Opinion: Mark Wahlberg's 9/11 Statements Were Stupid, But Let's Give Him a Break

In an interview released today, Mark Wahlberg indicated that had he been on one of the flights that crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11, he would have stopped it. "If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn't have went down like it did," said Wahlberg. "There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, 'OK, we're going to land somewhere safely, don't worry.'"

That may go down as the dumbest thing that Wahlberg has ever said. Not because I doubt that he would have done something had he been on that plane and known what was going on, but because it's unbelievably insensitive to the people who were on those flights. Had any of them known the outcome, surely any one of them would have stepped up and overpowered the terrorists as the passengers on United 93 did.

But here's why we should give Wahlberg a break here: first of all, Wahlberg apologized quickly today, saying, "To speculate about such a situation is ridiculous to begin with. I deeply apologise to the families of the victims that my answer came off as insensitive, it was certainly not my intention."

Secondly, the reason Wahlberg has spoken on this matter before is that he was originally scheduled to be on one of those two flights that crashed into the towers. I'm sure many of us have imagined what we would have done, or even wished we could have been there, armed with the knowledge we have now, to help. I know I have, and I wasn't even scheduled on one of the flights

So, any talk of survivor's guilt aside, it's not hard to understand where Wahlberg was coming from with that quote. Fault him for stupidity and poor word choice if you want, but let's give him a break.