"another member here decided to take issue with my referring to the Twin Towers atrocity as *mass murder* and tried to make the misplaced *moral equivalency* case for the bombings of Dresden,Hiroshima

You sure about that, Teribus? As I recall it the post you refer to was making the point that September 11 wasn't an act of war, it was an act of murder; and that since acts of mass killing in war, such as Hiroshima and Dresden, aren't counted as murder, but as acts of war, calling September 11 an act of war serves in a way to give it a respect it doesn't deserve.

That's not a point I agree with (acts of war in my view can often be criminal, and I look forward to an effective International War Crimes Court, so that maybe that won't just be applied against the people who lose the wars) - but, if my recollection is correct, the writer wasn't objecting to September 11 being described as "mass murder", but to its being dignified with the term "an act of war".