Originally posted by FMFI don't see how anyone could seriously interpret this statement as being anything other than an attempt to remind Americans of their courage and strength in the face of adversity. Why does simple accusation get taken as "proof" so often these days?
Barack Obama apparently said to Bob Woodward in an interview for the latter's book:
[b]“We can absorb a terrorist attack. We’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever . . . we absorbed it and we are stronger.”
This has some fervent Obama opponents hopping around in a fury, it seems. Why? Isn't it just another version of the patriotic "We won't give in to terrorists" mantra?[/b]
Having said that, "absorb" may not have been the most successful word choice. It's always tricky when talking about overcoming a tragedy. On one hand, you want to make sure that you regard the incident with due weight since tragedy without devastation is no tragedy at all. On the other hand, you want to emphasize the fact the the tragedy has been overcome, a feat only possible if the tragedy was not enough to subsume the survivors. I can see the word "absorb" carrying the connotation for some that 9/11 was somehow inconsequential and without lasting effect (the way a boxer may be said to absorb the damage dealt by his opponent's punches). I can also see "even the biggest attack ever...we absorbed it and we are stronger" carrying the connotation of 9/11 being an example of "acceptable losses". However, I think both interpretations (especially when taken together) are a stretch. It seems clear from the fact that Obama ended his statement with "and we are stronger" that he meant to emphasize the notion that despite the magnitude of the tragedy, the American resolve is stronger.
What exactly are the detractors saying?
Originally posted by FMFEven though it is not exactly true, I think what you said is better than what Obama said.
Shared outrage. Resolution and determination. Solidarity. Lessons learned. The gauntlet has been thrown. Enemy identified. Revenge plotted. The nation behind the men and women in uniform. Unity. Never again. We will not change who we are, even after THIS... indeed we are MORE determined than ever. An America stung is an unstoppable foe. Never surrender to terror ...[text shortened]... because of this.
quackquack: "It makes up permanently weaker."
Well. Suit yourself then.
There are no more Twin Towers. My bags are subject to search on airlines and on mass transit. The economy lost billions of dollars. People lost jobs, family members and friends, businesses went under. There are guards with machine guns where there used to not me and roads blocked off to prevent future attacks. These are not improvements and it does change who we are.
I guess we see where we disagree, because to me to say 9/11 made us stronger is absolutely insensitive fiction and I am not going to bury my head in the sand and pretend that my enemies enriched my life or somehow my society as a whole benefited from this huge societal tragedy.
Originally posted by FMF"'Absorb' this!"
Here are a couple of freerepublic links (seeing as I mentioned them):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2594683/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2594581/posts
"Impeach Obama now...we may not have a nation left in 2012"
"Nuke Mecca!!"
😲
Wow...those are some sick puppies! 😞
Perhaps he was saying something similar to David Foster Wallace, below. Probably not, but it goes to show, I hope, that there are many ways of thinking about how one might hold great ideals in a dangerous world, and what it means to say 'we won't let the terrorists win' etc.
"Are some things still worth dying for? Is the American idea one such thing? Are you up for a thought experiment? What if we chose to regard the 2,973 innocents killed in the atrocities of 9/11 not as victims but as democratic martyrs, “sacrifices on the altar of freedom”? In other words, what if we decided that a certain baseline vulnerability to terrorism is part of the price of the American idea? And, thus, that ours is a generation of Americans called to make great sacrifices in order to preserve our democratic way of life—sacrifices not just of our soldiers and money but of our personal safety and comfort?
In still other words, what if we chose to accept the fact that every few years, despite all reasonable precautions, some hundreds or thousands of us may die in the sort of ghastly terrorist attack that a democratic republic cannot 100-percent protect itself from without subverting the very principles that make it worth protecting?"
Full article here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/11/just-asking/6288/
It seems to me in the last nine year that the US is getting less unified. To me 9/11 and its emotional and economic costs have something to do with that. We are not more resolved as a nation to work together, to cooperate and to do what it takes to get things done. It simply has not been a great decade or a unifying decade.
I certainly did not say nuke Mecca.
Originally posted by quackquackIn a sense you're right. It emphasizes the minor damage done in an objective physical sense. The damage was to psychology and abstractions like "the economy". The population, the infrastructure etc was barely touched in a physical sense. Nothing more than a black eye.
More than any other event in my lifetime, 9/11 dramatically changed the United States forever. I think absorb implies it is a blip in the road and we go on.
Now this nation that I love
has fallen under attack
A mighty sucker punch came flyin' in from somewhere in the back
Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye
Man we lit up your world like the Fourth of July!
EDIT -
In a cynical sense, it does make us stronger. We got to make our troops veterans while using up our massive stores of near-obsolete military equipment. This is obvious from a Civilization (the video game) perspective.
Plus, Saddam's dead, and we have another Pearl Harbor-like symbol. And, the idiots in the world now realize - we're just as crazy and violent as they are, but we're better at it - STILL. Just because your own populace can be terrorized into submission...that's a whole different game from the USA...now they realize this in their blood and marrow.
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Originally posted by quackquackWeak as dishwater.
More than any other event in my lifetime, 9/11 dramatically changed the United States forever. I think absorb implies it is a blip in the road and we go on.
Glad my dad's generation was made of sterner stuff. They absorbed a big shock and mobilized the whole country without ever losing sight of our principles.
Originally posted by TerrierJackCompletely illogical. No one ever claimed the Nazis or the Japanese made us stronger and no one should ever claim that 9/11 did the same.
Weak as dishwater.
Glad my dad's generation was made of sterner stuff. They absorbed a big shock and mobilized the whole country without ever losing sight of our principles.