The discovery channel or TLC or one of those channels did a whole show on it. If I remember correctly, it was the burning jet fuel that was the actual main cause of the collapse. Apparently the fire from the jet fuel got so hot, it melted the rivets used to contruct the superstructure of the building at the top. The top floors of the buildings then fell straight down on the floors below. The floors below could not take the gigantic pressure of the floors above, so they actually fell one by one as the pressure ran down the building. As the floors fall, you can actually hear the collapse of each floor as it gets hit from the pressure above it, all the way to the ground. So each floor basically got driven down with a hammer blow of force from the floors above, and the structure just couldn't take the stress. The fire fighters were in the buildings because they were brave and it was there job to save people. Also, you don't design buildings to take heat of thousands of degrees of burning jet fuel, so nobody really knew if it would fall or not. They just had to risk it. Who knows how many people were saved by firefighters before they collapsed? Hundreds? Thousands? In a way, the jets with the jet fuel may have been the only way to bring down the towers. Whether the terrorists knew this or not, I don't know, but bombing the foundation has already failed once. I was actually fairly amazed that buildings could absorb the shock of a huge jet hitting it from the side like that. In fact, I think the show even mentioned that a missle or a bomb would not have done as much damage as the explosion would have damaged the building, but the resulting fire would have been stuff in the building itself, not jet fuel...so it wouldn't have burned so hot and so long...enough to melt the steel rivets.
Good post. As far as I'm concerned, that's exactly what happened. Horrific, and the top people behind it are still at large, and still coming out with tapes that are probably coded instructions to their terrorist cells. It's one of the things that drives me round the bend about Iraq. We had, and have, unfinished business elsewhere. I also can't believe some of you seem to think killing bin Laden would just make a martyr of him, and have little real impact. It would have an impact. Invading and occupying Iraq was an act of incredible incompetence by Bush. Keep D&D Civil.
