More WTC news snippets

A phone poll found that more than 90% of Americans thought that this should be treated as an act of war. Only slightly less thought that retaliation leading to a war was unacceptable.

"But better today when our foes have only stealth and suicide. How far away are they from nuclear bombs in laundry trucks? From vials of anthrax in detergent boxes? We know their ambitions" - LA Times (I think, I've lost the attribution).

The slightly reassuring thing is that most newspaper articles I saw stressed that the USA had to strike back against the right people, and that retaliation against a random 'Rogue State', or the deaths of uninvolved civilians in any target country, would just play into the terrorists hands...

The less reassuring thing is that more than 50% of Americans (again, judging by that phone poll) are willing to sign away some of their civil rights for greater security (and as the killers were, allegedly, armed with craft knives, this isn't likely to be a gun control issue...)

WTC aftermath/reaction - assumption clash

From the comments board on the BBC website:

"The worst has been seeing pictures of Palestinians and Arabs dancing with joy in the streets. Do they think this is what we do when they are bombed?" - Sherry, USA

...

Yes, actually I think it is something that a lot of Palestinians and Arabs believe the Americans do.

One of the things that's coming through loud and clear in the online comments from Americans is that many of them don't really think the USA is involved (or, in some cases, think the USA is involved but completely neutral) in the Israel/Palestine clashes. Which is almost completely at odds with the perception that many (most?) other countries have of them, as Israel's staunchest ally.

(no subject)

Ridley and Chrissy are ok. Very shaken, but otherwise fine. Rid was close enough to be evacuated, and they both got trapped in Manhattan when the subways/bridges/tunnels closed. But they're fine.