I couldn't agree more...This country has forgotten that DAY!

I cry everytime I see the trailer. I'm sure I'll go through a box of Kleenex. I will never forget that day nor will I every forget the heros on that flight they saved more lives by taking over the plane and crashing it into the field in Pennsylvania because we will never know the true target. May God bless America and keep us focused on our war against terrorism.

Do you guys really need to see a movie to remind you of the attacks? I don't get it.

It's quite pathetic how much you guys love to wallow in your sorrows. It must be the whole Christian thing.

This country *was* united after 9/11. And Bush, amazingly, squandered that opportunity, and now it has passed. His numbers are in the 30s & the ship is sinking.

No movie will fix that. I hate to break it to you.

By the way, one group that you especially like to villify - HOLLYWOOD - is the one making this movie. Funny no mention of that.

I will see this film. And I'm sure it will wrench my heart. I was in the air early on the morning of 9/11 flying to Philadelphia from Atlanta. We landed at 8:30 and I was in my cab on the way to my meeting when the first plane hit.

What I will remember is how united the nation was to go get the people that did this to us. How impressed I was actually that Bush showed such patience and didn't just nuke Afghanistan like I probably would have. How we all wanted to see the pigs that did this come to justice.

But time has soured this story for me. 14 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. So when Bush announced that we were going after "every terrorist and every COUNTRY that harbored terrorist" I watched closely.

That's not what we have done. There were no Iraqis on those planes.

Bush took a country that was sitting on the edge of its collective seat waiting for leadership and an 80+ approval rating and he squandered it. For you religious types he traded his presidential legacy birthright for a bowl of pottage, that being settling a neocon score with Iraq and implementing the Wolfowitz doctrine.

Today we sit here, with our president wallowing around with a low-30's approval rating, having done nothing of domestic notability in almost 6 years, and you just have to shake your head and say...What happened?

I don't hate Bush...I feel sorry for him...I've never seen a man so in over his head trying to do a job.

So much for "We're gonna smoke him out of his hole and keep him on the run..." ( he being Ossama Bin Laden )

Instead..."he" is making new videotapes to undermine the effort in Iraq. It's truly sad. An opportunity lost.

"We need to be mindful that this enemy, who made those holes in our landscape and caused the deaths of some 3,000 of our fellow free people, has a vision to personally kill or convert each and every one of us."

Do the conservatives on this board subscribe to this theory that Al Qaeda's mission is to personally kill each and every last one of us? My understanding of the mission of Al Qaeda is that it aims to drive America and American interests out all Muslims countries. The event that got Bin Laden started on this mission against America was the stationing of US forces in Saudi Arabia in 1990-91 following the invasion of Kuwait. His outrage led to activities against his own country that got him expelled.

All of the statements that I have heard from Bin Laden or Zarqawi demonize the US as infidels and crusaders that need to be expelled, but I have never heard anything along the lines of "we want to kill you all" or "we want to convert you all to Islam".

Where exactly is this theory coming from? Because quite frankly, if I thought that it's Al Qaeda's mission to kill us all, I would get behind some pretty serious deployment of our own WMD's on radical muslims - and I think most of America would join me in that sentiment.

In response to maf53 following statements:

Do you guys really need to see a movie to remind you of the attacks? I don't get it.

We need no movie to remind US, it's you that should see it. After all, if a farce of a flick such as Moores 911 can make you vote a certain way, maybe, just maybe it will also make you think of America First.

It's quite pathetic how much you guys love to wallow in your sorrows. It must be the whole Christian thing.
Remembering the past so as not to repeat is is not wallowing.

This country *was* united after 9/11. And Bush, amazingly, squandered that opportunity, and now it has passed. His numbers are in the 30s & the ship is sinking. No movie will fix that. I hate to break it to you.

All index ratings show Bush has equaled Regans numbers with the exception of basic approval. The numbers also show that his numbers go up or down in line with the price of gas. If the best you got is his low numbers of people such as yourself; who gives a crap. He will continue to attempt to do what is in the best interest of our country regardless of long you try to pull the wool over the eyes of the easily misled.

By the way, one group that you especially like to villify - HOLLYWOOD - is the one making this movie. Funny no mention of that.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. So Hollywood finally gives us something good. About time.

extra,

You are just not paying attention - the Islamo-fascist ideology, like that of Nazism, communism and fascism, is universal...it is for the whole world, and everyone has a place in it, though the place for quite a large number is in the grave, just as in those other hideous ideologies.

They do want you to fit in, extra - either as a devout Islamo-fascist, or as a corpse...they'll take you either way; the only way they won't take you is as you are.

The dream of the bin Laden's of the Islamo-fascist movement is a unified Islamo-fascist state (ie, the middle east after we have left in accordance with liberal/left dogma that it is our presence which makes them fight us) which will first exterminate the Israelis, and then conquer the whole world in accordance with what they view as the command of God.

You can hide your head in the sand and think that retreat will save your life, but all it would do is buy you a little time.

maf,

I call BS on that - within days of 9/11 I was already hearing and reading leftwing opinion which held that 9/11 was Bush's fault and that any proposed US response would be some sort of war crime...

The only real question for me on the dissolution of national unity after 9/11 is just how much of the so-called "anti-war" movements money came from outside sources...I do wonder how ANSWER, sponsored by a few lunatics, managed to get such a boost of visibility...

A friend of mine died on flight 93. We met each other when we were sixteen and became high school sweethearts for a time. We stayed in touch throughout the years, though sporadically. I still talk to her mom. We talk about Linda quite a bit, but we have never talked about that day.

But this is an excerpt from an excellent story about her:
"Like several others on that plane, she made a cell phone call from 35,000 feet, just moments before the plane went down. She called her younger sister, Elsa. We have been hijacked, she told her. We know about the World Trade Center. We have voted on a plan. We will thwart this enemy to prevent others from dying, even if we can't save ourselves."

Talk about heroes.

I don't know about the movie. I certainly don't have to be reminded about what happened. And I worry that it will rekindle the kind of bloodthirsty rage I felt at the time. It was neither healthy or productive.

Her mom told me a coupld of years back, "She contributed a lot, we are living the kindest and most loving lives we can, to honor her." Personally, I still want bin Laden's head -- along with Zawahiri, Mullah Omar, and the rest of the bunch.

Mark - I hear you saying that, and I believe you when you say that you believe that it is true but, for my benefit, where is the evidence of that? What did I miss? Did it come to you in a vision?

"she made a cell phone call from 35,000 feet"

No. She didn't.

You can't make a cell phone call from 35,000 over Los Angeles, let alone over the Poconos. The "back of the seat" phones require a satellite uplink to work. Cell phones have a horizontal range of two to three miles, or ten square miles in good conditions, and a vertical range of 8,000 feet. That's it.

You can check for yourself here:
http://www.mobiledia.com/guides/page1.html

If your math isn't so good, 10 square miles is:

Pi * radius squared = area of circle

3.14 * 1.78 miles squared = 10 square miles.

The radius is the distance from the center of the circle, meaning your distance from the cell tower.

Please do not trust me. Look it up yourself.

I am sorry for your loss. It is truly a tragedy.

But, no. No one made a cell phone call from 35,000 feet.

"she made a cell phone call from 35,000 feet"

"No. She didn't."

congressive, just because you say so, does not make it so. You were not there; you do not know. You insist that scores of people are LYING.

BTW, John Shaw was a 911 operator that received a call from United Airlines Flight 93 passenger Edward P. Felt. Glenn Cramer, was his 911 supervisor and listened in on the call. It was recorded.

I suppose this did not happen either:

Cell phones test positive on AA flight

FORT WORTH (AP) — With television cameramen hovering, Qualcomm chief executive Irwin Jacobs sat in the front row of coach and made one of the first legal cell phone calls from a commercial jetliner. After chatting with a telecom industry lobbyist for a few minutes, Jacobs pronounced the technology behind the airborne phone call a success, although adding that it will be improved over the next couple years.

You are WRONG. Unless you can PROVE your statements, you should keep your pie hole closed.

*Shrugs*

I'm not sure I'll see it in theaters, but I'll probably see it.

I wouldn't miss it.

Nope, I don't think it is too soon. It isn't entertainment to me. The world will see good is more powerful than evil and courage comes from ordinary people.

The only people it may be too early for Mark, would be those who specifically lost family & friends in 93. The rest of us should be honored that we could share in a piece of these hero's story! Of course I wouldn't doubt it if LafMaf, and a few of the others would be sitting there watching the movie trying hard not to burst out with "peace people, just sit down in your seats, it'll all work out in the end, if only you'd try peace!"

Mark, al queda and the democratic party are scared to death of this movie. The dems have done everything possible since 9/11 to disunify this country and give aid and comfort to the enemy. And why? Because they think it may help their sorry butts in an election. President Bush's leadership, especially after 9/11 has been glorious. I have never seen such a great and inspiring leader as President George W. Bush. President Bush's leadership helped pick this country up from one of its worst moments in history. For someone who had only been in office for 7 1/2 months prior to the attack (having been sworn in on Jan. 21, 2001), his steel determination had been a sight to behold. President Bush has liberated afghanistan and wiped out the taliban. There are no more terrorist training camps on afghanistan. President Bush liberated Iraq and captured the worst mass murderer in the past 50 years. We now know that Iraq had extensive terrorist ties, was training terrorists in Iraq in order to attack western targets including the US and did in fact try to obtain uranium from niger and the congo in Africa. We have also wiped out thousands of terrorists in these two countries and around the world. Thanks to President Bush we have also captured khalid shaikh mohammed in pakistan, who was the actual mastermind of 9/11, not bin laden. Under President Bush we continue to take the fight to the enemy. Thanks to President Bush, the USA has not been attacked in over 4 1/2 years. Who thought that was possible right after 9/11. President Bush has never forgotten 9/11, although he has been subject to the most baseless, shamefull non stop attacks from the lib media and the dem party, who are the useful idiots of al queda. President Bush will continue to lead the fight and protect america. If this gets france, al queda and the libs upset, so be it. President Bush leads this country by standing on the rubble of the wtc with a megaphone in his hand and his arm around a fireman, by standing on the mound of Yankee Stadium to throw the first pitch. The dems can do what they do best- forge documents, blame President Bush for the weather and an incompetent governor and mayor, ammo dumps in Iraq, steal and destroy classified documents from the National Archives to protect the sorry butt of an incompetent prior president, and complain because President Bush is monitering bin ladens phone calls into the USA without a warrant. God bless you President Bush and thank God you have been our president these last 5 1/2 years. Thank God.

My Son and I WAS at 35,000 feet, somewhere over Kentucky on the way to Sacramento California. I am not sure I want to revisit the horrors that we personally felt that day, as it could just as easily been our plane.

That doesn't mean that I don't know how "concerned" Democrats are about national security ( They are not for the most part ). 9/11 was also the day that I got involved in politics and decided to do whatever it took to get my State of Ohio in the yes column in the 2004 Presidential race. My Hard work paid off

With that said, I am totally upset with the GOP leadership over illegals, this is going to boil over with conservatives. The folks that I work with, the folks that I hang with, NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON that I know agrees with President Bush.

The GOP has been dealt a royal flush with regards to immigration, and they folding to the Democrats, who are trying to draw to an inside straight.

Mark..you are a lot nicer than I am..I just wanted to tell...extra med...where in the bloody hell have you been? Do you read anything ? How you can be so uninformed re this is just unreal!!!
and maf..is just beyond...beyond!!!!

LaMano, I know you are angry. You've been duped. But like I said, DON'T take my word for it. Google search the internet for cell phone range FOR YOURSELF! Do your own due diligence.

Phone calls from the "back of the seat" phones on planes work by relaying the signal through a satellite link. Those calls DO work. But cell phones simply cannot work beyond their two mile limit. 35,000 feet is SEVEN miles. But again, LOOK IT UP before you start slamming people.

The new cell phone technology yet to be approved in the newspaper article that you pasted relies on a satellite relay on board the jet that adapts the "back of the seat" phone technology. Those transponders didn't exist in 2001, and are not installed on regular planes even now.

I realize it's a gaping hole in the storyline, but cell phones would have to defy physics to have worked on 9-11 from 35,000 feet at 500 miles an hour over the Poconos.

This article says cell phones are good for about a two mile radius (10 sq. miles):
Mobiledia.com

This one says 2.5 miles:
HelloDirect.com

Harvard has a document here:
How Cell Phones Work

SCU has another article here that again says ten square miles (2 mile radius):
Cell Phone Radiation

And this one also says 10 square miles per cell tower (2 mile radius):
Telcomhostory.org

I know this is upsetting, but no one made a cell phone call from 35,000 feet. That is 3 times the distance cell phones are capable of transmitting.

About this movie, the fact that it attempts to manipulate emotions by depicting the passengers killing two of the hijackers, when that is not corroborated anywhere, along with these magical cell phone calls, all being released just in time to be on network TV for the November elections, strikes me as immorally extracting cash from a frightened nation. But I'd expect nothing less from Hollywood.

Extra,

It is part of bin Laden's Salafist view of Islam - a puritannical subset of Islam which views itself as the true adherence to Mohammed's teachings, and destined to rule the world.

"Islamo-fascism" is just a handy descriptive term which allows a non-Moslem to understand that while it deals with Islam, it is a wicked perversion of it - the adherents of bin Laden's ideology are authoritarian, corporate-socialist in economic outlook, and believe that liberty is by nature licentiousness.

They want to kill you, extra - they want to kill me, too...the Islamo-fascist has the knife sharpened for both Donald Rumsfeld and Michael Moore...they hate what we do, but they would hate us even if we didn't do it...as long as we refuse to submit not just to Islam, but their brand of Islam, then we are damned and the sooner we are killed the better for all concerned.

MAYBE THEY PULLED A LITTLE STRING OUT OF THEIR ARSE AND ATTACHED A FRIGGIN DIXIE CUP TO MAKE THE PHONE CALL CON!!! Who gives a rats rearend! You are here to belittle these people and those telling there tale! What the hell is wrong with you? We are here to honor them and uplift there family members! I personally don't give a crap if that lady got a call from her daughter in a damn dream! If she says it happened then so be it!!! Do you have a point anyways or are you just looking to harrass!!!

Congressive - bearman is right. There were many cell phone calls made from all of the hijacked flights on 9/11. From flight attendants as well as passengers. They have been recorded and documented. Realize that for most of the time after the planes were hijacked, they flew well below 35,000 feet in an attempt to avoid radar. Hence, making cell calls possible, even according to your flawed theories. The 35,000 feet statement is metaphorical to simply symbolize a plane in flight. For you to try to rip someone on a technicality is petty, hurtful, and disrespectful of the sacrifice and loss the families of all 9/11 victims experienced.

By the way. How much do the producers of this movie expect to make off of this, or are all the profits going to a 9/11 fund?

I saw it and couldn't stop crying thinking about those brave people and what they did. They were true heroes in every sense of the word.

Mark - Al Qaeda wants to strike at the west to drive us out of Muslim countries. They see us as interlopers and crusaders. You are correct that they want to practice a pure, Salafi form of Islam, and they see westernization as the enemy of that goal. Some of our strongest allies are Salafi -like Saudi Arabia and Egypt - thought not pure enough for the radical extremists.

You still provide no evidence that it is the goal of Al Qaeda to "kill us all" in America. Saying that is a baseless fear tactic designed to support the neoconservative doctrine of forcing american style democracy on middle eastern countries through pre-emptive war.

Iraq is a $1 trillion dollar neocon experiment that is destined to fail. America knows that and mark my words - the next two elections will be a referendum on this ridiculous neocon foreign policy. I don't want to see our our sons and daughters killed and our country bankrupted by a bunch of fools who think they can steamroll other cultures and politically engineer the entire planet to look like Kansas. I'm confident that most of America shares this view.

"I personally don't give a crap if that lady got a call from her daughter in a damn dream! If she says it happened then so be it!!!" -- BearMan

Right. I mean, as long as it makes a good drama, then who cares whether or not it was true?! Americans love to wallow. We love the attention our sorrow brings. You can't deny it. I'm glad the movie was made. Honestly, I'm surprised more of you Repubs aren't calling Hollywood out of this for being classless & taking advantage of a tragedy just to turn a buck. I mean, any chance to villify evil Hollywood & you guys are usually all over it.

Just please stop all the damn wallowing. Americans do not have a monopoly on sorrow, no matter how much we wish we had.

10% of the opening weekend's box office cash is going to the memorial fund.

Thank you for asking if I have a point. I understand the venom and personal attacks I keep getting here. Coflicting information has that effect, and often the only way to deal internally with it is to attack the source of the confusion when the facts are unassailable.

I love fiction. I watch plays and movies and read novels and enjoy a great storyline. But this movie is billing itself as accurate down to the clothing. But the details that veer from the truth, like all those passengers who break into the cockpit and kill terrorists at the end of the movie could not possibly have actually done so. The cell phone issue is minor by comparison, but still significant.

It does no justice to the memories of those who died on United 93 to fictionalize their story in any way. To do so is simply pandering to audiences to raise box office revenue, which I believe is wrong. Maybe others don't. We fortunately live in a free market system, and if this movie makes a ton of money for it's producers, gee, that's great. But truth in advertising laws, ethics and morality do mandate disclosure when something billing itself as the whole truth and nothing but the truth is something less.

Congressive,
I wondered about the cell phone issue too. I don't know what to say. Some have argued as you do, that transmission was virtually impossible. Certainly the picocell technology that LaMano implied in his post didn't exist at the time. Others point out that the technology was a little different back in 2001, when many cell phones were tri-modal, and switched to analog transmission when a digital link failed. Perhaps the directional nature and spacing of antennae in rural vs. urban areas played a part. Perhaps the plane was closer to the ground. It obviously had to come down at some point, right? Perhaps many, if not all of the calls were made through the plane's airphones, not their own cell phones. Maybe some people's recollections aren't perfect. I suppose it's even possible that a handful of the reports about phone calls are fabricated. I don't know.

On the issue of whether airphones existed at the time, and on Flight 93 specifically, you might want to visit the Smithsonian museum.

In Linda's case, I really don't know if she used a cell phone or an airphone to call her sister. But she DID call her sister. Elsa is not the type to imagine things. Nor is it possible for me to even contemplate the possibility that the call really wasn't from Linda. They weren't just sisters, they were best friends. They had been best friends all their lives. That part I can vouch for. If it was her mom, okay maybe. Her mom is getting old, the whole episode tore her up, and the constant spotlight she finds herself in really doesn't help her peace of mind. But Elsa is a different story. If Elsa said it happened, it happened. I have no doubt about that either.

Whether Linda used her cell phone or an airphone to make the call, I don't know. Does it really matter? I noticed a number of little inconsistencies in that article I cited about Linda. For example, they said her birthday was the next day, the 12th. It is't. It's the 14th. And she wasn't on that flight just to take a vacation -- she had business to attend to before she headed up to the wine country with her boyfriend (who was also killed on the flight). Are those little things a big deal? I don't think so. Was she really a ringleader in the passenger revolt? I don't know. But knowing Linda, I wouldn't put it past her. Not for a second.

Linda was an uncommon woman. She was certainly very bright and a very original person (She was a grease monkey before she barely hit her teens, and that was back in the mid-60s, when girls weren't supposed to do stuff like that). But her most outstanding charcteristic was her drive. She was extraordinarily motivated. It was obvious even back when I first met her. She couldn't wait to get the heck out of Sag Harbor. At the time it was a little backwater community (out on the eastern end of Long Island), and way too small to contain her ambitions. I could say so much more about her, but it probably wouldn't be appreciated. But my only motivation in saying what I have said about her was to keep her memory alive. She had a big impact in my life. And I think the world is a little bit poorer place for her loss.

I don't know where congressive and others are going with this cell phone thing. I hope the intent isn't to imply that the attacks were part of a grand and nefarious conspiracy perpetrated by a hopelessly corrupt regime. If so, then it would have to be the mother of all conspiracies perpetrated by a regime that was as exceedingly competent as they were hopelessly corrupt. What are the chances of that? What's the theme here? If it is necessary for every single little detail to coincide perfectly, from all sources and no matter how reliable they may be, then those that posit some kind of alternative view must share the same burden. I think you will find that in the end one has to rely on such issues as the confluence of evidence and reasonable doubt.

Okay, you guys have convinced me: I'm not seeing the movie. It would probably be too painful. This thread itself is almost too painful. If that's wallowing, so be it. The fact is, I don't want to see Linda's memory, or anyone else's, turned into a political football. And in that respect I think it's important to note that among those who lost friends and loved ones in the 9/11 attacks, there are almost as many opinions as there are people in terms of what should have been done in response. As for myself I want Bin Laden dead. I'd do it myself if I had the chance. I'm not particularly proud of that, but I'm being honest. That's how I feel. My guess is (but I don't know for sure), that's a fairly dominant opinion among those so affected. That's why they don't let friends or relatives of victims serve on juries.

On the other hand, if one were to ask friends and relatives of those that died on 9/11 whether we should have invaded Iraq, particularly in the way and at the time we did, I think you'd find much less agreement. I doubt if this movie is likely to serve as any kind of rallying point. But I'll take y'all's word for it one way or another, because I'm not going.

I don't understand the 'it's too soon' argument at all.

Do all the papers which run these questioning articles remember that they've spent five years filling their pages with articles about 9/11? Was it 'too soon' for Moore to make his disgraceful conspiracy flick? It wasn't too soon for any number of books and magazines, why are films so different?

Most of the hostility seems to come from the left because it has invested in claiming that the war on terror doesn't really exist, or is all a Bush invented con. This film, in reminding people why we fight, can only embarrass them.

There were a host of films made during World War II about the war as it was being fought, and why not? What's the betting that this film, which seems to have bent over backwards not to be sensationalist or - shock horror - jingoistic, will take more money than all those 'socially concerned' Oscar nominated films combined.

No-one's forced to go see it, it's a free country. Isn't that the point?

extra,

Well, I guess that November will be the first test of your theory...but as gas prices slip in the fall and the troops start to come home, I think you'll find that issues other than Iraq drive the midterms...and as all the left has got is a theory that the American people don't support the liberation....well, you can guess where it will come out. Personally, I'm betting on a GOP House gain of at least 3, and a Senate gain of 2. As with your prediction, November will tell.

As for the bin Ladens and their goals - you can deny it all you want, but as a for-instance, they insist upon Moslem rule in Spain, because Islam once ruled there...and they are cooking up "history" which teaches that North America was Islamic before the Europeans arrived...

Great Movie,

People need to see it.

God bless Bearman and all our other servicemembers.

congressive, you are sad.