Very good thread. To me, the coddling of the Pakistani establishment and the abrupt pivot towards Iraq were the most baffling parts of the American response to 9/11.
Also, while everyone around me was gobsmacked by the loss of thousands of civilian lives, there was a noticeable undercurrent of "so-they-finally-realize-what-it-feels-like" to the effusive (and genuine) sympathy.
Because India had been bearing the brunt of terrorist/jihadist attacks for more than two decades before 9/11 happened. Thousands of innocent civilian lives were lost to these attacks. And every time, the reaction of 'the West' was, for want of a better expression, muted.
There was sympathy, but that sympathy was always drowned out by sanctimonious sermonizing and finger-wagging about human rights and the purported excesses by security forces in Kashmir and elsewhere.
All we got after an attack were patronizing lectures about the need for restraint and diplomacy and sensitivity to Pakistan's weak strategic position vis-a-vis India that made it go to such extreme lengths to restore parity.
Even the terrorists were not called 'terrorists'. They were 'militants', or 'gunmen' or 'armed men', or worse, 'freedom fighters'.
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