It wasn't that big of a deal.

Sounds like a fairly big deal to me. Not a good deal though.

Hundreds of firefighters had gathered with their unions at the site where 343 firefighters and 23 police officers died, carrying banners saying: "Mayor Giuliani, let us bring our brothers home."

The firefighters had worked virtually non-stop at the scene since the towers collapsed. But a few days ago, Mr Giuliani said he wanted no more than 24 firefighters and 24 police officers at Ground Zero at any one time. Spotters would be used to look for bodies.

The firefighters said the cutting back would turn Ground Zero into a "full-time construction scoop-and-dump operation". Michael Carter, vice president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said: "That site, besides containing roughly 250 firefighter bodies, also contains many civilian bodies."

But doing the job on a scoop and dump basis, regardless of what and who is scooped and dumped saves money. And evidently, in spite of all that talk about nothing being the same after September 11, money is king.

And of course the firefighters "did not have the ability to contain themselves emotionally". I suppose that was why so many of them died on the 11th climbing to their death.

Not such a big deal indeed.