Feedback, page 2

Thanks for your story. Much appreciated.

First reports in UK were that only 6 people had been killed. We wish!

What would I do as C in C?

1) Task satellites in geosynchronous orbit over Afganistan. Look for training camps. When identified, send in the Tomahawks, quickly followed by ground troops to mop up survivors. Literally. After pulverising them. At the same time, with allies, pursue and destroy all known Talib members. Give military and economic assistance to the current Talib opposition.

2) Advise Pakistan that they are 'suspected' to be harbouring terrorists. Give them 7 days to deliver them up or be regarded as state sponsors and, therefore, guilty of being in breach of article 5 and subject to Nato military retaliation. India would almost certainly be overjoyed at such action!

3) Publicly thank Libya (mostly reformed since he was bombed and lost his son) for their support and demonstrate this with economic aid.

4) Publicly thank Iran for their words of support. They appear to have softened up since they seen Iraq pulverised. Give economic aid.

5) Publicly reinforce support for Israel and assist in throwing out all Palestinians (the wankers celebrated this atrocious cowardly act!). Advise Palestine and Arabs that Palestine will be safe if it keeps to its borders but that any incursion into Israel will be regarded as a hostile act against Nato. Secretly, advise Israel that they will receive a reducing level of support from America and should police their own borders. Advise Israel that Nato will assist them repel any Arab invasion but will be equally agressive towards Israel if it 'raids' Palestine.

6) Continue current policy with Iraq. UNTIL it provokes a military reaction. Being bereft of common sense, SadMan will soon ask for it. When he does, give it to him hard and fast and totally. If Thatcher & Bush had of remained in power, they would have captured and killed the bastard. He probably helped the terrorists.

7) Where is bin Ladens money? The banking system MUST be able to track it. Find it, snatch it and use it towards rebuilding costs.

8) Be wary of Arabs! Here in England, we are constantly bombed by the cowards in the IRA. They receive a substantial amount of funding from Americans (NY in particular). We have learnt to be wary of people with Irish Accents. Be vigilant. Learn that terrorism does not work. England has not bowed down to these morons and never will. When you catch them, do what our SAS do: Shoot on sight! Actually, I am in favour of torturing to the point of death to extract all information then executing publicly!

9) Make cockpits secure! Absolutely no admittance possible. Make it grenade proof. If a terrorist trys to take control again, they will find that pilots would rather ditch and die than be used to kill more people.

10) We all hope that the Pennsylvania black box reveals that it was the staff who resisted the terrorists and caused the ditching, thus saving countless lives and damage. They may even have been aware of what the terrorists were up to? They deserve recognition for their valour.

11) After the second tower crash, why was the Pentagon exposed? Why weren't their defences on red alert?

12) Why didn't traffic controllers notice that the first two planes were off course for so long? After the first crash, they should have KNOWN that the second rogue flight was a possible terrorist vehicle and they should have scrabled intercept jets after failing to reach its pilot.

13) A hell of a lot of mistakes have been made by your people. Heads must roll and mistakes must be analysed and learnt from. We all wish you a speedy learning curve!

Alas, I am not your C in C!

We are also waiting to see if your financial system holds up. Will Americans lose their bottle and sell their shares? This will cause a crash and achieve another major coup for the terrorists. Or will you hold onto your shares and drive the market up in defiance?

Good luck and welcome to what we have put up with in England for decades. Unfortunately, you may soon get used to it.

Lordhutcheon
Great Britain

Dear Barry:

Thanks for sharing that with us. I think that the human perspective of stories like this may help us to integrate this experience, as individuals who make up a nation. I received the following broadcast email from my niece in NY, the evening of the eleventh. It gave me a perspective that I think has helped me through this. Before that it was too mind numbing, surreal as your friend Bill put it.

I have not asked my Niece's permission but I'm sure she wouldn't mind me sharing it personally with people, with the names changed, so please don't use it in a public way, should you even want to, until I hear back from her. She is a twenty year old college student doing a summer class in architecture at Columbia.

I have also included some thoughts at the end that you may be in a position to pass on should you consider them appropriate.

*********************

i just wanted to let those who care know that i am alive and safe, but terror stricken. i was down at the world trade center this morning, planning to meet with those in my Columbia university architecture program for a tour/forum at the WTC (ironically, the class is called "Planning and Preservation").

by some god given twist of fate, our meeting time was pushed fwd at the last minute from 9am to 9:30am. myself and another girl, stood only a few blocks away from the towers just as the airplanes had hit them, and watched with total fucking god-forsaken horror as the first tower just crumbled to the fucking ground, people around me started screaming and running and grown men and women dropped to the pavement and sobbed and screamed hysterically with their arms outstretched toward the building, knowing that their loved ones were dead. i saw people climbing out the windows and trying to desperately scale down the building from the 80th floor, only to fall to their deaths. i saw people jump and just fall through the air

i am stilll shaking as i write this, and i have never felt so sick. i wanted to puke in the street, but too many people were crying. before this day i never beleived in god, really. but now i know why other people do. i know that something today was watching over me. something or someone made sure that i arrived just a few minutes too late to be caught inside or worse, beneath, those buildings. i dont even have it in me to hate yet, or to be angry... i am so thankful to be alive, and i just wanted to send lots of love to you all.

there are already over 200 firemen alone presumed dead/missing, two of them being the father and brother of my friend John. they are so brave to be doing what they are doing. please pray for them.

much love,

Persephonie

*****************************

She has been, of course, traumatized and sleepless, even more than the rest of the nation. As with Bill's experience the images that still haunt her most are the people jumping from the building. In a town where people are known to chant "jump" to suicides this seems to be the image most striking to people. And yet at the same time most of us applaud and feel differently about passengers who took their plane down in a Pennsylvania field.

The result is the same for either set of the participants but the difference is a matter of control. That is also at the root I believe of all this outraged, "Bomb them back into the Stone Age," talk. As I have listened to people and babble radio voicing their opinions the phrase keeps coming back to me, "Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it."

I suspect from you comment, "I don't know how measured the response will be..." that you share my concern about over reaction. If public pressure tips the president into ill conceived action, we will play in the perpetrator's hands. An over reaction on our part will only give the terrorists the credibility for recruiting and fund raising and the stature they need to mount a really serious offensive.

As much as Pearl Harbor is burned into our memories it was a drop in the bucket in terms of lives lost in the Pacific conflict so could this be. In that case our military response was appropriate against a military force. In this case a military response will more likely feed the enemy because there is no appropriate military target save the perpetrator himself and men under his command -- or any other violent terrorists.

Having read you letters on the market I think, besides all the full complement of feelings, you have a strongly rational side. You are also in a position to give people some food for thought to reengage their minds, a duty I have been doing this week in my small way. You certainly understand the danger of pushing the center line of the bell shaped curve among the 1.5 billion Moslems world wide in almost every country. The sympathetic become supporters, supports activist, activist terrorists. We have the capacity to give the terrorists the best recruiting and fundraising tool they could have. For the less rational people I've asked them, "If your mother had been killed in the WTC would you volunteer for a suicide mission to strike back?" If the answer is yes then, "Now if you are a Moslem, your mother is in Kabul and we bomb it what are you gonna do?"

Well, if you've gotten this far Barry among all the emails you've no doubt gotten then thanks for listening. We need to steer a careful course, these waters are full of mines.

Bruce

aol.com

most def, you can pass it on. actually, ive gotten a few reply emails from people commending the letter, saying that it really gave the situation a more human feel, etc., and some people fwd'd it to their families without asking, and their parents and others ended up emailing me back saying how touched they were, so im glad that at least something came of it.

i wrote the first "just letting you know im ok" email while i was still in shock, and the second one was written in response to your reply once i realized i was scared shitless and couldnt sleep and i think that for me at least, that one was more real, just because of the sheer terror i felt while writing it.

Anyway, yeah feel free to fwd it. i dont think people can really understand exactly how new yorkers feel right now, or worse, how those who were there that day feel, but i hope that at least this will make them think twice. i know that i have suffered enough already, and im not ready or willing to suffer any more, especially not for the sake of redemption.

You dont have to omit the Columbia University reference, since a girl from my class was already on CNN and talked about us being there, but yeaah you can change names or whatever. im slowly trying to recover and get over this, not to forget but rather just to accept the trauma and use it and move on. i worked on my archtecture project all yesterday and last night, and then we had our crit today which went really well, so things are starting to seem normal again. still, i jump at loud noises and sirens, and cannot turn on the tv or take the subway without falling into some sort of hyperventilatory fit (dunno why where the subway is concerened, but such is the case)

i dont know if i told you this but thursday was even worse than the previous days before that. i went to a prayer/vigil at my yoga center downtown that evening, my dad had told me i might feel better after it. i just cried lots all alone and felt even worse, bu what really sucked was that we lit candles for the dead people, and then the fucking table with the candles caught on fire! that was more than i could handle. i ran out onto the street (where, btw, everyone was wearing masks and it was like a war zone still), only to get a cell phone call from my roomate who was leaving our apt for CT, to be with her boyfriend at Wesleyan.

Apparently we had just had a bomb threat on my street and everyone was going crazy. i ran to these policemen on the street who took care of me for like a half hour because i was freaking out and almost fainted right there on the spot. they were so kind, brought me into a bar and sat me down and talked to me and fed me and gave me water, even let me listen on their walkie-talkies to their cheif who assured us that the threat on 106th st was a hoax.

So then, finally i collect myself and go back to stay at my apt all alone, where i call my friend mike for comfort. he's like, dude, why are you back there!? apparently there was a murder up the block just a half hour before i got home. yes, 3, THREE, people were shot, murdered in front of what i beleive was an arab- owned grocery store. the authorities are not releasing the ethnicity of the victims, which makes the obvious even more obvious.

One part of the "Recollection" particularly concerns me - the celebrating Arab man. It makes it clear to me that our country has been infiltrated by the enemy, and we will not be aware of who the enemy is.

I live in San Antonio, TX. On the news last night was the report of a "doctor" of Middle East descent who lives in a northside neighborhood. He is believed to be connected with bin Laden. He and his family have not been seen since last weekend and the authorities have not been able to contact him in anyway. The neighbors interviewed on the news reflect that this man gave no outward indication of having radical, anti-American beliefs.

It begs a question: "If we are indeed infiltrated, how will we identify the enemy?" Will we need to reinstate the Detention Camps of WWII for the entire Arab-American population? Will the less than 0.1% of this group that have evil intentions bring unbelievable suffering on the 99.9%+ that are no less American patriots than you or I?

I wish I knew the answer.

Matt, San Antonio, TX

God bless y'all.

Angie, Dresser-Rand.com

I read your story. I am also a former Marine officer. I believe with every ounce of my soul that the events which have transpired over the last several days have given us the strength and resolve to confront terrorism whereever it exists. We should not rest until we have hunted down each and every murderer or anyone who even thinks about harming another American life. We are now at war, and we will do whatever is necessary to eradicate this cancer from our lives. Allah will not be able to help those who are responsible for these acts, or those who assisted them or provided a safe haven, because we will find them whereever they exist.

Semper Fi

Chris

Richard.Rygiel@chase.com

Thank you. mwas.com

I am in tears after reading your account - God bless you and your family. I am so happy for all of you that you survived. I agree with your sensing palpable resolve emerging - I for one feel it raging inside of me. God Bless America!!

Good luck to you-

Debbie, Warwick, RI

Our prayers and thoughts are with you. We live in Louisville, Kentucky. As we stood and watched the first tower burning at work we could not believe the second tower was hit. We work in City Government. We all stood in total shock and horror.

We have put together a Relief Fund with all our donations on the way to your city. Within the first day we raised over $100,000.00. Our emergency workers, bottled water, survival kits, firemen, police and recovery dogs are on their way.

We may be many states apart but support you greatly. United we stand with you! God Bless You All!

Wendy
louky.org

I appreciate what you have shared with the rest of us: the personal account and the tour of the twin towers. I live in Tennessee. My heart and prayers go out to the people of NYC and to our country. Thanks!

yahoo.com

I was intrigued by your story on your friend Bill, and it was indeed an uplifting story when you see the character of the man and indeed some of the people he met on his way home. I thought it might interest you what I ahve to say in light of your encounter with the arab on the bridge and other "observers" from the middle east. I live in Indonesia on the Island of Java, about 150 miles fromJakarta. I am British/Australian and I saw the planes crashing into the WTC on TV as "breaking News". The curioue thing was that the breaking news showing this came in the middle of an American movie about the assisanation of the American President and the vice-president when the White House was attacked by bombs. The film was actually about how a man was being selected to go backin time to try and change the course of events and ensure thatt the deaths did not take place. It was just so co-incidental that as this movie was showing the white house blowing up, a plane was about to crash into a field and from all accounts was probably headed for the White House. Co-incidence??? Like how did the arab on the bridge shouting about his Arab brothers know that it was Arabs that had suicided, so soon?? How did he know??

Being one of a few white people (non-muslim) surrounded by 220 million Muslims in this country I am scared stiff what measures the U.S will take against Muslims generally (oe be perceived to be taking) and the backlash against us white people here and averywhere else we are vulnerable. The news flash tonight here is that America has cancelled 50% of its imports from Indonesia and there are ships stranded in Jakarta and off shore not knowing where to go or what to do. The reason goven is that America needs the money for recovery work, and the news here infers it is a sign of things to come agsinst muslim countries. You can feel the irritation in the air here. I will send you more news if you want it as it happens.

Kind Regards
Julian, Indonesia

This was a wonderful account of a survivor and hero in his own way. What terrible thing to have to be witness to and apart of. I was actually at work in little old Winona Minnesota when the first accounts of what had happened came to my attention. Working in an insurance office we do not have a TV to watch, but I found out about it none the less.

My mother whom lives in Germany was sitting watching an afternoon program on TV in the Black Forest town of Rottweil when the news broke over there. What a small world we live in. She immediately picked up the phone to call and see if we were okay. Fearing that these strikes would continue all across this great nation she feared for our families safety. I assured her that we were all fine and not to worry, but pray.

My husband used to be in the military and is a veteran of Desert Storm, he has since retired, but our two daughters are in the military and proud members of the Minnesota National Guard. Our youngest as a matter of fact is in Georgia at Ft. Gordon attending her training and right away my thoughts turned to her. In my heart I know she was safe right then, but would these assaults continue? Would they systematically move across the country and kill more innocent people? Where would this end?

I am today very thankful for the safety of my family. This is only overshadowed by the great sadness that fills my heart for all those who have lost their loved ones. I pray that those who perished are with God and at peace, and that those who may still be trapped have the strength to hang on and that the rescuers will be led to them by Gods hand. God bless America and all of the rescue workers, EMT's, Police officers and volunteers that are putting their lives on the line to bring home everyone that was there that morning.

Having been the spouse of a soldier deployed to war my heart goes out to the families that are preparing to send their loved ones off to avenge the horror. Trust in God and the capabilities of the US Military, for they are mighty, strong and on the right side of good and evil.

Tina
statefarm.com

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