Actress says USA partiallly responsible for 9-11 Attacks

I'm sorta amazed at the backlash this actress is getting for speaking her opinion.

I'm curious if any of you agree or disagree with her comment/opinion?

I for one, agree with her.....I think as a Country we have to look at what we've done around the globe to set ourselves up as targets.

Please, spare me the "yeah, but look at the good....."

I'm totally aware of the good things we have done for mankind.....but like our individual lives, we're more likely to be remembered for the bad we brought on over any good....

NJ

It's very difficult from the CNN link provided to really tell what she was saying, so much is left out. It seems she could be saying that the US is in some way responsible simply because it is the last remaining superpower and the largest cultural influence in the Western world. But is a statement like that really inflammatory? If she's simply posing the question in the line of, "What should we learn from this, from our past, from our history?" then again, the question is valid. Sad hype.

I believe the US has to understand how our actions, particularly some of our more short-sighted foreign policy decisions, have helped to generate the hate the motivates religious fanatics to go the extremes we saw on 9/11. I don't think the country is to blame for the attacks, per se, because the hijackers were the ones who made the decision to kill innocent people, but it is foolhardy to completely clear us from accepting responsibility for our country's mistakes (although apparently that is the Bush administration's contention).

Well coincidentally, Ms. Gyllenhaal just so happens to have a new movie premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival about New Yorkers dealing with the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Like any shrewd actor/actress, stirrng up a bit of controversy will almost always help the movie, especially one that likely wouldn't be seen by many people at all. So it is really difficult to give these comments much weight, at least coming from her mouth. Just another disillusioned "celebrity" who thinks we, the American people, give a rat's rump about what she thinks.

God, this is so f**king boring! Hasn't this been said a billion times now? And the sayers lashed back at a billion times? And the backlash described as borderline fascism a billion times? I'm not outraged at all by what she said, but I am infuriated that she would trot out such a trite, tired line of thinking and then act like its all revolutionary. This is not at all original thinking on the part of Ms. Ghall.

I do admire, though, how Ms. Ghall is so willing to acknowledge her own bravery and courage. Celebrities are usually so modest. It's nice that she's willing to speak out about her own virtues. Really, it's too bad she wasn't on one of the hijacked planes on 9/11. Her courage and bravery might have come in handy.

Bwhaaaaaaa!!! I always have to be sure to put down my beverage when i click on your posts William so that I don't spit it out on my computer!

Precious, just precious.

Speaking of original thinking...

to actually say "The US is responsible for 9-11" is a HUGE leap from admitting that not everything we do is looked on favourably globally. This is far fetched by any stretch of the imagination. Even for those of you who tend to fault the US for every single thing. What happened is that a crazy fringe element chose to demonize the USA as a whole and saw nothing wrong with killing thousands with a terroristic action.

Do we like the policies of Syria, North Korea or Saudi Arabia? No. Does that mean any and every action is warranted? No. Just as what happened in Iraq did not warrant our occupation of Iraq. What the US does int'l-ly did not warrant 9-11. The world we live in is not and should not be a "anything goes" stage.
By placing blame on the US for 9-11, I should then have the right to bomb my neighbour's house for playing music too loud. After all, it's his fault. Right?

Newsday article on Maggie Gyllenhaal's comments.

There is also a poll on the site. Current results:

Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal is being criticized for remarks suggesting the U.S. bears some responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. What do you think?

22.8%
I disagree and think she should apologize for the remarks. (2598 responses)

41.7%
I agree with her position. (4763 responses)

12.6%
I disagree but think she has a right to voice her opinion. (1438 responses)

3.1%
I don't have an opinion either way. (355 responses)

19.8%
I think this incident has been blown out of proportion. (2258 responses)

11412 total responses

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Maggie's official statement.

Hell, I'll go a step farther than what she said...because of our view of the rest of the world and our actions toward it, we practically enabled them and made it easy to attack us. We sure didn't think it would ever happen, did we? We're way across the ocean from the rest of the world. It's not like we actually have to care about what we do to everyone else. We don't need to focus on how our actions towards other nations might be perceived, especially if it might be looked at negatively.

We live in a great country, but it's a flawed one to say the least. We love to say how we are the greatest country on the planet and how we would do anything for any nation that is in trouble. Well, as long as we ultimately get something out of it. I'll cite our less than eager response to the Sudanese genocide that is ongoing...but at least we're saving the Iraqi people, right?

We can't say that we want to spread peace and freedom throughout the world and sit by while thousands of people are being killed in a non-Mid East nation...too bad the Sudanese don't have any of that good oil found over in Iraq.

You can agree or disagree on whether we should be helping anybody on our planet, but we got ourselves in the position of being the first ones to rush to aid victims. We can't be picky on who we want to help; either help everybody (regardless of self gain) or help no one.

[ April 27, 2005, 10:00 AM: Message edited by: dfwAggie99 ]

It should be uncontroversial to say that elements of American foreign policy inspired people to fly planes into our buildings. It should be uncontroversial to say that our law enforcement and intellegence communities were not equal to the task of preventing this from happening.

But saying these things has to be tempered with the knowledge that that does not necessarily make the United States culpable for what happened. Every once in a while doing the right thing will anger the wrong people. Every once in a while, the crooks get the better of the cops.

Has the United States badly handled Middle Eastern policy over the past 60 years? Absolutely. Does that justify flying planes into our buildings? No. However, it is also important with or without the attacks on our soil to not only allow, but to encourage, criticism within our borders of our foreign policy, or any policy, for that matter.

As for the comment that started this thread, neither news source has enough of the context surrounding the comment to be able to determine if her comments were responsible or wild accusation. It is important to note, however, that she did not say the US is responsible, but bears some responsibility. There is a difference.

Thank you George, William, ung and JQueer for your posts, which together mirror my views.

This opportunistic actress reminds me of another one, a certain Jane Fonda who was personally responsible for aggravating the already-bad mistreatment of US airmen captured by the North Vietnamese. She also reminds me of W.S. Maugham's great line from "Ashenden:" "An artist who campaigns for recognition is not an artist, but a politician, and deserves to be treated like one."

The lady's got the recognition she wanted from me, but not as she wanted it, I'm sure. I've noted her name and will be discouraging others from supporting her and the shows she appears in.

Ummm....she's acting in a movie about 9/11. She was interviewed about the movie. Questions about 9/11 came up and she gave her thoughts on them. I don't believe that means she's being opportunistic -- she's not going out of her way to create publicity or incite controversy -- she was just responding to questions in an interview. You guys make it sound like she's heading to Afghanistan to camp with Al-queda members!

For a change I agree with William. Gyllenhaal is hardly saying anything new, interesting or worthy of reportage. Didn't Susan Sontag and about 25+ other critics offer far more penetrating and provocative analyses RIGHT AFTER 9/11 in the The New Yorker? Hasn't Noam Chomsky basically said the same thing about 1,000 times in the last three years, though with far greater depth and perspicacity?

She obviously felt the need to offer her incoherent thoughts and the sheep-like media--CNN chief among them--felt the need to print them as they merited a second notice, just as they pumped up the roided up Gropenführer to become governator of California. Plus ça change, plus ça reste, or as Basquiat spraypainted on walls all over NYC, Samo samo.

[ April 27, 2005, 01:38 PM: Message edited by: fantomas ]

Yep. wink

NJ

Afghanistan has Al-queda members?
Uh oh, we better start bombing Iraq then.

Afghanistan has camp grounds?

Uh oh, that means there's trailers there!

We'd better start bombing Arkansas!

Not to beat a dead horse, but I think when they tried to blow the towers up in the mid 90s, maybe someone should have taken Al Qaeda a tad more seriously. Ill go out on a limb and blame Bill Clinton, just so some of you can laugh with glee.

Just how OBVIOUS does this have to get before you believe?

The USA is 100% to blame. Our consumption finances and creates a market that drives the warfare for oil and the supposed terroists acts and WMD's that are the justification for such wars. If you didn't buy it there would be no market for it and therefore no money for it or profit from it.

I believe this was discussed in the thread "Poverty and Terrorism" y'all.

OMG, I agree with William 1865. Go ahead, just shoot me now. I wanted to say something clever, you know, like William 1865 always does...something like oh, I think it's so cute y'all are still talking about this, but damn it, when I agree with him, I can't be my usual smarmy, sarcastic self! Damn you William 1865, damn you I say!

Don't fight it Miller.... Come! Come to the Dark Side! eek!