War Board Poll: Ft Hood vs. 9/11

[Crazy Levi]

Which one of these events delivered a "more powerful statement?"

9/11 hijackings and attacks on the Pentagon and the WTC

or

The Ft Hood shooting rampage


Please, only Americans answer. No Canadians or limeys.

[VinnieKulick]

9-11. Bigger scale, more deaths, and it held America's attention longer than the piece of garbage at Ft Hood.

[JakeYonkel]

9/11, no contest.

[KneelandBobDylan]

While Ft. Hood was tragic, 9/11 is....well...9/11.

[Ugmo]

Not trying to be glib, but I think Ft. Hood in this case "suffers" from the fact that it's only about the 352nd least deadly rampage in shooting rampage history. Certainly one shooting death is a shooting death too many, but Ft. Hood kinda seemed to me like "shooting rampage of the week" with a bit of a twist on it.

9/11 was a world-altering event.

[Crazy Levi]

I'll go ahead and say 9/11 as well.

I thought maybe I was it was just that my view was a tad slanted because I live in NY, but I guess 19 hijackers taking over 4 airplanes, destroying 2 of the country's largest buildings, attacking our most important administrative military building, killing thousands of Americans, and generally destroying the feeling of invincibility we have enjoyed forever slightly outweighs the effect of one lunatic killing some soldiers at a military base.

Who woulda thunk it?

[MasterOfMeatPuppets]

9/11. The fact that this is all I need to type for all of America (and most of the world) to understand what I'm referring to says it all.

[lerxstcat]

9/11. Besides the vastly greater scale, it represents a well-planned and executed campaign by an anemy organization.

Ft. Hood probably represents one officer who snapped because of his religious background and who single-handedly went on a shooting spree. Also tragic but represents one guy going off the deep end.

[MickeyG]

I'm half n half so I'll answer.

9/11 by a mile. I was visiting the States at the time and remember the following 12 days or so of my stay pretty well.

Fort Hood was forgotten about after maybe a week.

[EvilMadman]

No comparison. The 9/11 terror attacks changed the world!

[vanitybinge]

I'll go ahead and say 9/11 as well.

I thought maybe I was it was just that my view was a tad slanted because I live in NY, but I guess 19 hijackers taking over 4 airplanes, destroying 2 of the country's largest buildings, attacking our most important administrative military building, killing thousands of Americans, and generally destroying the feeling of invincibility we have enjoyed forever slightly outweighs the effect of one lunatic killing some soldiers at a military base.

Who woulda thunk it?

This. Although most people forget that nearly 80,000 people were safely evacuated from the buildings, the thousands of firefighters and the people on the top floors who didn't make it still hurts. When I watched "120 minutes that changed the world" and saw all those firemen marching into the buildings, it struck a place in my soul that will always feel for them no matter WHO was behind it.

Ft Hood is an orange to that apple. It was crazy, but I wish it had brought more attention to the fact that since 9/11 nearly 50,000 American soldiers have committed suicide, just not like this guy.

[Ugmo]

... since 9/11 nearly 50,000 American soldiers have committed suicide, just not like this guy.

Surely that number is impossibly high. 817 active duty soldiers have killed themselves since the invasion of Afghanistan:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 84,00.html

Even if you include former soldiers, you're saying an additional 49,000 have committed suicide since 9/11?

(I agree with your sentiment though, it is a tragedy that the suicide rate among military and ex-military personnel is so high.)

EDIT: You may be right. This link says 6,000 former service members commit suicide a year, so it might be 50,000 after all:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=16916

Good god, that's awful.

[vanitybinge]

... since 9/11 nearly 50,000 American soldiers have committed suicide, just not like this guy.

Surely that number is impossibly high. 817 active duty soldiers have killed themselves since the invasion of Afghanistan:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 84,00.html

Even if you include former soldiers, you're saying an additional 49,000 have committed suicide since 9/11?

(I agree with your sentiment though, it is a tragedy that the suicide rate among military and ex-military personnel is so high.)

EDIT: You may be right. This link says 6,000 former service members commit suicide a year, so it might be 50,000 after all:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=16916

Good god, that's awful.

Exactly. An average of 6,000 a year, when you add that up since 2001, that's 54,000. Since the invasion was announced in March '03, that's still about 48,000, far more than all the soldiers lost in combat in the past decade, posibbly the past two decades. One of these soldiers was a very good friend of mine in high school who offed himself less than two years after signing up. He was twenty. I never got over it.