International Reaction to 9/11
From nation to nation, countries around the world sympathized heavily with grieving Americans. The extremist terrorist attacks on the US had felt like attacks on all people of all nations. Completely unprecedented, these attacks caused an international expression of pain and empathy for the grieving families’ and victims. In New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, Americans of seventy-eight different countries died due to the attacks. Worldwide, people mourned for lost friends, neighbors, and loved ones. American embassies were piled with flowers as friends around the world shared our nation’s pain. People around the world donated to relief funds and held candlelit vigils. In more ways than one, countries and cities honored the victims and their families.
|
"...not only attacks on the people in the United States, our friends in America, but also against the entire civilized world, against our own freedom, against our own values, values which we share with the American people. We will not let these values be destroyed."
- German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder |
http://www.aco.nato.int/resources/site631/saceur/images/Embassy2.jpg
|
Worldwide, leaders hurried to disparage the attacks, calling them attacks against the entire world and their values. Statesmen and women offered aid in any way they could. Countries expressed overwhelming sympathy and sadness, even international leaders not on terribly good terms with the American government. Airports and airspace were offered up by the Cuban foreign minister. Many countries, such as China and Iran, sent condolences.
|
Comparatively, the public response internationally was mixed. Some people believed that 9/11 was a result of America’s political intervening in the Middle East and world affairs as well as its general cultural supremacy. Billboards in Rio were slandered with graffiti reading “The US is the enemy of peace”. Some countries even celebrated the attacks, particularly in Arab countries. With the exception of these Arab countries, most countries still expressed grief for America’s suffering and the immense loss of life, even if they thought it was our fault it happened in the first place.
|
http://pubblog.com/justopinions/images/jalalabad.png
|
http://remember911.albertarose.org/images/rome_italy1.jpg
|
The day after 9/11, members of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, proclaimed that the terrorist attacks on the US were also attacks on each of the nineteen members. Although they did authorize military action, this mainly symbolic proclamation was extremely unprecedented. Similarly, the United Nations Security Council called on all states to suppress the financing of terrorism, aid in anti-terrorism campaigns, and increase their efforts in prosecuting terrorists.
|
Although the United States was met with ample support and empathy, the US did not have free reign to respond and retaliate to this act of terrorism however it pleased. America’s declaration of war on terror was met with international urge for caution, not wanted to completely alienate the Muslim people. Even so, many countries offered cooperation, with thirty countries pledging US military support. The September 11 attacks and the US war on terror was indeed the world’s fight.
|
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q0pggwcvPm8/Tm5ydYm6cI/AAAAAAAABns/yk3XHZRe_xk/s1600/people_crying_500.jpg
|