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September 11 Attack
One of the major events that directly impacted America is the September 11 attacks. On September 11 of the year 2001, the United States was attacked by terrorists, 19 militants that were associated with the Islamic extremists’ group that is rooted in the Arabic countries, the al-Qaeda (Gigerenzer). The militants hijacked four planes, carrying out deadly attacks to the US. Of the four planes, two were flown and crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center based in New York. One of the other planes crashed in the fields in Pennsylvania while the fourth plane hit the Pentagon in Washington DC. The attack had massive fatalities that included deaths and disabilities. More than 3,000 people were killed during the attack, and as a measure to prevent such an event, America became vigilant in tackling and combatting terrorism, and therefore, this became one of the most Significant events in the American history despite having negative implications in the American history.
The main cause of the attack is the hatred that reigned between Osama Bin Laden and the United States. The United States had been involved in several wars in Afghanistan that disrupted the al-Qaeda’s activities and thus enmity developed between the two parties (Bergen). Osama is regarded as the biggest precipitator of the bombing as he held naïve beliefs to the run-up attacks that the United States were weak. Before the attacks, the al-Qaeda leader was well convinced that America was more vulnerable than the nations surrounding it and thus saw it easy to bring it down. One of the reasons he considered America to be weak is what happened to America in Beirut during the bombing of the marine base that resulted to the American army fleeing from Lebanon and left around 241 American soldiers dead. Osama believed that America was a paper tiger and this belief was not only triggered by their departure in Lebanon following the marine attack but as well the withdrawal of the American forces from Somalia in 1993 that as well was precipitated by the deaths of 18 American soldiers in Mogadishu. Another reason is the American withdrawal from Vietnam in the 1970s, and these withdrawals portrayed America as a coward who would never fight a war to an end. Bin Laden had every belief that America could easily be brought down to its knees with minimal efforts.
The attack impacted negatively in the United States as there were social, economic, political and legal impacts. The social implications of the attack is that a large number of people died in the attack leading to the loss of loved ones in a family (Goodrich). Most of the families were permanently disconnected from their loved ones with others unable even to trace the body remains for their loved ones thus lacked a chance to offer them a proper burial. The American people got divided regarding religion, and the perception of the Islamic people changed in the minds of Americans. The Islamic religion was now associated with terror and the people behind the religion were perceived to be criminals. In terms of economic impacts, lots of buildings were brought down while others were destructed for example the Twin Towers a multi-billion investment. More resources were directed to curbing and fighting terror. Legal impacts included the formulation of policies to curb terrorism in the United States that oversaw the country becoming vigilant to protect its citizens. The attack reduced the number of tourists in the US in fear of insecurity (Bac et al.).
The political impacts include the shift to radical ways that agitated to the banning of immigration in America as well as the close checking of the border points to prevent the entry of criminals in the US without notice (Hayden et al.). Long term impacts of the September 11 attacks include ruined relations between America and the United States and the association of terror criminals to the Islamic religion. America hosts a large number of immigrants from the Arab nations that have gone to further their studies while others have gone to work, despite this distrust among the Americans still exists in that they still have the fear that another attack might be coming and perpetrated by the people who live in the country. Another effect is that America has become an enemy of most Arabian countries and this is due to its continued attacks on the oil-producing states crippling the governments and instituting those that they can work together.
If the September 11 attacks never occurred, there would be a different notion regarding terrorism in America. For one, there would be no deaths in the US that were as a result of terrorism, and thus no much emphasis could have been put on the terror attack. Regarding the economy, there would be no cases of property destruction that resulted from terrorism, and thus the burden of terror could not have been felt in America. And this implies that; one, the Islamic region could not be associated with terrorism (Huddy et al.), second, no policies could have been formulated regarding terror, and as well there could have existed a good relationship between America and Afghanistan to date. Besides, Osama bin Laden could not have been hunted down by America, and thus he would still be alive. The long term impact if the event had not occurred is the strengthened relation of America and the Arabian countries, and also, the American citizens could feel secure living in the same nation with the people of the Islamic religion. A lot of deaths were witnessed from the attack, and thus no deaths could have resulted and as well policies regarding terrorism would not have taken the lead but instead could have been directed into other more useful projects that require immediate attention.
Works CitedBac, Dorin Paul, Nicoleta Georgeta Bugnar, and Liana Eugenia Mester. “Terrorism and its impacts on the tourism industry.” Revista Română de Geografie Politică 17.1 (2015): 5-11.
Bergen, Peter L. Holy war, inc.: Inside the secret world of Osama bin Laden. Simon and Schuster, 2002.
Gigerenzer, Gerd. “Dread risk, September 11, and fatal traffic accidents.” Psychological science 15.4 (2004): 286-287.
Goodrich, Jonathan N. “September 11, 2001 attack on America: a record of the immediate impacts and reactions in the USA travel and tourism industry.” Tourism Management23.6 (2002): 573-580.
Hayden, Patrick, Tom Lansford, and Robert P. Watson. America’s war on terror. Routledge, 2017.
Huddy, Leonie, Nadia Khatib, and Theresa Capelos. “Trends: Reactions to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.” The Public Opinion Quarterly 66.3 (2002): 418-450.
