June 16, 2004

There were supposed to be ten planes? There, some newsfilter. Just stop talking about urine for five seconds and focus on terrorists. Feel free to take the piss if you must, but not like that.
posted by The Sacred and Profane 20 years ago
  • It's talking about piss not as patriotic?
  • Make that 'is' Hmm, maybe I'm slightly pissed.
  • Well, obviously, TSaP is pissed off... But, as somebody-or-other always told me, "It's better to be pissed off than pissed on." On topic, most people will probably go "See? It could've been worse", but my response is: "No, it couldn't have been worse, for all their supposed planning and resources, the terrorists 'blew their wad' and accomplished far less death and destruction than they wanted, couldn't even complete their scaled-down plot with the fourth plane (demonstrating that once the element of surprise is lost, it's a tactic that will NEVER work again), only succeeded destroying one landmark basically because the World Trade Towers were the world's least structually stable megatowers, and yet killed ONLY 3000 people on a site where 100,000 worked daily; if only SOMEBODY had started spreading the message that "THE 9-11 TERRORIST ATTACK WAS A FAILURE", America and the World would be a very different, and much safer place today!" Okay, rant over. I'll go make jokes in other threads now.
  • I'm just taking the piss on the pissing. People have been pissing on a dead horse for a while now, so I figured we needed something else. The article goes into other things, like the non-existent Iraq-Osama connection and so on. I thought it all sort of interesting. I don't think extra planes would have made things any different in the long run (aside from a change in the amount of senseless carnage) but I do think it is telling of how large this attack really was. It sort of made me sit back and say "wow" for a bit. Having attacks on both coasts, for example, would have been quite the insane event. For the record, I tend to equate patriotism with less than good things, so don't worry about me trying to stop the urine flow with righteous flags. I just thought some people might want to discuss geo-politics or something.
  • Wendell, WTF were you thinking when you posted that? Inviting a visit from< a href="http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Scripts/TheSpanishInquisitionSketch" The Inquisition?
  • shit shit shit, it's all ruined! Can I take it back? "INviting a visit from.... The Inquisition?
  • Good on ya TSaP, I just had to throw in a piss reference. And speaking of which, anyone else find it obnoxious that this morning, the 9/11 commission headline on various news sites was "9/11 COMMISSION FINDS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN AL QAEDA AND IRAQ" is the new e-headline is now "ORIGINAL 9/11 PLAN WAS FOR 10 PLANES" Ya think the craven suits in charge of the media were just waiting for an excuse to supplant the first headline? I mean, how important is the second headline to anything? TERRORIST WANTED TO CREATE MORE DESTRUCTION AND TERROR THAN THEY WOUND UP DOING. Unprecedented, terrorists wanting to create as much destruction as possible. And it's not like they didn't manage the 10 planes because of anything the American intelligence services were doing. "Hey Mr. Atta, I think we should scale down the plan. Americans always look for attacks with planes in groups of 10 or more." Now how's that for piss and vinegar? (Sorry, Another piss reference. Urine titled to hit me). *ducks
  • Saddam ordered 10 planes! Damn you Saddam!
  • (Sorry, Another piss reference. Urine titled to hit me). *walks in, carrying clipboard, which he refers to* A... bear... a guy... a BearGuy here? Order a cock punch?
  • MonkeyFilter: Urine Titled. Don't worry about me, I posted my extremely minority view on the Warring on Terrorring at That Blue Place a couple times, and didn't even earn a MetaPileOn. I just like to haul out that opinion to post somewhere on the web every couple months to dispell any rumors that I'm sane.
  • ...to dispell any rumors that I'm sane. urine sane?
  • On topic, most people will probably go "See? It could've been worse", but my response is: "No, it couldn't have been worse, for all their supposed planning and resources, the terrorists 'blew their wad' and accomplished far less death and destruction than they wanted, couldn't even complete their scaled-down plot with the fourth plane (demonstrating that once the element of surprise is lost, it's a tactic that will NEVER work again), only succeeded destroying one landmark basically because the World Trade Towers were the world's least structually stable megatowers, and yet killed ONLY 3000 people on a site where 100,000 worked daily; if only SOMEBODY had started spreading the message that "THE 9-11 TERRORIST ATTACK WAS A FAILURE", America and the World would be a very different, and much safer place today!" I enjoy reading your posts, but it's hard to tell if you're being serious here. If you are, I really don't know what to say. "Only" isn't a word that should be used here. It's like saying "only" 5 million Jews were killed by Hitler, and so he must not have been that much of a threat. Four planes, ten planes, whatever. I can tell you there are about 12 million of us here in New York and the surrounding suburbs within range of nuclear fallout, and a lot of us were very worried for a time about what could have happened if the Indian Point power plant was hit. At the same time, I can sympathize with your point of view -- endless ceremonies, anniversaries of anniversaries and such can make you think "enough already" with regard to Sept. 11. But was it a failure? Hardly. Somehow I don't think that will be the only time we get hit here on our home soil. And that's my opinion, regardless of politics.
  • I bet Osama really wanted to use twelve planes. That would be like... a Biblical number, and tie into all my theories about the End Times and how "Left Behind" is a fine piece of episodic writing. Maybe wendell is trying to bring up the point that America is obsessed with death and needs to be more positive? Or maybe the administration wanted to spin it as a huge tragedy, instead of looking for positive factors, to blind everyone into letting them pull off all the policies they'd have had trouble implementing in a non-9/11 world? These are questions for our time, ladies and gentlemen. I mean--PEE YOU LATER HA HA!
  • headline on various news sites was "9/11 COMMISSION FINDS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN AL QAEDA AND IRAQ" is the new e-headline is now "ORIGINAL 9/11 PLAN WAS FOR 10 PLANES" Great post, B.
  • The Times of India's headline: Pakistan helped Osama, Iraq didn't: 9/11 panel
  • You know what I find disturbing? The bit about Khalid Sheik Mohammed wanting to pilot the 10th plane, kill all the adult males, call the media with some sort of rant, then land the thing and release the women and children. Assuming that the plane would have been in the air after the previous planes were crashed into buildings, this would have put our military in the position of having to make the horrible choice of trusting that he would do as he intended and land the plane, (opposed to flying it into another building) or shooting down a plane full of women and children.
  • That would be like... a Biblical number, and tie into all my theories about the End Times and how "Left Behind" is a fine piece of episodic writing. Hah. And here I thought you were going to praise LaHaye and Jenkins for their baroque language, but I have got to give it to you, the writing is absolutely episodic. Naturally, the authors saw that the only missing element was Kirk Cameron, and a masterpiece of cinema was born. /never actually read past the 2nd book, and even that was too much
  • Bush names Pakistan 'major ally' "In a strange irony of timing though, the president's announcement of Pakistan's new status coincided with a report from the commission investigating the 11 September 2001 attacks which accused Islamabad of helping the Taleban to shelter Osama Bin Laden - but then that was before the US and Pakistan became friends again."
  • homunculus, that's some very interesting stuff. Pakistan's never struck me as that trustworthy of a political entity (something about dictatorships) and their "alliance" with the US has always struck me as another example of America paying little attention to the crimes (human rights violations, etc) of certain states as long as said states are useful for the near future. Of course, the Times of India would pick up on that Pakistani stuff for obvious reasons. OFF TOPIC: "Left Behind" interests me because I always found end-of-the-world mythology to be fascinating. The authors and the inherent message have always disgusted me, though.
  • "The governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia helped set the stage for the Sept. 11 attacks by cutting deals with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden that allowed his al-Qaida terror network to flourish, according to several senior members of the Sept. 11 commission and U.S. counter-terrorism officials."