american empire

[MMI]

The worst thing about 9/11 is the damage caused to America's travel/holiday industry, exacerbated by the President's "War on Tourism".

[leo9]

The worst thing about 9/11 is the damage caused to America's travel/holiday industry, exacerbated by the President's "War on Tourism".

You mean, worse than the destruction of Iraq, the draining of the US economy, the shredding of civil rights at home and abroad or the ruination of America's reputation around the world?

But I guess you could argue that all those things would have happened without 9/11, since it's now an open secret that Bush already had plans in place to be a "war president" and would have found some other pretext if Bin Laden hadn't obliged.

[Matin]

so we have sacrificed our civil liberties in exchange for an increased sense of security.

is this trend reversibe? should it be reversed?

is it possible to increase security without losing our rights?

and finally the question that really scares me; will the politicians, having grown accustomed to their control, ever let that measure of oversight go?

[craven]

The worst thing about 9/11 is the damage caused to America's travel/holiday industry, exacerbated by the President's "War on Tourism".

i personally feel that by far the biggest issue and perhaps the longer lasting legacy and damage done has been the undermining of the democratic processes in those countries sucked into the resulting conflict.

the loss of trust and belief in governments is i feel far more reaching than any impact to the tourism and travel industries, and is something that we will all have to deal with and face going forward.

after the initial attacks, whilst there was not panic, there was genuine shock and disbelief, the realism that now irrespective of where one is they are potentially at risk really hit home. i lost 295 colleagues, in both towers and on one of the planes and i recall being in a meeting on the 35th floor in canary wharf london, which overlooks london city airport a few days after planes were allowed back in the air, and the meeting room was silenced as to a person we all looked out of the window at a plane banking after takeoff.

words were not necessary we all knew what we were thinking

the first casualty of any war is the truth, will we ever know the real whole unadulterated truth, your guess is as good as mine, i very much doubt it.

has the resulting legislation introduced reduced the risk of terrorist attack, possibly, very debatable, one thing is however for sure, we are now more watched, monitored and controlled than ever before, should the threat desist will this trend be reversed, of that i am sure....... no it will not.

once surrendered liberties are very, very rarely handed back

Sorry i feel i should state that my views are of course from a european perspective