{Doris} Lessing says 9/11 'not that bad' (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing has said that the 11 September attacks were "not that terrible" compared to the IRA's terror campaign.

"Some Americans will think I'm crazy... but it was neither as terrible or as extraordinary as they think," the writer told Spanish newspaper El Pais.
***
"They're a very naive people, or they pretend to be," she added of Americans.

Lessing, whose novels include The Golden Notebook and Memoirs of a Survivor, also branded President George W Bush "a world calamity".

"Everyone is tired of this man. Either he is stupid or he is very clever, although you have to remember he is a member of a social class which has profited from wars."
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7057601.stm

[bbinacan]

1. Screw that stupid idiot.

I thought it was certainly fucking terrible.

[malaise]

5. Everything is relative

She survived WWII.

[bbinacan]

6. But is she not

talking about the IRA?

[Peregrine Took]

17. Its her opinion and she certainly is entitled to voice it. n/t

[EFerrari]

20. She said it was terrible.

Why would you want to cuss out someone who has done so much for so many people with so little information?

That's just mind boggling.

[bbinacan]

42. She also said "not that terrible". n/t

[babylonsister]

2. "member of a social class which has profited from wars." - bingo. Also,

Ms. Lessing saw horrors on a daily basis if she was anywhere near GB during WWII. This is not to negate the horror that was 9/11, but her world view is wider than most of ours. Or should I say longer?

[Sugar Smack]

3. Doris, come get yr medidine.

:spank: Not all Americans are naive. PS- I love your work. Especially "One off the Short List".

[annabanana]

4. We had that special Hell

of watching the doomed fall out of the sky. But it is not a worse calamity than many that have been visited upon mankind by mankind over the course of history.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. I was in Lower Manhattan that morning

She's right.

[liberalsoldier5]

37. Wow.

That's pretty offensive.

[baby_mouse]

39. Why?

[EFerrari]

8. But she didn't say that. Some editor did. Go read the article.

She tried to say something really different: other parts of the world have been experiencing terrorism for some time.

Misleading headline.

[papau]

9. True - but Misleading headlines are expected of our media - the same way protest march stories die n

n/t

[EFerrari]

21. It's all right. We need to be the loud mouths now.

:hi:

[onenote]

10. she said something very close to it

admittedly, I'd like to see the full transcript, but she is quoted as saying "Some Americans will think I'm crazy... but it was neither as terrible or as extraordinary as they think,"

Well, I think that people are entitled to think that it was damn terrible and damn extraordinary. I certainly think so. The image of those planes hitting the towers and then of them collapsing is something I'll never forget nor will most people. Was the fear and worry I experienced about the fate of friends and family any different from the fear and worry that other people have experienced in other attacks? Of course not. But that doesn't make what happened on 9/11 any less terrible.

[soothsayer]

12. You were terrorized. We all were. But it was actually a relatively small event

for such a big country as ours.

[onenote]

14. name a bigger one for our country

[EFerrari]

19. That's the thing. She's not thinking only of our country

but the planet and all its peoples. She's strange that way.

[onenote]

26. the post I was responding to specifically referred to our country

[EFerrari]

27. And clearly, that's your right.

That wasn't the context of her comments.

[EFerrari]

13. And remember, onenote, that she predicted that Americans

would think she was crazy?

I've read Lessing for damn near 50 years now. There's no way in hell she would minimize what we went through on September 11.

Maybe a combo of her age and a snarky reporter, but this is a person who had empathy to spare and to to be attacked over when she came out against Apartheid and segregation and sexism and a host of things we just take for granted today BEFORE most people did.

This is not a person that ever was lacking in empathy. Ever.

[onenote]

15. which is why I'd like to see the full transcript

I was surprised as well.

[EFerrari]

18. I'm with you.

Can you imagine Doris Lessing saying 9/11 was no big deal unless she's lost her mind?! It would be impossible. The powers that be nearly killed her career over Apartheid. And, they kept trying to kill it over related issues. The powers that be LOST.

I'm glad I'm not alone in distrusting this incomplete account.

[Xenotime]

11. Right wingers tend to really blow things out of porportion esp. the media

Sadly, we have let them with their tv shows and 'tributes'. Where is the 'tributes' for all the other events that have happened?

[onenote]

16. A lot of non-RWers feel that 9/11 was an extraordinarily terrible event

[Cha]

22. Well, she's not so brilliant after all.

It's common knowledge bushit doesn't have a clever bone in his dry drunk body.

Not good to compare mass terrorist tragedies, imo..no one can imagine what others have gone through. I don't think she's "crazy"..I think she's being.. off the charts insensitive.

[EFerrari]

24. This is how they spin Chavez, too.

Lessing was always a very dangerous woman.

:shrug:

[Karenina]

29. Die Besserwisserei von

Dummkopfen hier... It would be funny if it didn't have such tragic consequences.

[dflprincess]

23. Ya gotta love what she said about Bush

n/t

[defendandprotect]

25. Not too bright a way to put it . . . however . . ..

WTC less than 3,000 dead
Afghanistan -- ????
Iraq --- almost 2 million Iraqis now???
and near 4,000 US troops???


Iran next up -- ???

Love what she says about Bush ---

[tabasco]

28. Very stupid thing to say.

She has a right to her opinion and I have a right to mine.

My opinion is that the mass murder of 3000 people is something all decent people consider very terrible.

The IRA never had a day like that. The English may have murdered 3000 Irishmen in one day through starvation.

Ms. Lessing is English.

[EFerrari]

30. She didn't say it . Read it again.

Why the MSM feel compelled to demonize Doris Lessing is beyond me But, that's what they're doing. Check it out.

[tabasco]

31. I don't need to read it again.

I see what she said and it is abhorrent.

Again, I wonder why she chose to demonize the IRA and not the English genocide of the Irish.

[EFerrari]

32. I'm not sure she did that.

Lessing was well aware of the oppression of the Irish and SHE WROTE ABOUT IT when it was taboo.

I submit, her statement is being spun.

[tabasco]

35. I read it as "they need to get over their pity party over 9-11"

"because our tragedy was so much worse."

I don't care if she wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, that is a stupid, insensitive thing to say.

[EFerrari]

36. You are attributing the editor's headline to her.

Whatever.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

34. The IRA have been doing it over the years

you never had to live through it!

[kurth]

33. 330 MILLION Americans live in fear of a few hundred primitive assholes

[nomorenomore08]

40. "a few hundred primitive assholes"

Who? The Republicans in our government, or the jihadists? :silly:

[tinrobot]

38. Not as bad as Iraq.

Iraq has cost hundreds of times more lives and money.

[Beerboy]

41. Your post title is out of context...

She compared 911 to 30 years of conflict between the UK/IRA. She makes a valid point.