>>>>>>>Never forget. We lost our innocence that day.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Correction: We lost some of our freedom because of that day.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Ben Franklin
>>>>>
>>>>>We are simpatico but I do not accept correction on this topic.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Sorry, Mike, I wasn't trying to provoke.
>>>>
>>>>I just don't think our innocence was lost on 9/11 when ~3,000 people lost their lives, tragic as it was.
>>>>
>>>>Lives Lost by War:
>>>>American Civil War 625,000
>>>>World War II 405,399
>>>>World War I 116,516
>>>>Vietnam War 58,209
>>>>Korean War 36,516
>>>>... and more
>>>
>>>I 99% agree with you, but 9/11 was AFAIK the first major loss of lives on American soil due to "foreign" combatants. I don't think the Aleutians in WWII "count" for most Americans and IAC that was a declared war.
>>>
>>>I think "loss of innocence" has a poetic ring but doesn't accurately describe the aftermath.
>>
>>Maybe the War of 1812?
>>The Alamo?
>>
>>I like Mike's phrase.
>
>I tend to think that we (Americans) lost our innocence somewhere between the Warren Commission and Nixon's resignation.
>
>We also need to remember that the Towers were a global attack as more than 90 countries lost people in the attack, excluding the hijackers; while the Pentagon was an attack on America only.

That is true as far as is goes but IMO the World Trade Center was a direct attack on American capitalism. At the time I wondered why they didn't hit the Statue of Liberty instead. It wasn't liberty they were attacking. It was capitalism and western values.

I am basically a pacifist but some days I wish we would drop some big ones on the Middle East and leave nothing behind but sand.