Terrorism was brought to the United States attention after the 9/11 attacks. America woke up after that day, after the Bush administration had no choice but to declare a worldwide “war on teor.” Any declarationof war has unforeseen consequences. The govemment’s decision to react to 9/11 by declaringB war had posed a huge threat on our fundamental rights and even to the structures of our democracy. This lead to a major increase in security in all sectors of America’s defense force. It all began with the increase of police presence in major populated areas, all the way to a huge increase of Homeland Security Agents.
The main operation of the war was to track down and kill Osama Bin Laden. The operation was a success, but the way the war on temor was conducted has led to many concems about the impact of the cost of the additional security, civil liberties, the implications of the invasions and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more After the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the war on terror to most Americans was deemed a huge success. But, vengeance took over instead ot justice in the case of where there was a huge rise in hatred towards Muslims, and that Islam was a threat to the world. People with basic or very little knowledge use these stereotypes against a whole race, and the tension only grew day by day. These stereotypes only grew since 9/11, and when the U.S. attacked Iraq and Afghanistan, an attack that failed so miserably, that is escalated into a full out war happening to this day. Americans were told the attack was going to be quick and simple, erase any terrorists in the Middle East responsible for 9/11, too bad they were a bigger foe than anticipated.
The wars have claimed the lives of over 6,000 U.S. soldiers and possibly 100 times that amount of civilian deaths in those countries. “Al Queda appears to have largely succeeded in its hopes of of accelerating the decline of U.S. global power, if not bringing it to the brink of collapse” (Lobe 1). The Al Quada was ran by Osama Bin Laden and carried out his wishes after his death to take down the United States and all of their allies. Next, Homeland Security was only recently created after 9/11, “To better coordinate efforts at preventing future acts of terrorism on American soil, the U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Secret Service, the Transportation Safety Administration, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were merged” (Hunter & Barker 349). National Security increased dramatically, as everyone was on their heels after the worst attack on U.S. Soil since Pearl Harbor. One of the biggest upgrades in security has been at the airport. Airport security has been more thorough as ever, praying to prevent another tragedy in the United States.
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Along with airport security, Homeland Security put the hammer down with security at all major events. These major events include sporting contests, music venues, concerts, and any public events that expect a large crowd. These new security measures bring mixed feelings to our society, many people are starting to get worried and even scared about going to major events in case of getting attacked by someone who wishes to bring fear to anyone and everyone. After the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the mainstream media took a huge advantage to make front headlines of the scariest moment in American history. They mainly concentrated on the effects, the various aftermaths and impacts, and what political leaders are doing, saying or not doing. One of the biggest problems is that the media reported what appeared to be lacking in depth, historical context, and investigative analysis on the causes that fueled such outrageous militant extremism and terrorism. “The reporting of some aspects IS indeed very moving and very good. There is, however, appropriate criticism of some extremism creeping into some aspects of the mainstream media as well, in certain circumstances” (Shah 4).
While the media has had a frenzy for the war on terror since 2001, the next biggest movement to the public that made everyone felt like the war was over, was the killing of Osama Bin Laden. I still remember the day when I was laying on my couch, and my TV show was interrupted with a “breaking news” moment that cut to the news and announced that Osama Bin Laden has been killed by the U.S. Seals. Never have I seen social media blow up so fast after that announcement, people thought the war was over, but sadly it is far from over. When Bush needed to bring America together after the attack, he established the USA PATRIOT Act, that stands for “The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act.” It was signed by Bush on October 26″, 2001.
“It was sought by the administration and passed by Congress in response to 9/11, and was intended to expand the authority of law enforcement officials and intelligence agent to combat terrorism in the United States and abroad” (House 2). While the Act has been very effective, it still has many provisions that are still highly controversial and have been challenged in court. The biggest concern is that the Act focuses mostly on preexisting antiracketeering statutes. “These statutes had strengthened the penalties for certain offenses committed by members of criminal organizations, and lowered the government’s burden of proof in criminal investigations and trials” (House 2). But, many of the antiterrorism tools in the PATRIOT Act are used to pursue other crimes, particularly drug crimes. As a result of Bush declaring war against terrorism, on October 7th 2001, Bush ordered military strikes against al-Qaida and the Taliban. The strikes targeted training camps and military installations inside Afghanistan. Shortly after, Osama bin Laden released a video tape praising the 9/11 attackers and promised war against the United States.
The United States offers air support until November, where we sent ground troops to capture the northern city of Mazar-e- Sharif. Throughout the rest of 2001 and until 2007, it seemed the coalition forces and the U.S. were making their mark throughout the Middle East. On February 27, 2007, “A suicide bomber attacks the entrance to Bagram Air Base during a visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. The Taliban claims responsibility, saying Cheney was the target. The blast kills 23 people and leaves Cheney unhurt” (Oklahoman 1). Then, the deadlest suicide bombing occurred on Feburary 17, 2008 that killed more than 100 people in Kandahar. The war seemed to just constantly fighting and verbal threats of finding Osama, it quickly became a disgusting, extremely violent game of cat and mouse.
To further increase the chance of finding him, Obama announced on December 1*, 2009 that he will send an additional 30,000 troops to A fghanistan. Two years later on May 1″, 2011, A U.S. Navy SEAL team killed Osama bin Laden at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Combat operations tinally came to an end on August 18″, 2010 when the last American combat brigade left Iraq for Kuwait. To wrap the war on terror up, it has left a huge asterisk on Americas’ history, something we will never forget for generations to come. Every day as we go about our daily lives, we are writing another day of history into our world, continuing this long, exhausting, fearful, chapter in Our nations history, and even our own story.
The rise of terrorism can come from anywhere, not just from the Middle East, people in the U.S. even wanted to flee and join terrorist organizations, which is just ridiculous in my opinion. As we live our lives, we are making our own mark in history, we will see first-hand what people around the world will talk about for years. It is scary to think about it; anything can happen right now, tomorrow, or even the next day, and we will never see it coming. That’s the scary part about war and terror, we don’t know the outcome, and we don’t know what is coming next.
