So what EXACTLY did we do to deserve the attacks of 9/11/01?? Because, I'm kinda HAZY on that one!?

Question

This ought to be good!

Answer 1

We as a country have been living a life envied by others, and this was their way of getting back at us, 'raining on our parade' so to speak.... I'm sure that's one of many many MANY explanations...but will we ever get a good enough one? Doubtful.

Answer 2

No-one deserves to be the target of mass murder - the taking of innocent lives cannot ever be justified. Those who carried out the attacks on 9/11 were evil people who are burning in a special level of hell.

However if you asked many people why they weren't surprised the US was targetted, they would talk about the US's blind support for Israel and its obstruction of any fair and just peace settlement, the US's long standing interference in the democratic affairs of other countries to suit its own interest (Iran, Chile, Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Venezuela...), how the US has for the last 50 years used military force to maintain American hegemony. Some may even go as far as mentioning how US economic policy and it's control of the World Bank and IMF have exacerbated global poverty and widened the gap between rich and poor, and may even mention that in 1982 the US was the only country in the world who voted against a UN Declaration that said that "education, work, healthcare, proper nourishment and clean water are human rights"

None of these justify the terrible events of 9/11. However understanding why people might feel aggrieved at the US, and taking steps to reduce that anger would go a long way towards preventing another attack.

However I'm sure many will go with facile soundbites about "they hate our freedoms" and find some way of blaming liberals for it...

Answer 3

I am a LIBERAL. I do not think we collectively did anything to "deserve the attacks" on 9/11. How could anyone deserve that. Those who are responsible are being held responsible. Sometimes there are issues larger than our political beliefs.

LISSA

Answer 4

There were things back during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan when we helped the Taliban fight the Soviets. There were several incidents where we just turned our backs on them and it resulted in hundreds, if not thousands if Afghanis being slaughtered. Also, after the bombings of two US embassies and the bombing of the World Trade center in 1993, Clinton ordered to drop a couple of bombs on some training camps in Afghanistan. The Terrorists were plotting revenge and they finally got it when they hit the Trade center for the second time. They are also set on a different belief, religion, and way of life than we are. Most of the hatred towards America and it's allies is based on religion and political reasons. try googling the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. there are lots of things that add up to why we got attacked, going back some 20 years or so.

Answer 5

My disclaimer to start with is I condemn attacks that take innocent life like 9/11 and in my own cities of Madrid and London. Yet, the questions ask for a bit of debate, so I thought I'd do this while the dinner is on.

First thing, colonial USA was a hotbed of terrorist activity by Americans against the European powers. Rember, there is more than just one type of terrorist - a 1988 study by the US Army found that more than 100 definitions of the word "terrorism" exist and have been used.

Another starting point to understanding the terrorist acts on 9/11 is to consider that for many disenfranchised people, terrorism is a last resort. Consider families that have seen generations of war in the middle east with no respite - the moral and ethical framework begins to blur. Look at the UK and the US - it took only a few relatively small number of casualties (compared to tens of thousands in the middle east) to create a radically different frame of mind for us, harder rhetoric, stronger security laws and questions like this one that are rightfully angry. Imagine if we had been dealing with the suffering and anger for generations plus had no real power to effect change. What ideas would you support? What actions would you tolerate? The US was the major funder for the terrorist IRA group in Northern Ireland; those same terrorists are now accepted as political actors, they have been given a voice that was won through violence.

We already know that the Iraq war has caused many, many deaths, and yet politicians and people justify it as a cost of bringing down a dictator (among other things). To the perpetrators of 9/11 and their supporters, the US represents the power broker in world affairs, the standard bearer for capitalism - both have failed to provide solutions for problems in the middle east - in fact, for the muslim community, the US is the backer of the main antagonist in the middle east, Israel.

So, going to war in Afghanistan to rid the country of the Taleban was justified since it was the likely location of Bin Laden. The death of civilians is 'collateral damage' - ends justifying the means. Apply the same logic to a community of people who have never known peace, lack the voice to effect change and are very aware of the US role in all of this (regardless of how justified the US role is).

Doesn't it seem logical that deviants who are ineffectual in change Israeli or Arab policy would turn their attention to the US? Doesn't it mirror exactly what we are doing now by seeking out terrorists wherever they are? Striking at symbols of terrorism? Accepting civilian casualty as necessary to reach the end zone?

Forget liberals, good humans everywhere should recognise that suffering is not acceptable under circumstances - we ignore itat our peril.

So what exactly did the US do to deserve the attacks? It became involved in the power struggles of the middle east (by supporting Israel and bin laden against the USSR) and it's policies were not seen as promoting peace or stability except in oil rich areas such as Saudi Arabia. For the bad guys this becomes a rationale for their hatred, for the disillusioned and the suffering, it becomes a reason to support the acts of the bad guys.

We should all care about the suffering around the world, especially as we have so much more awareness about the power games that are played and how those games affect each and every one of us.

Answer 6

Well lets see, we supplied Osama with his weapons back in the day to do some "dirty work" for us. We could just have easily done it ourselves but it looks better politicaly if we just give the weapons to someone else on the downlow and point them in the direction we want them to shoot. Of course that's after we help train them so they become more effective killing machines with the machines we provide to help them kill...Not that I am defending that kind of action, you know, flying a plane into a building or 2 or 3, that's right, the pentagon was hit by a plane that was caught on tape from multiple places, most of them being close by business security cameras. Funny how the FBI showed up within minutes confiscating the tapes and threatening the employees not to say anything about what they saw "or else" and than only releasing 5 frames of video in which NOWHERE was a plane visible but anyways. Osama told us back than and kept telling our government for quite some time in essence that once they served our purpose we were to leave or they would attack but being as rich and fat as we are (belive me, I love being a resident of one of the richest if not THE richest nation out there) we didn't listen, so one might say we had it coming, everyone, thank your government for failing you! Oh yeah, our government had fore knowledge of the attack and could have done something about it but didn't. So many government officials, if you chose to believe them, said there were reports to the president that he just didn't read, warning signs all over the place that you had to be deaf and blind not to see or just turn a blind eye towards, take your pick. Believe what you want as I myself do. Just ask yourself who is the real terrorist behind the attacks and who would have the most to gain? Who did gain the most? Do these people really expect you to believe that this Osama who was smart enough to elude us for so long was stupid enough to attack this country and think he wouldn't be hunted to the ends of the earth? We find a video of him "confessing" yet it looks nothing like him, than there's another tape 10 days later that denies involvement and it looks exaclty like him, so his face changed sooooo dramatically in 10 days? Hehe...ok yeah

Answer 7

You guys have got it all wrong. It's because we don't believe in the same religion and therefore politics that they do. We're not muslim and we believe in freedom. We have have made women and we don't force them to cover their faces.

The biggest thing, I think, it the religion thing. Fundamentalist muslims cannot reconcile their way of life with the way of life we live predominantly in the western world. That's the main reason they dislike the Israelis so much is because Israel is the only middle eastern country that really tries to live with freedom the way we do in the western world. . . .And the Iraelis are not muslim.

Answer 8

Whatever it is, it must be similar to what the Iraqi people did to deserve an ethnic-cleansing civil war.

Answer 9

Your country support Israel and sponser their occupation of Palestine and the slaughter of women and children.

Although i am not saying that 9-11 was deserved. 2 wrongs dont make a right.

Answer 10

The simplistic reasons are these: 1) Because we support Israel
2) Because of the US power and wealth.