The Events of 9/11, Research Paper Example

The events of 9/11 scared a nation and left us wondering how such actions could transpire. Whereas no one ever claimed responsibilities of the attack, the FBI was able to connect the hijackers to al-Qaeda. Osama Bid Laden relied upon his Islamic belief to govern virtually every decision he was faced with. It formed his political views and ultimately justified his violent actions in defending his religion. The successful attack on the World Trade Center was no Osama’s first attempt at attacking it. In 1993, a bombing attempt was linked to him as well. In 1998, attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Nairobi took 213 live and injured more than 4,500 people. They also attacked Embassies in Tanzania and Dar-es-Salaam killing 11 people. Al-Qaeda took full responsibility for these bombings as well. The past attacks clearly show that Osama Bin Laden had issues with the United States that where not just going to go away.

The 19 terrorist that entered the United States in preparation for this horrific attack did so on a student visa, tourist visa, or a business visa. Three of the visas had expired prior to the attack. The earliest entry was in 1996 and the latest was month prior to September 11^th. Four of the terrorist took flight school classes in the United States. The four pilots were the ones who had been in the United States for the longest period of time. They had all obtained local identifications in order to prevent drawing attention to themselves when boarding the planes. The preparation for the attack had every consideration double checked to prevent from being stopped.

The plan of attack for September 11, 2001 was well planned and executed. Thousands of innocent people lost their lives, and the U.S. economy drastically suffered. The attack on America should not have been a surprise because Islamic extremist have been open wanting to kill American in large masses. The precise planning of this specific event took America by surprise, and it was able to be executed void of the U.S. intelligence knowing it was going to happen. The morning of September 11, 2001, 19 hijackers were able to pass through checkpoint systems undetected and wait to board their planes. Four flights were seized, and they took control of the cockpit and crew, based on the crew’s lack of preparation for the possibility of a suicide hijacking.

The Federal Aviation Administration and North American Aerospace Defense Command worked hard to defend the U.S. air space, however they were ill prepared for the potential of hijacked planes being used as weapons. The only defense in these hijackings came from unprepared civilians and military who never addressed the idea of an aircraft being used as a weapon of mass destruction. The 19 members involved in this attack had nothing to lose because they went into knowing that they were giving their lives for their religions. Bin Laden and al-Qaeda counted on the U.S. being unprepared for such events to transpire, allowing them to successfully kill the masses that they planned for.

Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda had their predetermined views of the United States and their historical political and religious beliefs simply fueled their dissent. The biggest consideration in Osama Bin Laden’s hatred for the United States is based on religious intolerance. America houses the opportunity for religious freedoms, allowing the citizens to worship as they see fit and believe. Osama claimed that every Muslim, once they began to grow in their religion, automatically hates Jews, Christians, and Americans. The goal of this religious affiliation was to rid the world of infidels.

Bin Laden had the money and the beliefs to create and train a radical Muslim group. The defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan fueled Bin Laden to extend his ties further into the radial Muslims worldwide. In 1988, al-Qaeda was organized with the intent of fighting the United States.  Whereas the true start of his dislike for the U.S. is unknown, it was heightened significantly when the American troops confronted Saddam Hussein in 1990. The Kuwait invasion was believed to be the responsibility of his Arab brothers, and therefore a violation of Muslim territories.

Terrorism is not a matter that the United States takes lightly. Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda has been attacking or attempting to attack the U.S. for nearly a decade prior to the successful assault of September 11^th.  The United States support of Israel and their attempt to intervene in the unrest that was taking place in the Middle East allowed them opportunity to fight back against these attacks that were taking place. Investigating the attacks and finding the responsible parties guilty also served as a message that the U.S. would not stand idly by and allow anyone to attack them or the basis which the nation functions.

The day of the 9/11 attack the president address the nation and made a strong statement warning the terrorist involved. “The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I’ve directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.” (Bush, 2001) The most known retaliation against terrorism is when they found Bin Laden a decade later and was able to vindicate the hateful loss of life that occurred on U.S. soil.

In light of the events of September 11, 2001, the United States had to revisit their policies and actions towards terrorism, as a result they created a global strategy. The first priority was to pursue al-Qaeda and weaken Taliban. This mandates national power to contain elements like intelligence, covert action, diplomacy, economic policy, foreign aid, law enforcement, homeland defense, and public diplomacy. One element void of the others leave the nation vulnerable all over again. Americans have expectations of their government, which includes the ability to defeat worldwide terrorism. The events of 9/11 was nothing more than a reminder that the U.S. was not really prepared to combat terrorism.

The U.S. had to acknowledge al-Qaeda and similar groups are worldwide concerns which are capable of anything, adaptable, needing little higher-level organization, and resilient. These groups are capable of implementing anything, making them a significant threat. These groups would and do make mistakes, and the U.S was unable to capitalize on those mistakes. There is no way that the U.S government, the president, or any other leader can guarantee that the terrorist attacks will never happen again.  However because of the events of 911 the citizens of the U.S. are entitled to an effective organization, realistic objectives and clear guidance. The global strategy brought three different dimension to prevent the growth of terrorism from Islamist, to prepare and protect against terrorist attacks, and to attack the terrorists and their affiliated organizations.

The likelihood that the events of 9/11 would have transpired if the global strategy was in place is very unlikely. This is because the global strategy was created to prevent extremist and their actions of hateful intolerance. Whereas Americans knew that Bin Laden was planning attacks, they had not idea that it was going to take place in the manner that it did. Having the elements in place to detect and prevent terrorism on U.S. soil and abroad is significant for prevention. It is not that the global strategy is a miracle plan, but it does open the eyes of the necessary parties that, at any point, 9/11 could repeat itself. The U.S. citizens deserve and demand to have safety far beyond what was currently in place. If such strategies were in place, the thousands of individuals who died during the terrorist attacks of 9/11 could have potentially been prevented.

Reference

Bush, George W. (2001) Address to the Nation on the Terrorist Attacks.