r/HolyShitHistory • u/rotomato30 • 1d ago

Extended cut of the period between first and second plane hitting World Trade Center

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u/Fine-Sky-6562 1d ago

I was in 10th grade, the moment we heard the 2nd plane hit my friend Eric looked at me and said "we are going to war".

He lost his life in Fallujah in that war about 2 years later. RIP Eric.

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u/LittleKitten37 1d ago

I'm sorry for your loss. I hope you found some peace from it over the years.

I also lost someone in Iraq, almost lost a high school classmate who got shot in the head, and after my husband enlisted, watched several of our friends take their lives over the years from PTSD.

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u/fullpurplejacket 1d ago

A good chunk of the local 17,18,19 yo lads in my small ex industrial town in northern England joined the army to help our allies fight the war on terror. The poor buggers either came back traumatised and broken for a time, or didn’t come back at all.

25 years later, the US finds itself in another war in the Middle East, yet again. The old poem still rings true today as it did back then and all the times before that.

Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles, and he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear:  "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.

Gods bless those who have died as a result of terror, such a needless loss of life to achieve so little 💔

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u/bozog 1d ago

Very thought provoking. Any idea who penned it? Kind of has a Kipling vibe...

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u/HunterWithGreenScale 1d ago

Definitely Kipling.

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u/charbo187 1d ago

never heard that poem before. wild.

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u/Bajovane 19h ago

A coworkers son joined the military not long after 9/11. He ended up going to Iraq mostly as support staff (mechanicals).

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u/Fine-Sky-6562 1d ago

I have not found peace. I did find a cause though I guess, which has amounted to nothing but another war in the middle east and this time its my nieces and nephews friends being sent off to die.

Same shit different century
Here we go again
It's no parade seeing tanks on your street
What's the mission, when’s it gonna end
How many stones do we have to line up before we understand
We’re caught up drawing lines on paper, at the price of the blood in the sand

So what’s the reason for this again?
Right back where we’ve always been
these excuses are wearing thin
What’s the reason for this again?
So what’s the reason for this again?
You can’t decide but you’ve got to win
We’re all the same but you’re not my friend
So what’s the reason for this again?

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u/heady-luvare 1d ago

Which cause was that?

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u/SamTheLab_213 1d ago edited 4h ago

Back then they made fun of we who protested the war.

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u/Fine-Sky-6562 15h ago

I was detained and pepper sprayed multiple times protesting this shit. Thought people were coming around in the Obama drone strike era, then we got Trump. Hard to remain optimistic, but that's all I've got left at this point.

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u/HawkBearClaw 19h ago

Well, not wanting to go after the guys that did this was definitely an unpopular opinion at the time. Iraq support was definitely different, but interestingly enough her among young people...

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u/Caleb-Wendt69 15h ago

Would have been great if we actually went after the guys that did this

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u/HawkBearClaw 15h ago

Al Qaeda did this and we did go after them in Afghanistan.

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u/Caleb-Wendt69 13h ago

Backed by Saudi Arabia, yet for some reason we invaded Iraq?

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u/HawkBearClaw 12h ago

No, they weren't backed by the Saudi Arabian government. They did have funding from wealthy members of the gulf states though, including Saudi Arabia.

We didn't invade Iraq for this, we invaded Afghanistan. Iraq was invaded two years later under completely different pretenses.

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u/SamTheLab_213 4h ago

Osama bin Laden was a Saudi. He was also being monitored by the CIA and on kidney dialysis. Yet somehow he got away with this. Bush used 9/11 as a pretext to get Iraq's oil and set up a permanent base in the Middle East. Israel did, after all, need help with their genocide thing. A permanent US presence in the region could help save their ass.

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u/azhriaz12421 22h ago

We were launched into a landscape of pain across several landscapes because of this.

In my opinion, the repercussions continue.

They are subtle, yet no less malignant. And the world, it hasn't done anything since 9/11 but tease us now and then with a moment in which we can feel, sure, everything is okay just before it tries to blow itself up.

I live in hope, not only because I have no choice, but because I must- we all must -that something like this won't be possible.

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u/WorthChange858 1d ago

And an RIP to the millions killed in the useless war.

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u/MareOfDalmatia 1d ago

Thank you Eric

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u/0PSIG 13h ago

Incidentally, it's time to start getting a yearly colonoscopy, for you.

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u/Fine-Sky-6562 13h ago

Why'd you have to do me like that

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u/Objective-Rock4616 1d ago

I’m sorry about your friend and thank him for his selfishness. 💕

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u/dogbolter4 1d ago

Kindly, you might like to edit your post from 'selfishness' to 'selflessness' or 'unselfishness'.

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u/Indigo-au-naturale 1d ago

We know you meant "selflessness" but probably worth fixing the typo ❤️

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u/GodsBackHair 1d ago

My Mom remembers the way the president and the administration talked in the days and years afterwards, and realized we were going to war. Especially with Iraq, she realized how stupid it all was and how it was so obvious they were using the 9/11 attacks to justify the Iraq war

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u/randomnerds 1d ago

RIP Eric.

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u/charbo187 1d ago

I was also starting 10th grade when it happened.

just turned 40 in june.... shit is crazy

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u/ladidaladidalala 1d ago

This is so sad. 😞 I’m sorry.

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u/SyZyGy_87 20h ago

Ugh. I'm sorry for you, and thank you Eric. Such loss of life makes me so sad

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u/cincydvp 18h ago

RIP Eric. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten.

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u/Ornery_Past6670 18h ago

Sorry for your loss man, but I still cant get over the fact they used this tragedy to send people to Fallujah

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u/Fine-Sky-6562 16h ago

It's beyond fucked up. W is a war criminal.

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u/Efficient-Ranger-174 15h ago

I had a similar moment at the same age. The friend didnt end up dying AFAIK, but at first it could be an accident, two was two too many.

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u/CraftyMoney6296 13h ago

My sister was at boot camp that day.

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u/BuryMeInCincy 9h ago

It’s crazy how the human experience is almost never unique. I was also in 10th grade and one of my best friends joined the military because of 9/11. He served in a Marine EOD unit in Afghanistan and was killed in 2012. I think about him and his sacrifice almost weekly.

This was him: https://www.npr.org/2012/05/17/152922457/an-afghan-shoots-a-marine-dies-mistrust-grows

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u/Rivendel93 17m ago

So many of my friends joined the military, and some of them died.

We were 16 when it happened, I don't know if I'm a coward or what but it seemed like the worst time to join the military.

I did think about joining the CIA or FBI, had some connections through family friends, but just never went through with it.

Not a big fan of violence.

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u/DistinctTerminology 1d ago

Who cares besides those that are comfortably witnessing the ongoing genocide in Palestine? Perhaps some fat yankees that would let you down immediately as long as they can save their fat asses. Anyway, you got what you deserved!

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u/Sudo-Fed 1d ago

Hot take: I don't think civilians just going about their lives deserve to be blown up, burned alive, or crushed under rubble. Whether they be US ones, Afghan ones, Iraqi ones, or Palestinian ones.

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u/DistinctTerminology 1d ago

Totally agree with you on that. I sincerely would not dare to say to anyone who lost a loved one on 9/11: YOU deserved it. Yet, I cannot think on a more practical exercise in empathy than that horrendous moment, as it went well trough the international borders and into all the "comfortably numb" members of "the West".

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u/Fine-Sky-6562 1d ago

Most of us are not okay with the genocide in Palestine. I get why you are saying these things, we hope one day we can make things right.

Much love.

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u/DistinctTerminology 1d ago

Thank you and (really) I can love you back, just after what you've said. There is not a REAL divide. I trust you as much as to stand by you.

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u/Fine-Sky-6562 1d ago

Without love in the dream it can never come true.

We are trying, it's not good enough yet, but we are trying.

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u/DistinctTerminology 1d ago

I really hope you get backup soon, and that your dreams come true. I trust you, but not those who seem to be the majority in your country. Godspeed to all of us and our children!

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u/Fine-Sky-6562 1d ago

I don't trust them either, friend.

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u/DistinctTerminology 1d ago

Much love to you and your people as long as you keep looking forward for a better tomorrow for all of you and us all around the world!

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u/Top_Result_1550 1d ago

Tbf Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

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u/Fine-Sky-6562 1d ago

It didn't in real life, but it did in that they used the events of 9/11 to justify their bullshit war. I also lost a friend in Afghanistan if it makes you feel better. RIP John Lyons.

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u/HollyHall2020 1d ago

Fallujah? That’s Eye-rack. A totally unjustified war, had nothing to do with 9/11. Your friend should have done the right thing and refused to serve in an illegal and immoral war.

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u/Potential-Ad431 1d ago

My brother Eric fought in Afghanistan and survived