9/11: Whose Fault Is It?
PSY 299
ESSAY 1
April 22, 2006
Whose Fault is it?
“The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks upon the United States of America carried out on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Four commercial airliners were hijacked and crashed, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 civilians in the planes and on the ground. On that morning, nineteen hijackers, affiliated with al-Qaeda[2], crashed two planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City, and within two hours both towers collapsed. A third hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a rural field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. None of the passengers survived (wikipedia)”. Just to think for a moment if on September 11, 2001, the attacks were not committed by hijackers that are affiliated with Al-Qaeda, but instead through a fierce thunderstorm and lightning, that just happens to occur in New York, and caused planes to malfunction and crash land, on the twin towers which happens to be the nearest building for luck sake. Of course the day will still be one of the worst days in American history, and the families of the deceased will be grieving and suffering, only with a big difference. There will be no war in Afghanistan and probably not in Iraq, because the American population will not be seeking punishment for the perpetrators of the attacks. Now when we try to figure out what is the difference between these two beliefs, it is because we think that the attacks were pre-meditated, and carried out on the free-will of the hijackers, and their leaders who operate the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization.
To fully understand what I am trying to explain on what Aristotle was talking about on Moral responsibility, it is necessary that the following is explained, first and foremost; what is moral responsibility? What makes a person a “moral agent”? Can the person know what a decision is and choose to
ESSAY 1
April 22, 2006
Whose Fault is it?
“The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks upon the United States of America carried out on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Four commercial airliners were hijacked and crashed, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 civilians in the planes and on the ground. On that morning, nineteen hijackers, affiliated with al-Qaeda[2], crashed two planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City, and within two hours both towers collapsed. A third hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a rural field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. None of the passengers survived (wikipedia)”. Just to think for a moment if on September 11, 2001, the attacks were not committed by hijackers that are affiliated with Al-Qaeda, but instead through a fierce thunderstorm and lightning, that just happens to occur in New York, and caused planes to malfunction and crash land, on the twin towers which happens to be the nearest building for luck sake. Of course the day will still be one of the worst days in American history, and the families of the deceased will be grieving and suffering, only with a big difference. There will be no war in Afghanistan and probably not in Iraq, because the American population will not be seeking punishment for the perpetrators of the attacks. Now when we try to figure out what is the difference between these two beliefs, it is because we think that the attacks were pre-meditated, and carried out on the free-will of the hijackers, and their leaders who operate the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization.
To fully understand what I am trying to explain on what Aristotle was talking about on Moral responsibility, it is necessary that the following is explained, first and foremost; what is moral responsibility? What makes a person a “moral agent”? Can the person know what a decision is and choose to