9/11

   The September 11th attacks, also known as the 9/11 attacks were a series of terrorist attacks by the Islamic fundamentalist group al-Qaeda. In these attacks, nearly 3,000 people died and 6,000 were injured. As a part of these attacks 19 hijackers were onboard a series of planes that were operated by 2 major U.S passenger airlines. The hijackers decided to take over cross-country flights as they contained more fuel, creating more fire and a bigger explosion once crashed. Of these planes, 2 crashed into both towers of the World Trade Center complex, a third plane crashed into the Pentagon, and a 4th plane, which originally was flown towards the White House was crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after the passengers were aware of the hijackers. After the first plane crash, many people thought that it was just a terrible accident that happened. However, minds quickly changed once the second plane flew into the World Trade Center minutes later. As this was happening, the government was suspicious that it was al-Qaeda. The US responded to this attack by launching the War on Terror and invaded Afghanistan. The mission was to extradite Osama bin Laden- one of the main coordinators of this attack and a large presence in al-Qaeda- and also to remove the terrorist group from Afghanistan. Initially, bin Laden denied any affiliation with the group, but later on in 2004, he claimed responsibility for the the attacks. The US remained searching for bin Laden, and later found him in May 2011, when he was killed. This attack still remains the largest terrorist attack that the United States has faced, and it motivated the American government, along with other countries' governments to tighten their laws against terrorism, along with strengthen their defense against terrorists. From these horrific attacks, it is important that we learn that we all have an impact against these terrorist groups. For example, the 4th plane was supposed to crash into the White House, but just regular civilians had the ability to take the plane down and crash it into an open field rather than the White House. This shows that we all can take a stance on terrorism and make an impact, no matter what our position in society is.