In terms of American history, where would you rank yesterday’s tragedy in terms of it’s impact?
Certainly it will be mentioned along with these events that changed America forever (though obviously in terms of loss of life, certainly none of these compare):
-Pearl Harbour
-JFK assassination
-Lincoln Assassination
-Space Shuttle disaster
-Watergate
I forgot to list Oklahoma City, and the British burning down Washington in the War of 1812.
It probably depends on how big our response has to be. If this was the work of a small group of terrorists who are handed to us on a platter by the government of the country they’re living in (lest said government be pounded into the stone age), it’ll probably end up at about the level of the Oklahoma City bombing.
OTOH, if we end up going to war and pounding some country into the stone age, it’ll probably be more of the Pearl Harbor level of infamy.
I was thinking in terms of loss of life, and my first thought was that Gettysburg (albeit over 3 days) was worse.
I guess we could quibble over “innocents” vs. “soldiers” and all that. In terms of senselessness of the deaths, as far as I am concerned, they’re tied.
Loss of life estimates vary wildly, since information is so sketchy, but some estimates place yesterday’s events as resulting in the highest death toll for a single day in the history of the US, surpassing that of the Battle of Antietam.
And as for how it will affect the US, I would hope that a great effort would be made not to permit these events to affect us all at. After all, if the attacks end up fundamentally altering the way we conduct ourselves, the terrorists will have succeeded. That said, I think people will be a bit less complacent about their place in the world and sleep a bit less well at night. However, if the yesterday’s events end up having any positive outcome at all, I think it will be to instill a greater sense of unity, both among Americans and possibly among the people of the world at large, depending upon the circumstances.
One can only hope.
It’s already being called “the second Pearl Harbor”. All we need is an enemy to fight, which the FBI and everyone is working with all due speed on. Once we figure out who to hit, they’ll be in trouble.
I think putting it up there with Pearl Harbor isn’t asking too much.
This may “just” be an Oklahoma City. But then, it may be far, far, greater than Pearl Harbor.
Think Pearl Harbor with a side of Bay of Pigs. We have nukes. It may well come to that soon.
That’s the scariest thing of them all.
It was the worst attack against citizens EVER. There is no doubt about that. It is also a nasty attack on the military, disabling a part of the pentagon that was the control center for many branches of the military. I’m sure all of us remebers and will remember exactly what we were doing when we heard of this. I know i will.
I think it probably ranks 1st, just because of the unexpectedness of it, the loss of life, and the infrastrucure damage.
Well, it’ll be one of the single biggest tragedies to date for us, obviously. I don’t think it’s near as big as the Civil War (though their had to be some resolution to the slavery issue, the fact that it had to go to such terrible lengths strikes me as tragic), but very little else compares to it.
It certainly outranks all of those except Pearl Harbor. Exactly where it stands will depend on what happens in the days ahead.
Vinnie Virginslayer writes, <<I forgot to list Oklahoma City, and the British burning down Washington in the War of 1812.>>
Did you perchance mean the BOMBING in Oklahoma City? :::wry grin:::
I don’t think Oklahoma City is a disaster. It’s a nice town, even if it is a little short on good places to eat after midnight. Come down and see us sometime.
Corr, Okie and proud, and a little tired of OKC being conflated with its disasters, natural and un-
I think this certainly outranks Pearl Harbor, by a huge margin. Pearl Harbor was a military thing, and it happened during war, so it wasn’t completely unexpected. And our enemy was obvious. Only 2500 people died at Pearl Harbor.
They are saying the only thing that matches this or comes close is the civil war. 600,000 dead, all americans. I think there was one battle, can’t remember the name, where 20,000 something people died in one day.
Without wishing to, in any way, dilute the importance of the terrorist attack, I have to point out that estimates of the allies bombing of Dresden on 13/14 February 1945 quote mortality rates up to 70,000 civilians each night. The raids had no specified military objectives.
From the Institute of Historical Review -
I only mention this because the common wisdom now is that the WTC attack is the largest attack against civilians in history.
Heads up America, we’re proud to know you.
Sorry about that. I really meant Tulsa. 
In some ways this feels like comparing apples to oranges. This is the first time mainland North America has experienced this level of deliberate destruction like so many other countries all over the world have so many times before. That puts it in a class all of its own. In my mind, it seems like only Pearl Harbor really compares, and even then, there was a world war going on already and the targets were military. This is something new and very, very horrible.
FTR, The Civil War was not started, nor fought by the vast majority of union soldiers, as a war against slavery. This is one of the greatest myths regarding American history that people seem to believe- ranks about as high up there as the emancipation proclomation being the document that ended slavery in the United States. It was about states rights.
Saying that we got into the civil war to end slavery is about as accurate as saying we got in to WWII to end the holocaust. It wasn’t the intended goal, but it did happen as a side effect.
Yes yes, quite. The Civil War as nominally about states’ rights at the outset; is there any reasonable dispute about whether the slavery issue was nevertheless tied up in this? In any event, it does nothing to change the fact that the Civil War was an incredibly horrifying thing and that it WAS used to end slavery.