where were you on 9/11?

2

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  • Reply 21 of 55
    I was spending the night after a long weekend at my parent's house (in my old room) in the burbs the night before this happened. When I woke up late the morning of - I was not in the mood to rush around and try to catch the later bus to Manhattan, so I called in sick (thank GOD). So, I jumped back into bed and turned on the TV (in hopes of the boring morning TV putting me back to sleep).



    One minute I am watching Martha Stewart cooking something - the next minute a news break interrupts the show and all of a sudden it's a news breaking story with all cameras on the first tower that got hit. At first I thought 'oh, what a freak and horrible accident. This is terrible, all those people who perished'. Then, as the story continued, all cameras caught the second plane hit the second tower. At that very moment I (and the rest of the world) knew we were a target and this was indeed deliberate.



    I immediately called my sisters who were at work. My one sister who lives on the Upper East Side works only 2 blocks away from Tower 1 and was evacuated as soon as the first plane hit. She and her friends (and several hundred other people) were running down lower Manhattan streets and finally took shelter in a restaurant about 12 blocks away (due to the debris flying around the air from the first crash). My other sister works uptown and was watching the scene on TV in her boss's office. I then called my friends at my job. As soon as the phone was answered you heard crying and panic in the background. I had forgotten that 5 people who work in my office have family in the WTC. NO ONE knew if their loved ones made it out (turns out, my friend Stacie lost her brother who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald - they never found his body). Being an advertising agency, we have TVs throughout the offices. People who didn't even know anyone at the WTC were just watching in disbelief crying over the lives of innocent victims.



    After I made sure everyone I knew were out okay, I threw on some clothes and drove down to the pier to see what downtown looked like (after watching it on the news). As I was driving down I could see the enormous smoke clouds over Manhattan. When I arrived, I parked my car right at the edge and walked over to the water. It was painfully quiet with distant sirens and horns going off every second in the background. People were driving by stunned looking at what I was watching from across the water. Lower Manhattan up in flames. The Twin Towers just looked like two enormous smoke stacks from some power plant or factory. As I was standing there watching filled with fear, sadness, and disbelief, I saw a huge cloud of dust and debris form. After a few minutes, I noticed there was just one huge smoke stack roaring and realized that one of the Twin Towers had actually collapsed. This is something I never thought would happen (even though they were hit). At this point, people were gathering and screaming and pointing as the second Tower fell. I was beside myself - completely in disbelief.



    I got in my car, locked the doors and turned on the radio. There it was, in front of me and on the radio. It was a surreal moment. At that point I realized that there was only one place I wanted to be and that was HOME! As I was driving, I felt this bizarre fear. A fear I only read about but never lived. From that point as I am driving back home, everything around me looked and seemed very different. It was a gorgeous day, but the sun was shining differently. It was that very moment in the car that I came to the realization that had I taken that later city bus to downtown Manhattan as I planned (since I woke up a bit late), I would have been walking down Trinity Place during the peek of this disaster (the first plane hit). I don't think I'd be able to handle that so close and in person, if I were even alive to witness it at all.



    To this day, that was the most horrifying thing I have ever witnessed. Unless of course, you count the day (a little over a week after this happened) I went to Ground Zero and saw this enormous crater in the ground filled with a mountain debris. You couldn't get the thought of all the dead bodies that must be trapped in there out of your mind. The holes in the sides of this crater that were once subway stations, the hundreds of printed out photos and letters from desperate family and friends members looking for their missing loved ones posted everywhere. If that site weren't enough to bear, the smell of smoke, burning plastics and decaying bodies certainly did me in. As the weeks went by you couldn't run into anyone without a story of their own, or someone who's loved one is now gone. This is something I could never, ever forget (as much as I'd like to).
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  • Reply 22 of 55
    [quote]Originally posted by futuremac:

    <strong>yes it is so very sad



    i get these "feelings" sometimes dreams,visions, whatever you wanna call them, and im feeling strange about mount rushmore, and the statue of liberty. what could they hit next? i certainly hope there are people in washington thinking and planing for future actions like this.



    if you're him, what are you doing next?



    we've got to be ready...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Those feelings, dreams, visions you mention I have too.



    When I saw a wedding reception in a building collapse before 9/11 It shook my soul that something bad was going to happen on a greater scale. Days before 9/11 an indian hindu man tried to intimidate me with a knife. I was so upset at the two girls from Texas being held by the Taliban just days prior to 9-11

    I had an anger towards these animals who had destroyed religious symbols in Afgan just prior to 9-11.



    Sure enough... 9/11



    In december I had seen a terrible fatal car accident on my way home from work. It was an overturned jeep and you could see all the packages they had bought and had in the car for christmas. The cops and EMT had not arrived yet as I drove past it on the same direction of traffic. A few days later I was purchasing a new printer for photo quality printing. I heard on a call in radio station a song to be requested by a man who lived through a devastating car wreck and he was thanking through tears the EMT who saved his life and got him from a vehicle that was mangled.



    In Jan 02 I lost my dad to a car accident.



    Lately I have had more of this...



    I am very concerned about nuclear devices in cities..



    I am very concerned!



    Fellowship



    [ 09-03-2002: Message edited by: FellowshipChurch iBook ]</p>
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  • Reply 23 of 55
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    I was test driving a car. The person who first told me was the car salesman. I didn't believe him; I thought he was just making small talk or something. When I got to campus, there was this dazed look on everyone's face. It was surreal. There was concern and confusion everywhere.



    I got to the computer lab in my building, all my classmates were gathered around computers trying to get CNN to load. I thought that I'd try my computer since the ones in the lab sucked. Gradually, I found out what had happened and I was terrified. My family's Muslim and I knew that there would be some knee-jerk reactions to the event. I was also really upset because I was pretty conflicted about my reactions. On the one hand I was pissed off that this could have happened. I knew for sure that OBL had done it and it pissed me off to no end that he would do something like that. In the middle of a work day. With 50,000 potential victims. Evil. On the other hand, I was really scared for my family, particularly my sisters who wear the hijab and live in the south. Then I was mad at myself for not being able to figure out how I should feel.



    The whole day, I was in a daze. Class was cancelled and I just sat in the journalism building watching the news until I couldn't watch any more. The next day, class was back in session and I was supposed to teach my "Psychology of Adjustment" class. Ha. I spent the time asking my students how they felt about the whole thing and expressing how I felt and my fear for my family's safety. Then I went on a tirade about how we're supposed to "go on with our lives" because if we didn't the terrorists would get what they wanted. One of this country's biggest problems is that attitude. It's not ok to feel sad/angry/scared. You've got to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and walk with your head held high. It's really the worst thing you can do in a time like that. And I let my class know that.



    From then on, we used that event as a springboard for discussion of stereotypes, hatred, obedience, psychological disorders, whatever I could, because it makes psychology so relevant. We also had a nice lively discussion on my class' forum. I'll never forget that day.
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  • Reply 24 of 55
    jeffyboyjeffyboy Posts: 1,055member
    pscates, I bet you meant the Macnn forums, AI was down at the time wasn't it? I remember thinking at one point during the day "Geez, someone from New York that posted to AI could be dead and no one would ever know."



    I was asleep until about 10:30 central that day. I woke up all drowsy, which was of course compounded with shock. The first thing I saw was Michella Perrera from Techtv with the smoking crators of the Towers in the background saying, "We now have a report that part of the Pentagon has collapsed!" For a couple minutes I thought it was some strange TV show. I was like, whoa, it's on every channel.



    When I figured out what was going on, I called my sister, who was in hysterics because her husband worked in the city. (He turned out to be okay.)



    I then watched TV for 15 straight hours except for a half hour break to go and talk to my friends at work.



    It took days for me to really digest that anyone had the balls and capabilities to kill that many Americans on our own soil. It was like losing my innocence again.



    Jeff
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  • Reply 25 of 55
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    [quote]Originally posted by jeffyboy:

    <strong>

    It took days for me to really digest that anyone had the balls and capabilities to kill that many Americans on our own soil. It was like losing my innocence again.

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Americans? Yeah, because Americans were the only ones who were killed. I guess we americans will never broaden our horizons, will we?
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  • Reply 26 of 55
    My wife woke me up and for a second I couldn't figure out why she was waking me up early. It finally got through that a plane had hit one of the towers. We were watching New York 1 trying to figure out what had happened when the second plane hit.



    Then I don't know why, but I decided we should go to work. We live near mid town and work together in Chelsea which is further downtown. As we were in the cab heading down the first tower collapsed. Actually ya know I went to work cause I remember thinking **** these people, they wanna disrupt our lives, well I'm going to do what I would normally do. I guess I also wanted to be around other people, it was almost like it was too much to just take in alone in our apartment.



    I used to have a wonderful view of the top third of the towers from my office window. I watched the second collapse from there. I can't describe the mood of everyone at my job. The anger, fear, and well the humanity. There was a strange connectedness that I just can't describe. Also the feeling of being trapped, they had closed Manhattan down and good or bad we were all stuck.



    I of course contacted all my family members and made sure everyone was ok. The closest brush any of us had had was my brother who is a NYCTA Motorman and had just gone under the towers shortly before it happened. He will never forgive the Transit Authority for only telling them that there was "police activity at the WTC", a passenger told him what had really happened.



    Everyone left work at about three and my wife and I walked home. It was totally eery, no cars except emergency vehicles and fighter jets overhead. Tons of people on the street walking, people covered in dust walking up from downtown, but noone talking, just quiet.



    My wife and I stayed in our apt. the rest of the day and most of the next. The second day around midnight I got absolutely stir crazy and had to go for a walk. The only other people out were cops and low lifes. I walked to Times Square and couldn't beleive how quiet it was. So quitet that you could hear the hum of the huge air conditioning units and the buzz of the neon lights. New York was a ghost town.



    The third day I went to work, which was still closed, but it was the day that I had to process payroll, I figured people still needed to get paid. I'll never forget walking around down in Chelsea the choking dust and even worse the people putting up fliers looking for people they were never gonna find. I remember seeing the odd flier still up for months.



    To this day when I really think about it all I can think is that I am so thankfull that noone really close to me was lost. I know an awful lot of people that can't say that.
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  • Reply 27 of 55
    jeffyboyjeffyboy Posts: 1,055member
    [quote] Americans? Yeah, because Americans were the only ones who were killed. I guess we americans will never broaden our horizons, will we? <hr></blockquote>



    Well, my point was I was naive, thinking people from all these other countries die in these sorts of things, but it could never happen to the almighty USA. The attacks did broaden my horizons, in a way.



    But, I take your point too, Torifile. It is easy to forget a lot of other countries lost people in the attack, especially for a guy in the sticks like me who rarely meets people from other places.



    Jeff



    [ 09-03-2002: Message edited by: jeffyboy ]</p>
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  • Reply 28 of 55
    fellowship



    your post made me think, i live right in between TWO nuke plants, and it just hit me that they could be targeted.



    however now we should be aware to expect the unexpected...



    check this out, they were beautiful...



    <a href="http://www.newyork.com/vny/panorama/tour3a.html"; target="_blank">http://www.newyork.com/vny/panorama/tour3a.html</a>;



    [ 09-03-2002: Message edited by: futuremac ]</p>
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  • Reply 29 of 55
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    [quote]Originally posted by groverat:



    <hr></blockquote>



    I think that photo was taken at Buckingham Palace during the changing of the guard, when they played the Star Spangled Banner instead of God Save the Queen.
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  • Reply 30 of 55
    I was at work here in New Jersey. Where I was working at that time, I could see the NYC skyline from the graphics department I worked in on the top floor of the 3 story building. This was about 10 miles outside NYC right on Rt. 3 East. Like I said, very good view of the skyline of almost the whole city.



    At roughly 8:45 am someone came in from the nieghboring department saying "a plane just hit the WTC" so we all looked. We could see the smoke coming from the tower, but most of us dismissed it as an accident. I will admit it was creepy, but I actually went back to laying out artwork or typesetting or whatever it was I was doing.



    I guess it was around 9:15 am, and the same guy comes running back into the department saying "another plane just hit the second tower". By this time it was clearly no "accident".



    The rest of the day was pretty-much people crying and panicking and calling loved ones (many people there had loved-ones working in the city). They told everyone to take the rest of the day off if they wanted to.



    Don't ask me why, but I stayed and worked the full day. Just my way of dealing with it (keeping busy).
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  • Reply 31 of 55
    pevepeve Posts: 518member
    i was working in the basement of my company where there is allways a radio on in the background.



    somehow i heard the news through the background noise that a plane hit the wtc.

    nobody else seamed to understand and everybody was still working. i was worried.



    i tried <a href="http://www.cnn.com"; target="_blank">www.cnn.com</a> but couldn't get through.

    i tried all sort of news-sites and managed to get some info.



    as the second plane hit the wtc it struck me that this was an attack and maybe not over yet.



    when i heard that one tower has fallen down it was just horror.

    watching as thousands died in the building was just too much. i was shocked (and i normaly don't get shocked that easy).



    the second tower was .... just way too much. i was numb and later angry.



    i sucked up all the info i could get and grew more angry.



    i told my dad on the phone that the world would never be the same again.



    looking back at 9/11:

    american's should be proud.

    the way you standed together - helped each other.
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  • Reply 32 of 55
    trumptmantrumptman Posts: 16,464member
    Well I live here in California so the timeline is a little different, but since I am an early bird it still all happened live for me.



    I was working out at the gym riding a stationary bike. I could see the televisions all showing the same pictures and scenes even though they were all different stations. This was the first thing that brought me concern. I could read the captions but the volume wasn't up at all so I really couldn't get a lot of info. I knew a plane had hit the world trade center, but I didn't know what size or the severity of it.



    I left the gym and started driving to work (I'm a 4th grade school teacher) Out here the biggest AM radio station is KFI640 and so I was listening to that and Bill Handel. His voice is pretty dramatic to begin with, however I just about lost it he announced that a second plane had hit the second tower. Then a bit after that he announces that EVERY plane in EVERY airport in the US was being grounded.



    I pull into the parking lot of my school. I'm walking toward the office my eyes are welling up with near tears from the magnitude of this. I'm passing happy, cheerful children and wondering if their brothers, fathers and possibly sisters and mothers might be ordered off to war. (We are next to March Air Force Base)



    I walk into the library and just about half of our staff are standing there. I look up at the television and hear a collective gasp as we all watch the first tower collapse. Some begin, not really crying but tearfully speaking about the what has happened. Then a while later the second tower collapses and it is literally just silence with some tears as we think of all the people in those towers and how they are no more.



    The bell rings and I have to go out and teach my kids...



    Nick
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  • Reply 33 of 55
    I was at work in Westchester NY about 20 miles outside the city. My wife worked in Manhattan around 17th street.



    When I got to work one of my co-workers had the radio on and they said "we're getting reports of a plane hitting the WTC". About a minute or two later another co-worker came in and turned on a TV in my shared office. We had a TV in there for the night server operators because they get bored.



    Anyway, she turns on the TV and we're watching the first tower burning. I email my wife and she writes me back with "I saw it burning as I came out of the subway, we're going on the roof to see whats going on". Just then we SEE the 2nd plane hit the other tower, live on TV.



    Before this all we could think of was "man, what a dumb pilot" -- suddenly our hearts drop and the reality of the situation started to sink in.



    All hell broke loose at this point. Everyone was running in and out with different stories:



    "The capitol is on fire"



    "I heard there's a bomb at the white house"



    "The pentagon was blown up"



    "4 planes are missing"



    My friend that works on Wall Street wrote me and said she was scared. My wife called me and said she needed to get out of their. They were both evacuated and I didn't hear from my wife again until late that afternoon.



    I watched both buildings fall on TV, not knowing where my wife had went (I knew she had left her building) and not knowing where my friend on wall street went. I decided to leave work and go home to see if I could get a hold of my wife.



    Finally late that afternoon she called me. She was up around 85th street at her bosses apartment. I had spent the afternoon taking phone calls from all of her friends and family frantically trying to reach her. It didn't help that I told them I couldn't reach her and it didn't make me feel any better when they burst out crying.



    When they finally opened up the MetroNorth line that night she was able to catch a train home. Life would never be the same.



    6 months later, we moved to Philadelphia



    My wife was having panic attacks everyday in the subway. She could no longer deal with the crowds, the small spaces and the fear of another attack.



    I miss NY, but I'd do anything for my wife and I hope we made the right decision to leave NY. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />



    [ 09-03-2002: Message edited by: Willoughby ]</p>
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  • Reply 34 of 55
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    [quote]Originally posted by jeffyboy:

    <strong>



    Well, my point was I was naive, thinking people from all these other countries die in these sorts of things, but it could never happen to the almighty USA. The attacks did broaden my horizons, in a way.



    But, I take your point too, Torifile. It is easy to forget a lot of other countries lost people in the attack, especially for a guy in the sticks like me who rarely meets people from other places.



    Jeff



    [ 09-03-2002: Message edited by: jeffyboy ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    jeff,

    Ok, I see your point. Sorry, I was a little reactive last night after reading all these accounts. I hope that your horizons are still broad after a year And, for god's sake man, get out of the sticks!
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  • Reply 35 of 55
    Well, these accounts above sorta pale with mine. But an experience I will never forget.



    I woke up at the unusual hour of 8:30 AM. I had been unemployed for over three months so I usually woke up around noon. I went to my Mac and got online; going to my personal Excite page. On the News section there was a link stating that a plane had hit the WTC. I clicked it and there was only a brief paragraph stating that what could have been a "private" plane hit hit the one Tower.



    I immediately turned on the TV to CNN...when I saw the damage I knew it was more than a private plane crash. Then the second plane hit. I felt a cold rush hit me. Total shock and fear set in. I sat agape as the news started pouring in from NYC, then Washington DC and then Pennsylvania. I called my mother and talked to her as the Towers fell. Both of us blurting over and over "Oh my God, Oh my God.". She said that this day would be as remembered as Dec. 7th 1941. "We are at War, Art...".



    The rest of the day was a daze. I later changed and left downtown to Jefferson Hospital and donated blood. Then got together with friends and just discussed and tried to comprehend what was happening.



    A terrible, terrible day.



    Does anyone remember, on CNN the press conference from Afganistan with the Taliban early during the attacks? I recall that this was a conference with the press and it was the main leaders of the Taliban in appearance. Of course they were denying everything...I would still like to see that again...far as I know it was never replayed that day or ever again...
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  • Reply 36 of 55
    Man I remember it all so clearly now, i was at work (in london) so it all happened around 1pm, we saw it all live in the BBC website. I remember watching the planes fly overhead on their way to heathrow, wondering how those people felt. Then that night I cycled home through extra heavy traffic in a daze. What really shocked me was passing the MI6 (UK secret service) building in Vauxhall and seeing the ground-to-air missile launchers... &lt;shudders&gt; They were gone the next day.... My cousins girlfriend was working in Tower 2 that lovely morning, she rang my cousin shortly after the first plane hit to say she was getting out, that was the last time anyone saw her, the second plane struck only minutes later........ She worked on the 85th floor, her body was never found...... My cousin hasn't yet recovered, he lost his job after simply failing to show up for a week. I hope he'll be Ok..
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  • Reply 37 of 55
    g4dudeg4dude Posts: 1,016member
    Unlike some of you, I actually saw the whole thing on TV.



    Since I'm on the west coast I had just woken up and was preparing for school. I was eating breakfast and watching the local news when they had a special news break. We saw the first tower all on fire. Then we saw the second tower get hit and heard about the Pentagon as well. We kept watching and saw the first tower fall down. I was like "uh mom. I think the tower fell down." Nobody believed me until the dust started clearing. It was the worst thing I have ever seen.



    Then I drove to school and started watching on the TV at school. Right when I arrived, the second tower fell. It was terrible...
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  • Reply 38 of 55
    fran441fran441 Posts: 3,715member
    On September 11, I got up early and started my drive into work. It was about a month and a half after I had moved to NH and I was still getting used to it. My drive usually takes me a little more than an hour to get to work if I leave at 6:00 AM. On 9/11, I didn't get to work until nearly 9:00. I didn't have a radio in my car so I was really frustrated at this point from boredom.



    When I got into work, I grumbled something to my boss about being late and how there was bad traffic and sat down at my desk.



    A guy I worked with from Maine told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. My response was, "In Boston?" because that's one of the two sites that Macworld in Boston was held and I had been there many times. He told me that it was the World Trade Center in New York. I remember asking, 'the twin towers?' and he said he wasn't sure.



    I fired up a live news feed on my browser just in time to see the second plane hit. The guy from Maine was standing behind me. I had seen that the tower was on fire before I saw the explosion, though. I asked him if that was what he was talking about and he said, "Holy shit."



    I had a message on my machine from my Dad telling me to give him a call so I called him at work. We were talking about what was going on for a while when we heard the Pentagon got hit. After I hung up, I tried calling him again later but all of the 'land lines' were down. I didn't have a cell phone at this point either so we sent emails which seemed to work fine.



    We had a huge tv at work which was donated by the board of Sony to my boss for him speaking at one of their conventions but we didn't have any way to play more than a DVD. My boss ran to Radio Shack and got a big antenna. We watched through the snow and fuzz of the television the collapse of the towers. At this point, remembering how long it took to get to work, I bugged out to get home.



    I didn't have a radio in my car and had no idea what was going on. There were only a few other cars on the road and I was driving like never before to get home. I had to pass my dad's office any way so I stopped in and he told me to get back to NH and check on my aunt and uncle, as well as one of my younger cousins who was ill.



    The news reporters said that the only thing people could do right now was to give blood but strangely enough, I had donated blood the day before, after having my physical- September 10. Still, I didn't know what to do.



    I picked my brother and sister up from school and waited for my parents to get home. There was nothing else I could do but watch the news.



    I remember reading about the Taliban saying they were grieving with the American children or something to that effect. Who knew that we would be attacking them a few weeks later.
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  • Reply 39 of 55
    rodukroduk Posts: 706member
    I'm ashamed to say its taken the above posts (real accounts from real people) to make me truly realise what a profound affect 9-11 has had on the American people. At the same time, I can't help but feel that this affect has been magnified by the following two factors. Firstly, before 9-11, the American mainland and its people hadn't really been threatened. For example, during WWII, Korea, Vietnam etc, the killing took place thousands of miles away. Secondly, I get the impression that Americans tend to think of their country as being invincible, yet it only took a hand full of terrorists to shake its people to the core.
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  • Reply 40 of 55
    With <a href="http://www.waybackmachine.org"; target="_blank">WayBack Mchine</a>, you can see the CNN.com main page as it was on 9/11. <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010911193957/http://www.cnn.com/"; target="_blank">Check it out</a> here.



    I find it interesting that it says "Taliban issues statement to tell U.S. 'Afghanistan feels your pain'"



    -Mike
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