Girls and boys sleepily hit their alarm clocks. Adults walked or drove to work. Tourists planned out their day. A few hours later, everyone’s life would take a drastic turn. Four hijacked commercial planes crashed in 3 different places in the northeast. The US reacted and invaded Afghanistan, disrupting and destroying the government. When did this, they created a never ending civil war in several countries that devastated millions. On September 11, 2001, 4 hijacked planes crashed. 2 planes bursted through the twin towers, causing them to fall after some time. At first, people believed that it was a accident.
After the second plane hit the south tower, they knew something was going on. The third plane crashed into the pentagon, and the fourth was aiming for the capitol building, but plummeted into the ground. This deadly attack on America was created by AlQaeda, a Jihadi terrorist group. 19 members were deliberately involved in hijacking the aircrafts, but many more helped to plan and do the research. This onslaught changed America. People become more cautious, fearful and felt a grudge to middle easterners. The nation wanted whomever was responsible to “pay” for their actions.
Once Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for their skirmish, the US took immediate action. The US asked the Afghan government to hand over those held responsible for the attack. When they didn’t hand them over, the US decided to invade. Invading Afghanistan would create a civil war so severe, tragic and disrupting that it would change the world permanently. Al-Qaeda began in 1989. The Soviet Union had just lost the 10 year war against Afghanistan, and Osama Bin Laden thought that this defeat had some kind of significance, or meaning to his purpose. He thought the victory could be replicated around the world.
Al-Qaeda did so many things without anyone taking major notice until one fateful day in 1993. This jihadist group planned an attack on the US, and they had their reasons why. They bombed the WTC with a car bomb. People were shocked, but not to the extreme. This sparked a small but deadly flame. It drew some attention to Bin Laden, who he was, and how he payed for the legal bills during the trial. This is the first time that Osama Bin Laden had been mention in relation to terrorism. Once El – Sayyid Nosair was convicted of the bombings, no one suspected that the middle east would strike again.
Unfortunately they did. After the bombing in the WTC, al-qaeda completed a series of attacks on both US soldiers and other groups outside the US. After being exposed for these deadly encounters, Bin laden is forced to leave Sudan, and he flees to Afghanistan. Now people are “awake” and aware of terrorism. Warnings started to go out, to alert people about this problem, especially in the US. Different areas of security reported some useful information that went under the radar because the Bush Administration chose to ignore them. These useful warnings were mostly by the FAA, or Federal Aviation Administration.
They warned airlines about terrorists planning to hijack planes, up until just a few weeks before 9/11. Because of these human errors, 9/11 was a success. Something must have angered Bin Laden for him to go to the extreme. The first interaction between the US and Al-Qaeda was back in 1988, during the war against the soviet union. The US helped them to gain power over their land, and provided weapons for them. The main reason that Bin Laden was upset was because of the gulf war in 1991. Soldiers were sent to afghanistan, and this angered Bin Laden. He believed that it was a personal attack from the US on his people. He declared Jihad in 1992.
They were backed up with funds from several countries such as Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Islamic Gulf states. The US chose to invade Afghanistan so that they could correctly punish those responsible for 9/11. The asked the Afghani government to hand them over, and they refused. The invasion was easy – it only took a couple thousand troops and some missiles – but the cleanup afterward was quite tough. It took almost 10 years to find and capture Bin Laden, and by then three major wars were already in progress. The main goal was to get “payback” on alQaeda, and return all power back to the Aghani Government. g them was the toughest and most unforseen challenge that the US had seen in years. Members of al-Qaeda hid among innocent civilians, and it was hard to seek them out without disturbing the peace of people living in the area. The US was so quick to take action for the sake of their country and forgot about the brutal consequences that would take place. “In our post-9/11 fear, we allowed ourselves to lash out at the world, and in so doing dealt much more harm than we had originally suffered while creating a whole new set of enemies for ourselves” (D) What the US military did was just that.
When the US “Lashed out at the world” by invading Afghanistan, they started a unstoppable chain effect that would shake the population, and made mistakes so regrettable that doomed the future of the world. The US had no business staying in Iraq. No one asked them to come, no one wanted them there. As always, they were willing to give a helping hand, particularly because they created the mess it became. People were in fear that the Iraqi Government were hiding some illegal nuclear weapons. If this was true, they could sell these devices, and use them to target the US.
At the time, Iraq was being controlled by the Shia Gov. , under Saddam Hussein. Before the US arrived, there were already problems. There was a huge oil supply in Iraq that was discovered, and everyone wanted a share. The Shia’s power system wasn’t very effective or helpful to the people, and they were pretty upset about that. The nuclear weapons were of main concern by the US. They decided to invade Iraq. “It was a war that began in a conventional way. U. S. forces went against Iraqi forces with a clear objective: to bring down the government of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. (F) That was the easiest part. The invasion plan was very simple – get in, and get out- but the cleanup afterwards was very hard. “With overwhelming power, U. S. forces were able to swiftly crush Saddam Hussein’s army and declare a quick victory, but managing the sectarian violence that erupted once Saddam was gone was a different story. “(F) Once they captured Saddam, people seemed very happy, and thankful that he was gone. What appeared to be happening on the outside was very different from what was really happening.
Civillans of Iraq weren’t happy that the US came in, but that they took care of Saddam Hussein. He told his people lies for over 30 years. Once he was gone, the US was stranded. The army wanted answers, and they had to inprovise. They left the country in the hands of what they thought was the government. Then al-Qaeda came to leadership. Al-Qaeda and Iraqi people shared similar ideas. They were outraged with the government, and they wanted their country back. People worked for alQaeda because they were offered protection for themselves and their family, and a sum of money that helped feed their children.
They had common enemies so many Sunni Militias they were willing to work together. The Iraqis wanted their counrty back, and Al-Qaeda wanted revenge. Once the US left, the remaining Sunni Muslims were arrested, severely punished and brutally killed by the Shia Militia in mass murders widely publicized in the media. People were killed in the streets for walking around, and were trapped indoors from fear. When the Iraqi president told President Obama, he gave him this advice: “This is your country, you should do what you think you should do”“. There was almost nothing else for him to say.
With Afghanistan in rubble and Iraq in warfare, the Us believed they were done with their problems. Then a anti-regime war broke out in Syria. People were pretty upset with Pres. Bashar al-Assad. He had ruled the country for 11 years, and he hadn’t fufilled the promises he made to his people. The more made that people got, the more they wanted to protest. In March of 2011, several teenagers were arrested and tortured for writing anti-regime grafitti. Peaceful protests broke out in anger. Pres. al-Assad ordered authorities to attack, arrest, adn even shoot at the protestors.
Dozens of people were killed in the action. This enraged more people, and the protests continued. Even the protests died down, and two major groups broke out. The militia, backed by Pres. Al-Assad, and the rebels. The rebels were made up of soldiers that had left the Gov. , or ordinary citezens. The US got involved by fighting along with everyone else. Al-Qaeda took this as an opportunity to rebuild, and they did. They provided a sense of protection for themselves, and a good income for their families. People needed this outlet, and it allowed them to feel as it they are doing something good for their country.
They were paid, and had the weapons they needed. Most of the weaons they had were abandoned by Iraqi soldiers when everyone fled. They were stolen by al-Qaeda. The group also freed the remaining Sunni captives, which allowed their population to flourish. In 2014, al-Qaeda changed their name to ISIS, or ISIL. This showed people that they had the idea to become a muslim empire. Since then, ISIS has conducted over 140 attacks in 30 different countries. They have claimed the lives of over 2,000 people. This is only a result of the mistakes that were made 15 years ago.
The rise of ISIS was a result of the invasion of Afghanistan. It might have taken almost 15 years to get big and disturbing, but it happened. The three major wars killed almost thousands of people, 400,000 in syria alone. If the US wasn’t so quick to take action, the world would be a different place. September 11th was a horrible and tragic event. The way that it was handled was also very tragic. Invading afghanistan started a chain effect that hasn’t stopped. It has brought the world nearly three “minutes” closer on the doomsday clock. How much more can the world take?
