British Expats - I'm getting fed up with...

Quote:

Originally Posted by zargof (Post 6087470)

I think the difference is more that all the terrorist incidents in the US prior to 9/11 were viewed as isolated incidents rather than organised campaigns such as the IRA in the UK, ETA in Spain or Hamas in Israel. As such they were largely ignored by the American people, and no-one sought to understand the reasons behind them.

When 9/11 happened many Americans were asking "Why us?", "What did we do to deserve this?" or "Why do people hate America?" Did America deserve the attack? Of course not, nobody could condone the attacks, but it did make Americans sit up and pay more attention to the world around them.

I was at the airport strapped into a plane on 9/11 getting ready to fly to visit my parents in Arizona. The pilot came on the intercom and said "You may have heard what has happened in New York ... " I don't remember beyond that. I didn't know what was happening in New York, only knew that I then had to leave the plane, and to return to the gate. I knew something was wrong, but didn't know what. I heard snippets of things from people around me, called my parents and said "turn on the news, something is going on". It would have been around 9:30am EST, and 6:30am where they were.

I couldn't get a call out to my then boyfriend to pick me up from the airport, the lines were jammed. One woman offered to take me home with her - the airport was pretty chaotic, and a very scary place to be on that day, as information was incomplete, and all I knew was that something was very wrong.

I stayed home that day, and watched the coverage for hours. I don't remember thinking "why us?" I remember thinking, oh my God, those poor people, and watching in horror and disbelief. Someone from my college business fraternity was on one of the flights that crashed into the twin towers.

What I find sad, is that prior to 9/11 I never heard any anti-Muslim sentiment in the US. I remember being shocked when I visited France as a teenager and all petty crime was openly blamed on the Algerians (by my host family). We have all sort of prejudice here, but I don't remember any of it being against Muslims in my youth. Perhaps I was just sheltered and didn't come across this prejudice in my circles. I'm sad to say that I do hear it today.

For me ... 9/11 was about the human tragedy more than anything else. :(