On September 11, 2001, one of the most tragic events in modern history struck the United States of America. At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 was hijacked by a group of terrorists, who hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Right after, United Airlines Flight 175 was also hijacked by a group of terrorists and struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m. This devastating event in U.S. history killed 2,996 people. 2,753 of them were in the WTC at the time. The attack was led by a man named Osama Bin Ladin, the leader of Al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization, who had planned an attack on the United States for a long time. Throughout the 1990s, Al-Qaeda had been targeting Americans at home and abroad and tried to blow …show more content…
GDP after the attacks rose by 0.5% and increased the unemployment rate by 0.11% because of both towers being struck and collapsing (reducing employment by about 600,000 jobs.) To summarize, The 9/11 attacks cost the U.S. $40 billion, and since 2001 the U.S. has spent $2.313 trillion on the Afghanistan War . With the money that was spent on the war, the U.S. military decided to use it to their advantage and target terrorist hideouts right away. This led to the Allied air campaigns destroying most air defenses and terrorist camps within a few days. A variety of air attacks against Taliban troops were also conducted, as well as carpet bombing (the dropping of many bombs in one area). After a month of invasion, The city of Kabul fell on November 13, 2001. Civilians of Afghanistan were deprived of water and food, lost their homes, had no shelter, or health care, and, finally, all-girl schools were shut down due to Taliban raids. President George W. Bush at the time provided around $600 million to provide for struggling Afghans. Bush’s goal was to starve the terrorists of funding turn them against each other, rout them out of their safe hiding places, and bring them to justice. As part of the international campaign against terrorist financing and money laundering, the President established the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Treasury Department, also known as the TFI. With the help of TFI, terrorists, drug cartels, money launderers, and …show more content…
military used great political influence to take out terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan. The U.S. military took orders from a very outraged government. The federal government moved quickly to develop a security framework to protect our country from large-scale attacks directed from abroad while enhancing federal, state, and local capabilities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from threats and disasters at home. In addition, with the DHS, the Department of homeland security strengthened the homeland security enterprise by partnering with many federal, public, and private sector organizations, as well as communities throughout the country. The media was also starting to broadcast way more. For example, Increased 24-hour news cycle, Increased government scrutiny, and a Greater focus on global events, to ensure a safer tomorrow for a safer tomorrow. The attacks soon turned global as many countries were intrigued by what was going on, and the impact on the United States. Overall, the events of 9/11 had a profound influence on the media and the way it operates, particularly concerning the 24-hour news cycle. This also could give the U.S. military hints or clues on where the terrorist hideouts could be. To this day, the U.S. still uses the DHS to prevent attacks like this ever again. The U.S. military used political influence to eventually take out the leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Ladin, on May 2, 2011. Bin Ladin was shot and killed after a raid by the U.S.