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What changed on 9/11?Reader comment on item: 9/10 vs. 9/12 on [Election Day] 11/2 Submitted by Arun (United States), Oct 26, 2004 at 12:24 Islamist terror was as much of a threat in 1994 as it was in 2001.It was doing as much damage around the world then, as it is doing today. The Saudis were pumping 6% of their revenues into propagating Wahabbi Islam, and that was overwhelming the more peaceful, unfundamentalist variants of Islam in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, and elsewhere as much in 1994 as in 2001. The Pakistani-Afghan Talibani madrassas were churning out hordes of indoctrinated believers ready to kill for Islam as much in 1994 as in 2001. What changed in 2001 is the American perception of the Islamist phenomena. John Kerry had followed the web of terrorist financing in his unravelling of the BCCI scandal. He had travelled around the world; he had actually met the Indian Prime Minister in 1999, while Bush struggled in his pop quiz with a reporter to even name the gentleman. Clinton & company had spent great and mostly successful effort in warding off the millenium terrorist plots. Clinton tells us that he told Bush that terrorism is the top threat facing the US. Bush ignored it. The transformation of the world happened only to those who were ignorant. This includes most of the American people, who do not care to follow what is going on in far-away and strangely named places. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing did not serve as a wake-up call. 9/10 to 9/12 is a transformation from ignorance to knowledge, and not a change in the nature of the world. The next question to ask is - is the American response led by Bush to the new-found recognition of the world on 9/12 appropriate? Will it lead to a diminishment or vanishing of the threat? ... -Arun Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". << Previous Comment Next Comment >> Reader comments (62) on this item
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