Was Pearl Harbor more important than 9/11

I will define important as: "of great significance or value; likely to have a profound effect on success, survival, or well-being." In regard to "of great significance or value," I would say that the terrorist attacks of September 11th were of greater domestic impact. For one thing, these events lead to a common purpose and sense of unity in our government, which does not happen often. One example of this is the original Patriot Act, which passed 98 YEAs to 1 NAY, and one not voting (http://www.senate.gov...). In addition to this, the Department of Homeland Security was created by President Bush, 11 days after the terrorist attacks of September 11th (http://www.dhs.gov...). These pieces of legislation and agencies continue to play a significant part in our daily lives. Next, I am focusing on "likely to have a profound effect on (...) survival." According to CNN, 2,753 died in the Twin Towers attack alone (http://www.cnn.com...). I believe it is fair to say that most of these people did not expect that, when they boarded this plane, it would result in a horrible death. As opposed to the victims of Pearl Harbor, who were mostly, if not entirely, military personnel. A notable difference between these two groups is that, military personnel had a chance to defend themselves and had access to weapons to aid in doing so. The civilians on the planes were not armed, and most likely they were not trained in combat. Another significant difference is that military personnel volunteered, knowing that they may lose their lives in service of their country. The innocent passengers did not expect to be flown into a building instead of onto a runway (This should be considered common knowledge; considering military bases have military personnel and commercial planes have civilians or off-duty military personnel). Another key point in the definition is "likely to have a profound effect on success." An economic recession came after the 9/11 events. As William Browning of Yahoo News said, "When spending on post-9/11 activities such as wars and the military were added to emergency bailouts, the size of the government grew even bigger. American taxpayers were now on the hook for disastrous foreign policy measures as well as propping up banks that caused economic turmoil in the first place." Our great nation was lacking in the money it would need to quickly resolve an economic recession, making the recession have an even greater impact (http://news.yahoo.com...). Lastly, my final point and summarization; "likely to have a profound effect on (...) well-being." Let's look at another definition, that of "well-being." Merriam Webster defines this as "the state of being happy, healthy, or prosperous" (http://www.merriam-webster.com...). Each and one of the 2,996 total people that died had a family. It's obvious everywhere, nearly everyone has parents, siblings, significant others, or children. Surely the families of these innocent victims were crestfallen, nay devastated, when they heard the news? I seriously doubt the owners of all the property that was destroyed were happy about that. So it's clear that these horrible attacks caused an astounding drop in well-being nationwide. That's not to say that the same wasn't true for all of the victims of Pearl Harbor, but my point here is that the 9/11 attacks did have significant emotional impact on countless people. To top this off, Merriam Webster says "the state of being (...) healthy." With health meaning the state of being free from illness or injury, it is impossible to argue that the thousands of victims killed were healthy after the attacks. Need I go on? To conclude, with the large casualties caused by these acts of terror, and also the economic effects as a result of increased government spending in an effort to deter future effects; surely you will agree that the events of September 11th had an important effect on the well-being of our nation. Thank you for this fascinating debate. Back to you, Pro!