HIST 405N Week 8 Discussion: Terrorism in the 21st Century

HIST 405N Week 8 Discussion: Terrorism in the 21st Century Discuss how you see the "war on terrorism" as of this date. Do you think the United States should be engaged in such a war? Give reasons for or against this war and whether or not we are giving up our own principles to wage it. ANSWER The 21st century saw the dawn of the war on terrorism, as the 9/11 attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing dramatically changed society. Economic issues also moved to the forefront during the Great Recession as awareness of social inequality grew. In the 21st century, the September 11, 2001 attacks and the Boston Marathon bombings notably changed society in America. In the early morning on September 11, 2001, 19 Arabic men went aboard on four American planes. These men all belonged to al-Qaeda, an Islamic extremist terrorist group. Just shortly after take-off, these Islamic terrorists took over the cockpits of the planes using mace and box cutters, killing all of the American pilots, and ultimately used pilots of their own (all by which received private flight instructions in American flight schools) to hijack and fly these planes into set targets (Keene, et. al., 2013). “At 8:46 a.m. the first plane plowed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, an internationally recognized landmark that symbolized American dominance over the world economy” (Keene, et. al., 2013, p. 874). Seventeen minutes after the first plane hit, a second plane crashed into the South Tower. America now understood that what originally looked like a devastating accident was indeed a coordinated and constructed attack against America. “A third plane crashed into the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, in Virginia, the building most closely associated with U.S. military might in the eyes of the world” (Keene, et. al., 2013, p. 874). Meanwhile, the passengers on the fourth hijacked airplane had fought back against the terrorists, reaching the cockpit and ultimately preventing the