How Has 9/11 Changed American Society

On September 11, 2001 at 8:45 A.M., an airplane crashed into one of the two twin towers in New York City. Confusion rings out in the streets of New York City as no one knows what happened or how it happened. Then at 9:03 A.M., a second plane hits the second tower. At that moment, people knew this was no accident, but an act of terror committed on American soil. These attacks changed America forever, for the better and for the worst. Laws and regulations passed as a result of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack have been hurtful towards American society. Following the attack, the American government created agencies and gave more power to existing agencies. One of these agencies that was given more power was the National Security Agency

After the 9/11 attack, the NSA’s mission was to listen up on foreigners and suspected terrorist, but they went way beyond that. In 2013, Edward Snowden leaked information on what the NSA was doing. The leak revealed that the NSA had been collecting people’s data given to them by internet service providers, and had been collecting data on phone calls. Even though the programs were not designed to collect data on Americans, they still did (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2017). Another agency that has been highly criticized is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which was created on November 19, 2001, as a result of the terrorist attacks. The TSA is an airport security agency that protects against potential terrorist. The problem is not with the agencies policies, but with the agencies ineptitude. During an infamous security test with the TSA, 70 people with weapons tried to get past the TSA without getting caught. The TSA failed these tests miserable

The first war that America entered was the Afghanistan war. America’s goal was to defeat Al Qaeda, because Al Qaeda was hiding there and so was there leader Osama Bin Laden, who also orchestrated the 9/11 terrorists attacks. The war in Afghanistan was bad for a number of reasons. The war was costly, costing America about $685.6 billion dollars, which makes this war one of the most costly in US history. We also have to factor in the cost of human lives, which comes out to about 2,356 casualties. The war also became more unpopular in America as time went on. Osama Bin Laden was not killed in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan, so that part of the war was useless. The war also did not stop terrorism. A much worse group arose from Al Qaeda, ISIS. The war with in Afghanistan ultimately resulted in very little gain. Then America fought in another war in the middle east, the Iraq war. The Iraq war started because America suspected the Iraqi government of having weapons of mass destruction and they wanted to free the Iraqi people of tyranny. The war used 9/11 sentiments to start and justify the war. The war was even more expensive then the Afghanistan war. The Iraq war cost $814.6 billion, so both wars had a combined total cost of $1.6 trillion. The Iraq war also had higher casualties too, with 4,489 casualties, resulting in 6,845 casualties. America achieved their goal of capturing and killing Saddam Hussein, but this act may