How similar do you think Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were?

Question

How were they the same? How were they different?
(besides the obvious and stupid "one was in a harbor, one was in a building" crap answers, of course)

Answer 1

totally different..the japs were on drugs..and they wanted to attack neutral united states during wold war two. 9/11 was just really ****** up

Answer 2

Well, the Pearl Harbor was an organized attack by a national entity as part of an overall plan to defeat opponents and conquer the entire pacific rim of Asia including previous attacks in China and Korea and simultaneous attacks in the Philippines, Singapore, etc.
The World Trade Center attack was a vengeance attack that could have been carried out by any dedicated group of fanatics who had no constructive plan and no coordination. In terms of the collapse of the buildings, the damage was much greater than they expected, by their own words.
The most direct result of both attacks was to make the USA extremely angry and to drive us strongly further into war. The first attack failed because the obsolete battleships were sunk and the aircraft carriers that won the war were not touched. The most direct result of the 9/11 attacks is that the abuses brought on the name of security have not been properly opposed and it is now impossible to hijack an American plane because the passengers will subdue or kill the threat because it may be another suicide mission and you can't get at the pilots.

Answer 3

I don't consider the two that similar. Pearl Harbor was an attack between two nations on a military instillation at the beginning of a war while 9/11 was an attack on a civilian place of business by cowards (Muslim extremists).
Just the way I see it.

Answer 4

Mike is right, but I'd have to add that in military terms 9/11 is absolutely negligible. Sad about the people who died, but their loss does not justify the greatest erosion of civil liberties we have ever had.

Answer 5

Very similar. In both instances, the US was being a "neutral" party. It was, however, very actively involved behind the scenes and was indirectly antagonistic. In short, it stuck its nose into other people's affairs and got a slap for it.

Answer 6

They are both wake up calls to imperialistic aggression against the free world.

In reality, Islamic Jihad is much more of a threat to freedom than Japan ever was.

-Aztec276