Which was a more defining moment in U.S. History, 9/11 or...

Too true....

Pearl Harbor by far.

Pearl Harbor is what made America great. Most Americans don't really feel the effects of 9/11 as much as their ancestors

felt the effects of Pearl Harbor because of WWII.

Pearl Harbor WAS

definitely the more defining moment in history, as it threw the US into a World War. My fear is that our descendents will

look to 9/11 as the opening shot that began WWIII!

I share your worry

but don't think the status quo will degenerate that far.

I've chosen Pearl

Harbor, but with reservations. The event known now as "9/11" is too recent to qualify as history in any analytic sense. Too

little is known about the event--which is not to say the separate attacks and their physical aftermath, but rather about is

effects, whether short- or long-term. I've chosen Pearl Harbor because is did not simply pull America out of it's

isolationism, but catapulted a generation onto the world "stage" with a vengeance. More than 15 million Americans served

between 1941 and 1945 (ten per cent of the population of the United States in 1941), more than half a million died in that

war, and the United States was not simply awakened from an isolationist slumber, but became an imperial power in every sense

of the term. Although imperial in it's world position since 1898, most Americans continued to inhabit the "cloud cuckoo

land" of isolationism. World War II would not allow the Americans to remain in that state.

Although i believe that

most Americans had sense enough to know that we are hated by the fanatics of the muslim world, i think the biggest complaint

which will emerge over time is the somnulence of the government. I personally dislike the Cheney administration and it's

empty-suit front man, the Shrub--but not all of the blame can be laid at the door of of Papa Bush's administration redux,

which is what we've got for an executive right now (Cheney, formerly at Defense, is now the Veep, and Rumsfeld is now at

Defense--shades of "Desert Storm!"). Our security agencies don't deserve the name, they were caught completely flat-footed,

and heads ought to have rolled for this one.

How much of a defining moment "9/11" will have proven to be cannot, in my

opinion, be judged at this time--but i feel the repercussions should, and i hope that they will, be laid at the door of a too

complacent government.

okseeyahbye

S

For me, I think

nine-eleven was a more significant event in history for the US. The reason is that Pearl Harbor was a event of a declaration

of war, whereas nine-eleven was a attack on the US by terrorists - a group, and not a country. This creates a new era of

warfare, and our enemies are all over the globe, including the US. It's more difficult to identify our enemies; they live

and work in our environment. We will not know when we have won this war. c.i.

It's really way too early to make a judgement on that. We know what the results -- both direct and indirect -- of Pearl Harbor were. We have absolutely no idea of what the results on 9/11 will ultimately be. We can make guesses, and some guesses will be better than others, but we do not KNOW.

I agree with Merry Andrew. Also I think recreations of 9/ll would not be prudent and would come off as exploitive and cheap. Maybe 50 years from now when barely any of us will be here. 9/ll has to be examined more closely and the Bush Administration has money wrenched any close scrutinity which Gore Vidal and many others have jumped on with his assessment that there is a cover-up ensuing. Where this will lead is, as usual, anybody's guess. In any case, I think there is less proof that Pearl Harbor was avoidable than 9/ll. I remembered the threats that they could fly aircraft into the Trade Center, the Sear's Tower and the Empire State Building as wells as the Capital and other Washington monuments. Why couldn't our legislative body figure that out and give the CIA and FBI more wiggle room in using covert tactics to head this off? Michael Moore calls them stupid white people -- I'm not just merely inclined to agree. I do agree.

Just a quick reminder - WWII started, I believe, in 1939, but it took a fair escalation to make the US believe it existed.

For those of you, not of "a certain age", who were not around during WWII, here is a nice website on the subject:

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/ww2faq.html

I dearly hope it's Pearl Harbor

Has to be Pearl Habor. However, if the US goes to war against Iraq and WWIII is a result then I think 9/11 will become pivotal.

DorelJoanne? Who's DorelJoanne? I know a Joanne Dorel. Nice lady, cream of the crop.

Long story MA I managed to foul up my JoanneDorel account, figured Craven and Jepah didn't have enough to do to keep the sight up and running <G> But I think I will just stick to Joanne unless they can fix it.

Craven
Is a genious

And really cute too

The day JFK was shot made a big imprint in my memory.

Husker, JFK's assasination made a major impression on me, too, at the time. But I doubt that I'd consider it a defining moment in history in the same sense as Pearl Harbor or 9/11 or the firing on Ft. Sumter. That's an event which certainly shocked a nation but had no major historical impact on subsequent history.

WW3 will last for decades. It will be an asymmetric war, a regime change here, a city destroyed there, outbreaks of disease and intermittant outrages happening anywhere. It didn't really start with 911, but that was the defining moment. So as I expect to live the rest of my life (I am <50) in a permanent state of 'low intensity war', because it has no end, I think 911 was the more defining moment. You could argue that Pearl Harbor marked the beginning of the end of WW2, 911 marked the start of war without end.