9/11 Essay Examples

An Essay on the 9/11 Attack on World Trade Center (Example)

The September 11th morning back in the year 2001 can be easily regarded as one of the most horrific mornings in the entire American history if not the most horrific one. The reason behind this is there was a disastrous terrorist attack on American airlines. The attack had been well tailored, orchestrated and brought into actualization by members of the highly sought after al-Qaeda terrorist group who hijacked four American airlines. Their strategy was well thought about as it entailed four "sacrificial lambs" that had volunteered to give up their lives in order to cause four different catastrophic events to come into being. These "sacrificial lambs" were in the form of four suicide attackers who were tasked with carrying out attacks that targeted important objects based on American soil. One of these airplanes had been set to target The United States Pentagon, while another airplane crashed in the Pennsylvania field. The two remaining airliners had the famous Twin Towers based in the city of New York as their targets. The minute this event took place, there were myriads of adverse effects that were generally detrimental to the country’s welfare. Among terrible outcomes of these unspeakable acts were the war that broke down and caused changes to the entire society in the USA.

The World Trade Center under Attack

The Twin Towers, centered in New York, was a workplace for about thirty-five thousand people and, due to the vast numbers of people that flocked there every single day; it became a target for a terrorist attack by members of al-Qaeda. The towers were gigantic in so many ways with every tower having floors totaling up to one hundred and ten. In addition to this, each of these two towers had an approximate weight of about 250,000 tons. The Twin towers also bragged of being located at the heart of the popular World Trade Center. With some of these statistics at hand, speaking of the location of these towers and the myriads of people that populated the towers during the day, the towers ended up becoming obvious targets for terrorist attacks. On top of the above-stated facts, you find that The Twin Towers were also regarded as one of the key embodiments of the fabled American influence and unmatched power. This is, in fact, one of the main reasons that the World Trade Center had become a victim of a terrorist attack back in the year 1993. This terror attack was not as catastrophic as the one in 2001, but it still ended up being of some significance. This attack occurred through the use of an explosive vehicle that was strategically packed beneath that center. The attack on The Twin Towers was a brainchild of a group of terrorists and more precisely, members of the al- Qaeda. It is one of the most famous terrorist organizations due to some of the unimaginable acts of terror that they have cooked up, among them being the terror attack on The Twin Towers. This association is, majorly, an Islam extremists system that was forged to propagate nothing but terror by its founder named Osama bin Laden. The Al-Qaeda members, usually, aim to acquire control forcefully and exert command over religiously-sanctioned political, and social order within the areas that have a great Muslim representation. The attacks, which were directed towards the Americans, were made in a bid to truncate and minimize support by the USA for those governments based in the Middle East, which fail to see eye-to-eye with the strong and radical al-Qaeda beliefs. The Al-Qaeda held this firm belief that the support being dished out by the USA was one of the biggest obstacles towards the achievement of success in the promotion and building of a single global order found under Islam. In addition to this, many more factors ended up making al-Qaeda jot down The USA in their bad books. Some of these factors included the support of Israel by The USA, the role that The USA played in the war in the Persian Gulf, and also the never-fading presence of some soldiers from the military forces of The USA in a good number of countries in the Middle East.

The Events That Took Place on 9/11

On the 11th of September 2001, a total of four planes were hijacked by some members of the outlawed al-Qaeda group. These planes had their destinations set for California and, thus, had good enough amount of fuel to assist them arriving there without any hitches. The number of terrorists that took control over these planes was about nineteen who were keen on seeing to it that their perfectly laid-out plan was carried out. At around 8:45 AM, one of these four planes crashed into the North Tower between the 99th and 93rd floor. After this first attack had taken place, the aftermath was the death of hundreds of innocent people and about a hundred of them ended up getting trapped inside some floors above the point of impact. There was an immediate response to this first attack with evacuation being triggered instantaneously. However, as much as these efforts were essential towards the process of damage-control, about eighteen minutes afterward, yet another plane came crashing into The Twin Towers’ South Tower. This crash occurred with the plane smashing in between the 85th and 77th floor. Immediately, the second crash had taken place; there was one massive explosion that capped it all up. This led to a tremendous collapsing force that ended up making The Twin Towers fall down and damage around five more buildings that were within the World Trade Center Complex.

Timeline of Events That Took Place on 9/11

8:46 AM - The North Tower gets crashed by Mohammed Atta and a number of other terrorists with American Airlines Flight 11. 9:03 AM - The United Airlines Flight 175 hits the South Tower. 9:37 AM - The US Pentagon is hit by American Airlines Flight 77. 9:59 AM - The South Tower collapses. 10:07 AM - Flight 93 from United Airlines crashes into the Somerset County, Pennsylvania. 10:28 AM - The North Tower collapses. 5:20 PM - The World Trade Center collapses after hours of burning. The other two planes that were part of the terrorists’ plans but did not have the World Trade Center as their targets ended up mounting their attacks on Washington DC and the Pentagon. One of these two planes was on its way to Los Angeles before terrorists inside it took the reins of the airplane. After they had successfully hijacked it, they ended up directing it towards the Pentagon where they crashed it into the Pentagon’s Western facade. The other remaining plane was hijacked and directed towards Washington DC, which was the terrorists’ final target. However, their plans did not exactly go as they had expected because some of the passengers within that airplane intervened and ended up changing the plane’s target. The new target was a field based in Pennsylvania where there were lower chances of injuring the people in the target site. However, note that as much as there were no casualties from the field, where the plane crashed into, everyone that was aboard passed away.

The After Effects

The immediate aftermath of this attack was an earth-shattering death toll that was beyond catastrophic. Around three thousand of innocent people passed away from the events of that day. In the attack aimed at The World Trade Center, over two thousand and seven hundred people were killed. In the attack in the USA Pentagon, about one hundred and eighty-four innocent lives were lost. The crash that took place due to Flight 93 led to the death of around forty people. On top of all that, there were also a significant number of deaths that ensued from attempts to help the people in the actual terrorist attack. These people included the likes of paramedics, police officers and firefighters. The number of paramedics and firefighters that perished, while performing their noble duty of service towards mankind, was around three hundred and forty-three. The number of police officers that passed away during their line of duty on that fateful day was twenty-three, while the number of police officers from the Port Authority division that perished, was thirty-seven. With these vast numbers that have been highlighted, it is with no doubt one of the darkest moments in American's history and a catastrophe for everyone around the entire globe. On the 12th of September 2001, there was an emergency meeting held by the United Nations in light of these acts of terror that had just occurred. They rightfully condemned the terrorist attacks as a general attack on the entire humanity. In fact, this became the very first time that Article 5 from the Washington treaty was invoked in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s history. The nature of what is contained in this particular article states that “Any attack on one or more NATO countries corresponds to an attack against all the NATO countries.” Immediately, that this had taken place, the USA went ahead to declare that they were officially at war. This was made possible through the invocation of their rights to self-defense anytime they were at war.

The Response That Was Made By the USA

In October 2001, the decision on passing the USA Patriot Act was made an enacted. The law came off as quite controversial, and a good number of people had concerns over the manner in which it would cause some aspects of infringement of liberties and civil rights. An excellent example of this is that the act permits officials in the law enforcement arm of the government to monitor a person’s financial transactions closely. It also goes ahead to allow these officials to eavesdrop on people’s conversations over the phone, and even search a person’s property regardless of whether they have a warrant for the search or not. In the year 2001 on October 7th, the USA began an operation that was directed at overthrowing the Taliban’s stronghold based in Afghanistan. This operation was forged in order to attempt destroying the headquarters of Osama bin Laden, the leader and founder of the al-Qaeda terrorist group. The USA was able to oust the Taliban group from their power, but they did not leave it at that. It was decided to continue their war against a campaign of this Taliban rebellion over at Pakistan. In the year 2005, it came to light that the National Security Agency had been given authorization to wiretap phone calls and domestic e-mails without warrants by President George W. Bush back in 2002. The USA also went ahead to establish a new department, which was tasked with the duty of ensuring that the country’s security was solid and could not be shaken again by terrorist activities of such a magnitude. The name of this department was “The Department of Homeland Security.” The entire society changed after this cascade of events on 9/11 because, from that time onwards, they were required to act in close coordination in order to prevent any possibility of other terrorist attacks from taking place. In fact, a campaign by the name "If You See Something Say Something" was launched in order to assist in appealing to members of the public to be always on the lookout and to report any suspicious activities and behaviors. The security, based in the airports, ended up being heightened to the levels of impenetrable fortresses, and screening for international passengers was introduced when leaving and entering the USA.

Life Beyond the Events and Outcomes of 9/11

The War Against Terror

To claim that 9/11 attacks left a huge impact and scars on the USA is commensurate to claiming nothing at all. The country immediately embarked on a journey of war, and the daily lives of American civilians changed forever. After they had been pushed against the wall by the 9/11 attacks, they sent troops to al-Qaeda’s main base in Afghanistan. In 2003, Iraq was another destination for USA military troops and was a vital tool in the efforts of propagating War on Terror. On December 2011, Iraq found itself in a sorry state of a volatile form of democracy, and American troops got pulled out of it. President Obama in 2014 made some efforts to help change the manner in which the presence of American troops in Afghanistan was looked at. He made it his goal to ensure that they were perceived as part of support missions, instead of part of combat missions. In the US history, this war in Afghanistan remains to be the longest, with its duration lasting all the way from 2001 to 2011. That brought about deaths to more than 6000 troops and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and depression to a great number of the servicemen, who returned (18% of them), and brain injuries to about 20% of them.

Deportation and Immigration

There was indeed a significant impact of 9/11 attacks on the deportation and immigration policy. Deportation for law-breakers and criminals doubled in number. It even became possible for people to get deported for conviction, even for minor offenses, like failure to use turn signals while driving.

Airport Security

The attacks on 9/11 led to the creation of The Transportation and Security Administration. This headed to security getting beefed up as this administration began to incorporate new and much more effective security measures and practices. In the past, passengers could merely spend around thirty minutes on the line to board a plane. In these present times, people spend many hours in the line, due to the high degree of scrutiny that goes on in an airport. It is also important to note that there is the use of a watch list of the individuals that are thought to pose threats to the airport’s general security and people’s safety.

Moving Forward

The attacks that took place on 9/11 churned up feelings of fear, mourning, and depression to both American citizens and the rest of the world. The whole globe was of the opinion the attack, which was launched in the USA, interpreted to be an attack on liberties and freedom everywhere. This event was one that started changes in the entire globe. The aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 is still vivid up to this day. Ten years later, a 9/11 memorial was opened at Ground Zero in order to commemorate those events of 11th September 2001, as well as the bombing in 1993 that took place in the World Trade Center. It is true that Americans became shaken and were left fearful and shattered, but they also mastered enough strength and power to help them fight and claim their freedom. With all the events surrounding the 9/11 bombings, one thing became apparent in the long run - the United States of America proved yet again that liberty will transcend time and persevere, despite the tough circumstances that are at hand.