On September 9th 2001 an event happened in which almost 3000 people died. What were the causes to this horrific attack? What motivated these people to this? What did the United States have to do with this? In this essay I will be going over some factors that caused 9/11 and why I believe these are the most important details of the attack. I believe that the actions the United States took before 9/11 had a lot to do with the attack itself and how it could of been avoided and the domino effect it took.
Let’s first start with the context of the attack. On September 9th 2001 there were 19 hijackers who hijacked 4 planes and crashed into multiple buildings. According to The History Channel “On September 09, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which triggered major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism and defined the presidency of George W. Bush”. This angered the United states of course and president George W Bush declared war on terror. Al Qaeda launched the attack which was run by osama bin laden. Also The pentagon was partially destroyed in the attack and the plane that was used in that attack was an American Airlines Boeing 757 and the flight number was American Airlines flight 77.
I Interviewed my mother who was in Chicago at the time her name is Hortencia Becerril she was 22 years old at the time of the attack. Hortencia Becerril stated “ I remembered getting off the train going to Harold Washington city college and everybody was trying to get on the train to get away from the city. So I arrived at the college and it was quieter and less crowded than usual. I didn’t know what was going on at the time because I wouldn’t carry my cell phone with me. I was hearing people talking about some planes crashing into the twin towers in New York but I didn’t believe it then I heard people spread rumors about planes coming to Chicago and L.A but everyone was confused that’s what I remember. I didn’t find out about the attacks until later when I watched the news and my jaw dropped, I was just in disbelief at how many people died”.
After the 9/11 attacks people started being more afraid of the world and many things changed in our society. We started looking at all middle eastern people more stereotypical, we started thinking that all Muslims were terrorist or some type of suicide bombers. At airports our security has increased to avoid any type of threat for example pbs stated “The new TSA implemented procedures that included stricter guidelines on passenger and luggage screening”. Also Airplanes were changed for example pbs stated that “Airplanes themselves also underwent major overhauls: Fortified cockpit doors were introduced, and first-class cabin curtains were dropped by some airlines”. We also banned many substances from airplanes. Many people mainly Muslims were targeted more at airports and being checked more often.
We felt vulnerable after 9/11 because if a country this big was getting attacked then we weren’t safe anywhere. We are less tolerant to immigration for security reasons to try to avoid attacks like these. For example pbs also stated “The country with the most notable drop in visa issuance after 9/11 was Pakistan. In 2002, the number of tourist visas given to Pakistani citizens fell almost 70 percent and immigrant visas dropped more than 40 percent compared to 2001”. All of this information proves one thing and that is, That we are more afraid of the outside world and that we fear the worst of certain people. It was also a time in which we lost trust in the middle eastern people and our views changed on them just because of this one attack.
The effects of this attack are very lasting to the country because right after 9/11 the United States went to war in the Middle East. The United States began its war in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. CNN states “ U.S. warplanes and cruise missiles from American and British warships struck at al Qaeda bases and Taliban military installations near several key Afghan cities, including Kabul and Kandahar”. It created more conflict around the world and the use of our military which really increased our taxes to give to out military which also gave us a less appealing image to the Middle East. We have less liberty than before because after 9/11 happened we had the patriot act which gave us less privacy just because the government didn’t trust us for example vox claims “The most controversial permanent program under the Patriot Act is the ‘National Security Letters’ program, which lets the government demand communications records from telecom companies without even going through the surveillance court for approval first”. This really set off alarms for people in the United States because it showed how afraid we were to not even trust our own people anymore and it was a pretty sad time.
The sociological imagination forces that caused this are very complex because we can go back in time for example in 1979 we had the Iranian revolution then we had a lot of western imports going to the Middle East and what put the nail in the coffin is the support we had for regimes that didn’t support the people in the Middle East for example in An Article titled “The politics of Rage: why do they hate us” by “FAREED ZAKARIA” States that “Nasser thought his ideas for Egypt and the Arab world were modern. They were also western. His “national character” of 1962 reads as if it were written by left-wing intellectuals in Paris or London”.
What made this so bad was that the United States supported this regime and the middle eastern people disapproved of this and people started creating groups aka terrorist groups which led to the 9/11 attacks. Also the middle eastern people were annoyed by how the United States get their nose Into the Middle East for example the support that the United States gave to Israel in the war against Palestine. Also the economic sanctions that the United States placed on Iraq all of this gave a really bad image of the United States which then came the hate and revenge from places the United States took advantage of. Then after all that osama bin laden became the leader of Al Qaeda and crafted an attack in 2001 which killed almost 3000 Americans.
Now we live in the year 2018 and we are still stuck in the Middle East. And I think a way we can solve this issue is by getting our troops out of there and rebuilding the Middle East. We need to conquer terrorist groups and then rebuild the country to not let anymore groups be formed. And I believe that stable political development is the way to go to solve this issue we have in the Middle East because all of these regimes need some type of rebuilding weather it be the towns or cities to the whole government system itself because we need to stop all this anger from the people of the Middle East. The United States should be a leader in the Middle East and not a bully to show the world what real leadership is and how they can learn from our mistakes. I explained my solutions in my point of view and how I think the Middle East can benefit from these ideas I have.
