It’s an opinion. The thoughts of a woman who is a Nobel Laureate.

Pull yourself together America. September 11,2001 was no big deal. That’s right, we folks here in the USA just don’t get it. So please allow Ms. Lessing to enlighten us.

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.[Emphasis Added]

Following the logic of this Nobel prizewinner, those killled at the hands of the IRA would not be significant historically as they lost fewer people than were murdered during the Holocaust and those in Israel who have suffered due to terrorism for any years should just keep a stiff upper lip because after all their numbers simply cannot compare with the death toll overall in WWII.

To follow this pattern would be simple poppycock. Ms. Lessing is out of line in her comments.

We in the United States mourn the deaths of innocents all over the world, not just our own, but 9/11/01 will live forever in the minds of those who experienced the horror of that day. The lives lost not only in those two tall structures but in Washington and Pennsylvania will not be forgotten.

We are not a naive people and we certainly are not ignorant enough to tell you Ms. Lessing that any life is deemed more important than another when it is wiped away in an instant by those who hate. You may have your esteemed prize, but we in the United States have dignity, compassion and a deep sense of committment to our allies and friends around the world and the many they have lost in senseless acts.

By the way, when Ms. Lessing was contacted for comment this was the reply:

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Lessing in London for comment Monday were unsuccessful. Her agent’s office said the author was unavailable because she was not feeling well.

Indeed.