MADRID, Spain - Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States were "not that terrible" when compared to attacks by the IRA in Britain.
"September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn't that terrible," the Nobel Literature Prize winner told the leading Spanish daily El Pais.
"Some Americans will think I'm crazy. Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They're a very naive people, or they pretend to be," she said in an interview published Sunday.
"Do you know what people forget? That the IRA attacked with bombs against our government; it killed several people while a Conservative congress was being held and in which the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, was (attending). People forget," she said.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. About 3,700 died and tens of thousands of people were maimed in more than 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland. The Irish Republican Army guerrilla group, which caused most of the deaths, disarmed in 2005.
What a moron. The 9/11 attack effectively killed as many people in one event as were killed in the entirety of the Northern Irish issue.
I can see her point about the actuality of a real terrorist struggle that spanned several decades, when put in actual context, compared to a one off event like 9/11; nevertheless, it's a retarded comment made by someone who really obviously has no idea about either of the issues she's talking about.
She should probably stick to writing fiction and not commenting on world affairs.
She makes the comment but what she uses as backup just doesn't add up for anyone. But just how 'terrible' 9/11 was is debatable.
Was it so terrible because it killed 3000 people? or is it because among other things it took down a bunch of buildings, immobilized a city, and shut down air travel across the entire country? or something else?... I'd go as far as saying 3000 people doesn't rise to the level of rhetoric focused at it, and if we took our slap to the face and moved on we'd be better for it.
Terrible, being relative, I guess people perceive things how they perceive them. Her perception of the IRA is certainly biased as are our perceptions of the WTC Attacks. In terms of global response/recognition the WTC garnered much more attention/shock value being a single huge act of destruction. The IRA campaign was a long grinding affair...horrifying to be sure and destructive as hell but not really shocking after the first 20 years which is it's own kind of damage but a very different sort.
I don't think the two are meaningfully comparable.
I'd say the real horror of the 9/11 events was the ramifications it had/has on the political and humanitarian climate across the globe, and we will probably live out our full lives in the afterburner of that event.
