of the 20th century, and Princess Diana's death ranked higher than either World War?

That sort of thinking is hardly unusual, even if it is fucking embarassing.

 

[Evilsanta]

Hmm...This again?

I can't speak for all swedes but I don't give a rats ass about it. Yes it was a tragedy and all but get over it already America! I really the need to advertise it as the "worst thing ever" and I feel that USA is the only country that uses this as some kind of sympathy card and force it on others.

"9/11! Remember it! ETC". You don't see Japan doing this with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.