Monday, September 11, 2006
Five Years Ago
I remember a former co-worker of mine, Christian, telling me about a plane hitting the first tower of the World Trade Center. My first reaction was it must have been some small airplane who lost its course or control, and accidentally rammed into one of the buildings.
Some time had passed and then someone said aloud, "Did you hear another plane hit?" My next thought was the first collision was no accident, and then I asked myself, "Am I witnessing the start of World War III?" Everyone at my work immediately tried to get on the CNN website to find out more information, but the computers were overloaded and no one could get updates. Our TV in the lunchroom can't even get CBC, so we found a radio and tuned into CFRA. News that a "suspicious package" was found at or around Parliament Hill made everyone worry as our work is situated right downtown. We were dismissed from work around noon (not that anyone was working anyway) and I headed home, then drove to my mom's to watch the events unravel on CNN.
A weird sensation was going through my body the entire day. You probably felt it, to. So many questions needed to be answered: Who? Why? What is this leading to? And of course we all wanted to find out if there were any survivors when we witnessed the collapse of the World Trade Center and heard of the hijacked planes.
"We are all Americans", proclaimed French President Jacques Chirac at the time, alluding to the bond the industrialized & democratic nations share despite our differences of opinion on some issues. We all felt that this attack could have very well taken place on our own soil.
Times have certainly changed. After 9/11, nearly the whole world rallied behind the United States with unwavering support. But President Bush dropped the ball with his decision to invade Iraq, exploiting the 9/11 attacks for oil. Most of the world have now questioned the USA's intentions and leadership, and even their own citizens more and more see the decision to invade Iraq was a mistake. A recent poll mentioned in today's Sun showed that only 2% of Iraqi citizens feel the invasion of the USA was to liberate them from Saddam Hussein, while 75% feel it was to take control of the country's oil (they did not mention what the remaining 23% thought).
Anyway, I'm digressing a little with that last paragraph, but I'd be very interested to hear your stories & reactions when you first heard the news of the 9/11 attacks.
Some time had passed and then someone said aloud, "Did you hear another plane hit?" My next thought was the first collision was no accident, and then I asked myself, "Am I witnessing the start of World War III?" Everyone at my work immediately tried to get on the CNN website to find out more information, but the computers were overloaded and no one could get updates. Our TV in the lunchroom can't even get CBC, so we found a radio and tuned into CFRA. News that a "suspicious package" was found at or around Parliament Hill made everyone worry as our work is situated right downtown. We were dismissed from work around noon (not that anyone was working anyway) and I headed home, then drove to my mom's to watch the events unravel on CNN.
A weird sensation was going through my body the entire day. You probably felt it, to. So many questions needed to be answered: Who? Why? What is this leading to? And of course we all wanted to find out if there were any survivors when we witnessed the collapse of the World Trade Center and heard of the hijacked planes.
"We are all Americans", proclaimed French President Jacques Chirac at the time, alluding to the bond the industrialized & democratic nations share despite our differences of opinion on some issues. We all felt that this attack could have very well taken place on our own soil.
Times have certainly changed. After 9/11, nearly the whole world rallied behind the United States with unwavering support. But President Bush dropped the ball with his decision to invade Iraq, exploiting the 9/11 attacks for oil. Most of the world have now questioned the USA's intentions and leadership, and even their own citizens more and more see the decision to invade Iraq was a mistake. A recent poll mentioned in today's Sun showed that only 2% of Iraqi citizens feel the invasion of the USA was to liberate them from Saddam Hussein, while 75% feel it was to take control of the country's oil (they did not mention what the remaining 23% thought).
Anyway, I'm digressing a little with that last paragraph, but I'd be very interested to hear your stories & reactions when you first heard the news of the 9/11 attacks.
# posted by SBP : 4:23 PM
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