Everyone who was born early enough to remember the events of 9/11 can tell you where they were when the learned about the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001. The attack was so impactful because of what we did not know. Many people thought that a bomb had gone off in the south tower because they did not see a plane hit, but rather the smoke resonating from it. It was not a bomb however, while the tower was being shown under the cameras of major news sites, live for the whole world to see, the second tower get hit by a plane. Moments later, the first tower to be hit collapses, then moments later the second tower collapses. All of this happening at the same time the Pentagon was hit by a tower, and a hijacked plane was stolen back by passengers in Pennsylvania. The despair and heartbreak it caused for many Americans was enough for the U.S. to take action and implement many different security measures. These security measures that were put in place by the U.S. government has did not make our country safer, all they did was make America afraid and paranoid. The United States population now lives in a constant state of fear and wants to take any action to make us safer but the reality is there will always be a threat to America which is something this country needs to accept if we are to make advancements in the world.
The events of September 11th, 2001 were devastating and almost 3,000 U.S. citizens were killed or had to commit suicide because it was an easier way to go than burning alive. That however was not the climax of terrorism in the United States. “The most active period of terrorist activity was 2015-2016” (Inserra). This shows that the United States’ effort to make America safer has not worked, and we are in fact not safer after 9/11. Terrorism is a hard thing for a country to stop because they cannot just go into a country, wage war, take it over and control what they do. Terrorism revolves around ideas and ideology, this means that it is not a whole country’s idea and conquering the country they are located in will not stop it. America has tried to stop it however with many changes to the security within the United States.
There were many changes made to the security of the United States following the terrorist attacks post September 11th. An article on qked states that we deport twice the immigrants today than we did before the terrorist attacks of 9/11. A large reason why we deport so many immigrants today as opposed to before 2001 is because of the fear that was planted into Americans’ head after the attacks. A PBS study found that “Half of Muslims find it more difficult to live in the United States after 9/11” (Santhanam, Laura). Santhanam also cited that in 2001 there were 93 anti-muslim assaults. 93 different Americans being assaulted does not make our country safer, that makes it more dangerous. Racism is still prevalent in today’s society whether we want to accept it or not, that is why Colin Kaepernick is so famous, before his protests no one outside of football fans knew who he was but now everyone does because he protested racism in America by kneeling for the national anthem. This racism does not just apply to African Americans, but rather everyone who appears different. Racism does not make us safer, it just makes us more scared.
Juliette Kayyem goes into detail about how September 11th made Americans more afraid of the world, she explained that she was asked many ridiculous questions after 9/11 one being if a reader’s family should purchase a firearm in case of a terrorist attack, another question was about if another family should go to a big public event because they were worried about terrorists. There will always be risks to everything and while it is best to try and minimize those risks, no one should live in fear because we are trading safety for convenience. If we as a nation had to all take off our shoes and go through full body scans for everything we wanted to do, nothing would ever get done because of all the time we would spend making sure that we were safe, and even doing all that does not mean we are completely safe. Juliette phrases it well saying that:
We will simply never get to maximum defensive posture. Regardless of political affiliation, Americans wouldn’t tolerate the delay or intrusion of an urban mass-transit system that required bag checks and pat-downs. After the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, many wondered how to make the race safe the next year. A heavier police presence helps, but the only truly safe way to host a marathon is to not have one at all. The risks we tolerate, then, are not necessarily bad bargains simply because an enemy can exploit them. (Kayyem)
While it is absolutely worth trying to make the country more secure, but the United States cannot go overboard by trying so hard to make us safe that we become scared of our own shadow. Kayyem makes a great example of how we cannot live our lives in fear by having a fire extinguisher in the kitchen in case of a fire and explains that there is always a chance of a fire, but that does not prevent anyone from cooking because it is dangerous. Keeping an extinguisher in the kitchen minimizes the damage that the fire can cause but the fear of a fire does not prevent the world from using a stove.
After the events of 9/11 the United States heavily beefed up security and spent a lot more money on defense based agencies, Homeland security was created and got 16 billion dollars and that has only increased as it is up to 43 billion dollars as of 2018 (Green). The massive amounts of money received helped these defense based departments get to work on making sure that they increased national security. After 9/11it was made harder for immigrants to come into the country on visas, the United States made this change because “ All of the 19 hijackers were foreign-born, 15 from Saudi Arabia, 2 from the United Arab Emirates, and one each from Lebanon and Egypt. They all entered lawfully, 18 on tourist visas and 1 on a student visa” (Nowrasteh). Also after September 11th, 2001, the TSA was created. The TSA stands for Transportation Security Agency and was one of the many defense agencies given money from the government (Green). The TSA is mainly known in the United States for being the security at airports that make you take off your shoes and do not let liquids of more than 3.6 fluid ounces onto a plane. Many have mixed feelings about the TSA and while a majority think that they stop terrorists, I was unable to find any evidence that supports that they have stopped a terrorist attack against the United States. Some speculate though that because the TSA is there, they are deterring terrorists away from airports and indirectly preventing attacks (Kayyem). There may be some truth to this but no one can certainly say that the TSA is the reason there have been no terrorist attacks on the scale of 9/11 since they were implemented. When most Americans think about terrorists they mainly think about muslims and people from the middle east, but they are not the only terrorist threat in the United States.
Domestic terrorism has become increasingly more worrying in the United States in recent years. “Since [the Sandy Hook shooting], there have been at least 239 school shootings nationwide. In those episodes, 438 people were shot, 138 of whom were killed” (Patel). Terrorism did not end with the September 11th attacks and it will not stop anytime soon. School shootings are saddening whenever you hear about them, but ever since Sandy Hook it has almost become normal to hear about a school shooting. The safer America people claim to be in is, in fact, not safe at all. When thinking about the absurd amount of children that are shot in a place that parents send them to learn and be safe, it makes the gut sink. It means 438 parents had to receive a call telling them their child had been shot at school and 138 of those parents never got to see their children after that. America does not become safer just because one type of terrorism takes over another.
School shooters are not the only type of domestic terrorists in this country either, there has been increased support for far right hate groups who the Federal Bureau of Investigation says “are responsible for 68 deaths” and white supremacists are responsible for “46 homicides in 26 attacks.” It is also reported that today right winged terrorists carried out twice as many terrorist attacks as Islamist extremists (Haltiwanger). This is pointing to a bigger issue in the United States, when the nation has a president that does not put nearly as much focus on domestic terrorism as he does other types of terrorism the United States is bound to have problems with domestic terrorism, and any type of terrorism is not making America safe.
School shooters are not the only type of terrorism we have to worry about in the United States. School shootings are harder for Americans to hear about but regular shootings at public events are another form of terrorism that this country has been facing recently. “[In 2016] a domestic terrorist killed 49 people at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history — even though he’d been investigated twice by the FBI for terrorist connections” (Otis). It may not be the largest terrorist attack in the United States’ history but it was the largest shooting in the United States. After all the years since 9/11 terrorists are still able to carry out attacks, even with all the added protection in the United States. This shows that terrorists will not abandon what they believe just because there is a roadblock, they will unfortunately find a way around it. In addition to not stopping terrorists the safety precautions they put in place inconvenience the masses that go to public events like concerts and sports games. Politics play a big role into the issues around terrorism and that was never more evident than the recent election and when Bush was up for re-election. One of the things Bush is most remembered for is his war on terror.
The war on terror was a big point for Bush after the events of September 11th, 2001. The war on terror sent over 100,000 troops into Afghanistan during the 15 years following 9/11 (Haltiwanger). This was done for several reasons, the first being that Bush wanted to show that the United States was not going to put up with terrorism and wanted to do everything they possibly could to crush it as soon as they could. The war on terror is not the success that everyone wanted it to be after 9/11 however, “despite these tactical successes, it is hard to conclude that we are winning”(Gresson). Gresson states that we are killing terrorists but the jihad is recruiting them so fast that we cannot kill them faster than they can recruit others to join their cause. This comes to the well known idea that you can kill terrorists but you cannot kill their beliefs and thoughts. It is also well known that people from the middle east tend to not like westerners, especially Americans. This is scary to the American people so they keep thinking that sending troops is the right answer, but there is a growing number of deaths to American soldiers in the recent years according to statista.com. I believe that sending more troops is not the answer, the war on terror is still going on but it is going nowhere and American soldiers are getting killed when it can be easily prevented.
One argument used to say that America is safer after September 11th, 2001 is that America is safer because the borders are much stronger now than they were before the attacks because of long process to get granted entry into the United States, but Edward Allen of the Council of Foreign Relations says that “The tightening of U.S. border and immigration policy since the 9/11 attacks has been far too sweeping, turning away the kind of visitors who have strengthened the country”(Ten Lessons Since the 9/11 attacks). There have been many famous and brilliant minds who have come to the United States because of the possibilities presented here, but now many of those brilliant minds turn elsewhere because of how hard our country is to enter now.
Since September 11th, 2001 we have heavily increased our nation’s security but in the process using billions of dollars that can be going somewhere else like schools or public workers. It is evident that the United States is no safer now than it was back then because we as a nation got so focused on one group of terrorists we almost completely forgot about the other groups. School shootings and shootings in general have increased, far right, white supremacists have been become more prevalent in America today and we as a nation are still focused on stopping muslims who are involved in half of the terror attacks as domestic terrorists. Americans may be safer from radical muslims but they are not safer than they were after September 11th. Hopefully soon the United States will take action to stop the domestic terrorists soon because it only appears to be getting worse from here.
