Final Exam Assignment for Reading 883AX Class

READING TWO

September 11 2001: A Turning Point

On September 11, 2001, four U.S. passenger planes were hijacked and used as flying bombs in a coordinated action that targeted the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon just outside of Washington D.C. Two of the four hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, and a third plane hit its mark by diving into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, its suicide attack foiled by passengers who opposed their captors. More than 3,000 people were killed, thousands more were wounded, and the loss of property was unprecedented. The tragic events of September 11, 2001, resulted in many changes in the United States and around the world.

The events horrified people around the world who understood that two symbols of American global, financial, and military dominance had been signaled out in a carefully planned and executed mission of destruction. Osama bin Laden was identified as the source of terrorist devastation. The event was immediately compared to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which provoked the entry of the United States into World War II. President George W. Bush declared, in the wake of terrorist attacks, that the United States was entering a “new kind of war,” one not waged between nations but one whose stateless enemy would be sought out and hunted down. Terrorism had long plagued Europe and the Middle East, but the September 11 attacks marked the first time in history that an attack of terrorism warfare by an external enemy took place on American soil. This terrorist attack event marked a turning point in the struggle against terrorism and a new focus in state security measures of western governments. It also marked the beginning of a new war.

Osama bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian millionaire, who had been trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, had fought against the Russians in Afghanistan between 1980 and 1989. In June 2001, bin Laden called on all the Muslims of the world to mobilize themselves into a general jihad, a holy war against their enemies. It was three months after this call-to-arms that terrorists dealt their most extreme blow against the United States.

Because of this new threat, the Americans and their allies in Europe and throughout the world joined forces, pledging to eradicate terrorism. Stringent security measures in airports and public places were instituted worldwide as nations faced harsh new political realities, including incidents of bioterrorism— germ warfare against civilians—that took place in the United States in the months following the September terrorist attacks. When the European Union and the United States passed new laws and directives to combat terrorism, critics feared the curtailment of civil liberties. Racist incidents against Muslims

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READING TWO

and Arabs mounted, even as European and American leaders stressed that bin Laden and his network was a non-representative and fanatical fringe within the Muslim world. In October 2001, less than one month after the attacks, the United States and Great Britain began massive bombing of Afghanistan, the small mountainous country said to be harboring bin Laden after the Taliban, the fundamentalist Muslim ruling group, refused to hand bin Laden over to the United States.

Adapted from Mark Kishlansky’s, Patrick Geary’s and Patricia O’Brian’s text, Civilitation in the West. Vol C. Since 1789. 5th ed. Longman. 2003. Pp. 1009 – 1010

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