The War on Terror!

Who is Responsible?    

3 Years after the fact in 2004, Osama bin Laden had claimed that he was responsible for these attacks. Initially he had denied them saying "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation."

Rebuilding of September 11   

    The attacks on 9/11 had left the US with many years of rebuilding to do. Rudy Giuliani (mayor of New York City) had said on the day of the attacks "We will rebuild. We're going to come out of this stronger than before, politically stronger, economically stronger. The skyline will be made whole again." This gave not only New York City hope, it gave America hope as well. The damge of the Pentagon was fixed within a year and in 2006 the consruction of the 7 New World Trade Center was completed. On the World Trade Center site there is expected to be three more office towers built.

Passenger Jets 

The United States had faced an attack by members of Al Qaeda on September 11, 2001. 19 Members from Al Qaeda had hijacked 4 passenger jets on this day. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 had intentionally been crashed into the World Trade Center Towers in New York City. American Airlines Flight 77 had crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. And United Airlines Flight 93 was intended to crash into Washington, DC but the flight had crashed near the city of Shanksville in Pennsylvania after the passengers of the plane had attempted to take control of the plane from the hijackers. From these attacks nearly 3,000 people had died.

 New York City Fire Department

    These attacks had brought 200 units of New York City Firefighters. This was about half of the department that was sent to the World Trade Center. There was off duty firefighters at the disaster and emergency medical technicians for the people who were involved in the attack. Something not many people know is that when the first building was going down the fire department radios were not working and many of the fire departments did not here about the attack. With this problem many firefighters did not here any of the evacuation orders. The casualties did not just include the men and woman who had died in the buildings or on the planes, it had included the firefighters who had risked their own lives to try and save someone elses. 

     Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was a man with many aliases. He was a mastermind who was involved in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. He was apart of  bin Laden's terrorist group Al Qaeda. He was not only involved in 9/11, but he was involved in Operation Bojinka plot. This was an aborted attack on the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles in 2002. He was also involved in the failed bombing of American Airlines flight 63, and the murder of Daniel Pearl. Pearl was an American Journalist who was doing research over seas in the Middle East. Mohammed was captured March 1, 2003 in Pakistan, where he was later brought to Guantanamo Bay. 4 years later in 2007 he had admitted to the attacks on 9/11.

Ramzi bin al-Shibh was another member of Al Qaeda who was a facilitator of the September 11 attacks. He had recieved a United States Visa and had wired money to Al Qaeda and passing on information from the main Al Qaeda figures. On September 8, 2006, al-Qaeda released a video that shows Osama bin Laden and some of the 9/11 hijackers. al-Shibh was one of the men identified in this video, he was known in the video as being the "coordinator of the 9/11 attacks." He now is at Guantanamo Bay after he was captured September 11, 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan.

    Osama bin Laden is the man who is resoponsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center on the date of September 11, 2001. He was in charge of the terrorist group called Al Qaeda. Since 1998 bin Laden has been on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list for his bombings on the U.S Embassy. Since the time he admited to the attacks on the World Trade Centers in 2004 he had been off the radar and was believed to be in either Pakistan or Afghanistan. The US and Afghanistan forces had believed he was in the mountainous caves of Tora Bora, and raided them on August 14-16, 2007. They had killed many Taliban and Al Qaeda members but they did not find bin Laden in sight, until May 1, 2011. The US Navy Seals had found him in his million dollar estate in Abbottabad, Pakistan where they shot him and killed him.

Mohamed Atta was another man involved in the attacks. He was the pilot of American Airlines flight 11. This was the plane that crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. He had called al-Shibh the morning of 9/11. 

"He said, 'A friend of mine gave me a puzzle and I want you to help me out.' I said to him, 'Is this the time for puzzles, Mohamed?' He said, 'Yes, I know, but no one else but you could help me.' He said, 'Two sticks, a dash and cake with a stick down. What is it?' I said, 'Did you wake me up just to tell me this?' As it turns out, two sticks is the number 11. A dash is a dash. And cake with a stick down is the number nine. And that was September 11. 

Military Equipment 

Poison Gas- The CIA had contacted Iraq's prime minister Naji Sabri who had informed the US that Saddam Hussein had hidden poison gas among Sunni tribesmen. He also informed the US that they had ambitions to start a nuclear program but it was not active. Also they did not have any biological weapons produced or stockpiled.

Yellowcake Uranium- In late February 2002, the CIA sent former Ambassador Joseph Wilson to investigate reports that Iraq was attempting to purchase additional yellowcake from Niger. Wilson returned back to the US and said they were wrong about the location of the yellowcake. But in Bush's 2003 State of the Union adress he had said Iraq had been trying to obain uranium based upon his recources from his British intelligent services.

Results of War in Iraq

• Ended the Hussein regime
• Eliminated all weapons of mass destruction found
• Eliminated all Islamic militants found
• Gathered as much intelligence on militant networks as possible
• To assist countries in trying to produce a model in government for Middle Eastern Nations

 Barack Obama in the Middle East

In late February 2009, President Barack Obama announced an 18-month withdrawal window for American forces, with approximately 50,000 troops remaining in the country "to advise and train Iraqi security forces and to provide intelligence and surveillance". According to General Ray Odierno the troops were supposed to be out of Iraq by 2011, but on August 31, 2010 Obama had said "the American combat mission in Iraq has ended."

Invading Iraq 

The first CIA team invaded Iraq on July 10, 2002. While they prepared to invade they attempted to persuade the Iraqi military into surrendering then being invaded. They first invaded the north section of Iraq. With this defeat they discovered a chemical weapons faciliy at Sargat.

At 5:34 a.m. Baghdad time on March 20, 2003 (9:34 p.m., March 19 EST) the military invasion of Iraq began. The 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by US Army General Tommy Franks, began under the codename "Operation Iraqi Liberation", later renamed "Operation Iraqi Freedom". Coalition forces also cooperated with Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the north. About 40 other countries participated in this providing not only troops, but they provided resources that were very useful.

Casualties

There were many casualties in this war. There may not be as many casualties as there has been in the past such as World War 1 and World War 11. Down below will not only be American casualies but there are also the other countries involved as well.

Iraq-  1,124,000 (includes the War in Afghanistan, the War in Iraq, and operations in other places)

Afghanistan- between 10,960 and 49,600

United States of America- More than 56,900

There are many other countries with casualties, but they are not as large as the 3 countries above.

US Supports Countries in Need

Pakistan- 3 years before the 9/11 attacks the United States had given Pakistan about 9 million dollars. 3 years after 9/11 it was up to 4.2 billion dollars. Money was given to them to protect the civilians rights and to contain domestic problems.

Lebanon- On May 20, 2007 in north Lebanon fighting broke out between Lebanon and the terrorist group Fatah-al-Islam. Fatah-al-Islam got there beliefs or ideas from al-Qaeda. During this conflict the US had given Lebanon military support. Lebanon would defeat Fatah-al-Islam and declared victory.

Costs

The cost of this war is very large due to the rebuilding of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Virginia. But many other things had to be paid for such as the military equipment and the money being put into the other countries. The cost for everything that had occured during this War on Terror is near about 1.5 trillion dollars. In a few more years it is estimated to be around 1.8 trillion dollars.

Criticism

There are many critics to things like this such as war. Not everybody will think its a good thing to go to war but others think it's a must. "The notion of a "war" against "terrorism" has proven highly contentious, with critics charging that it has been exploited by participating governments to pursue long-standing policy / military objectives." The above statement is stating that it has gotten a lot larger than it should have because of what the government had chose to do. It has also been critisized that there is no possible way a government can end terrorism because it is too big to stop. With that being said the term "war" is not appropriate because there is not an enemy that can be identified according to critics.