Terrorist Attack: World Trade Center on September 11

September 11, 2001

New York City

Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist organization

On the morning of September 11th, terrorists hijacked four commercial jet planes and attempted to fly them into several U.S. targets. One of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11, crashed into Tower One of the World Trade Center at 8:50 AM. United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into Tower Two at 9:04 AM. As the world watched Tower Two collapsed to the ground at about 10:00 AM. Unfortunately, this horrible scene was duplicated at 10:30 AM when Tower One crashed to the ground. This terrorist attack brought about the death of approximately 3,000 men, women and children from nations around the world.

The people of America banded together in the weeks following the September 11th attacks like few other times in American history. People responded with donations of blood, effort and money.

President George W Bush immediately called for all civilized nations to band together and fight terrorism. The military of the United States mobilized for war in an operation code named Enduring Freedom. The government declared Osama Bin Laden to be the main suspect and sent the military to fight him and his terrorist organization called Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The military has been able to capture numerous leaders within the terrorist organization but has not been able to capture Bin Laden himself.

A huge controversy arose when President Bush sent troops into Iraq on March 19, 2003 claiming that the country led by Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction and aiding Al Qaeda operatives. As time passed and no evidence of those weapons were found in Iraq, many in America were upset by what they felt were unnecessary reasons to get involved in Iraq. Some argued that the Iraq War drew necessary attention away from the war in Afghanistan.