Causes and Effects of 9/11 - Essay Example

?Running Head: CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF 9/11 Causes and effects of 9/11 School Causes and effects of 9/11 On September 11, 2001 America experiencedthe most lethal form of terrorism to have been carried out in recent times. The perpetrators used two planes to strike the iconic World Trade Center building in New York City while a third plane hit the Pentagon in Washington, DC. This incident brought down the World Trade Center building in less than two hours, leading to the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. Other than the tragic loss of lives, as a nation the United States (US) was adversely affected in its social, political and economic areas. The social effect is captured by the way the catastrophe altered the American people’s perception, behavior and interaction towards Muslims living within and outside the country. The political effect is manifested by the labeling of certain states as the axis of evil and the American-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. The economic effect can be seen from the increased use of resources to secure production, distribution, finance, and communication at the expense of national productivity. What caused the September 11 attacks? In retrospect the big question still is: what led to 9/11 in the first place? There is no clear answer to this question; however, numerous conjectures have been raised. Even the US government’s 9/11 commission failed to provide clarity on the real causes of September 11. The commission only gave an unqualified response on who was responsible for the heinous act. There is not a single event in modern times that has elicited as many explanations as this tragedy. According to Bergen (2006) the theories on the causes of the September 11 attacks could be categorized into three: (1) the outright absurd, which state that the attacks were orchestrated by the US government; (2) the believable but flawed that argue that the attacks were done as a response to foreign occupation in the Arab lands; and (3) the credible, which postulates that September 11 was simply a collateral damage resulting from a clash within Islam. The al Qaeda angle In its findings, the US 9/11 commission concluded that the al Qaeda was solely responsible for the terrorist attacks. Osama Bin Laden was at war unambiguously with the United States. Levingston (2010) argued that this was the case because Osama was irked by the multiple engagements of the US in the Arab lands and its unequivocal support for Israel. This theory fits the second categorization of Bergen (2006); the-believable-but-flawed argument. At this juncture, it is important to note that Osama’s critique towards America had never been cultural. Osama was not fighting Western culture; his was a personal war against the US. Bergen (2006) stated that Bin Laden was astute enough to know that he could not wage an all-out battle against the world’s sole superpower. He therefore craftily embodied his vision inside al Qaeda and attracted similar disgruntled Islamists whom he managed to convince that America was the enemy. Osama saw terrorism as the only achievable mode of operation to wage war against the US. This argument is believable but flawed because it fails to provide sufficient reasons as to why an individual in the Middle East would be so obsessed with waging a war against the US. Western interference The second plausible root cause of al Qaeda’s attack was perpetual Western interference in the oil-rich Persian Gulf. This interference can be traced back to colonization of Arab states by France and Britain, the creation and unequivocal support for the Jewish state – Israel, and currently American hegemony that is exemplified by acts such as the Gulf War in 1990. Western interference is a broader cause than Osama’s war in that it does not merely point the finger at one Western state – America – but at the entire Western world. The heart of this argument on Western interference is that the West has slowly and steadily been eroding the Arab culture by permeating Western ideologies in the Persian Gulf. Thus, September 11 was in essence a manifestation of the clash between pro-Islamic civilization Arabs and pro-Western civilization Arabs. According to Bergen (2006) the Western colonizers introduced socialism and secular Arab nationalism in the Middle East with a promise to create prosperous and just societies. Islamists took the failure of these Western ideologies to fuel their justification for a return to pure Islamic states. In addition to the failure of socialism and secular Arab nationalism, the colonialists promoted divide and rule amongst the Arabs. This technique may have enabled the West to control the Arabs but it eventually did more harm than good. By magnifying the differences among Arabs in each state, Britain and France sowed seeds of animosity amongst the Persian Gulf communities that lasts to date. The argument here is that Islamic fundamentalists found an issue that all Arabs could relate to be strong enough to convince them that Western interference was not only resulted in failure but that it also was indirectly fighting true Islam. This theory argued that the fundamentalist propaganda eventually led to a rise in followers and the call for an Islamic revolution across the world. America being a superpower and the icon of Western world offered the best target for the Islamists to carry out their attack. The clash of Arab civilizations A third theory on the real cause of the September 11 is that the tragedy was result of a clash of Arab civilizations using America as one of its venues (Levingston, 2010). According to this theory, Arab states unlike their Western counterparts have never had the “mechanisms for either sharing power or transmitting political authority from one governing body to another (Levingston, 2010).” The theory states that the Arab political culture only understands coup, conquest and inheritance as the paths to achieving political leadership. Following this line of thought leads to what Levingston (2010) stated could be the most plausible scenario; that the Arab world is currently in a leadership or political power battle. The al Qaeda considers themselves as true Moslems and that they need to fight for supremacy over the Western-influenced Moslems who are running the Arab states. The al Qaeda is as convinced as the Crusaders were that the future of their religion depends on them and their victories in battles. As such, the al Qaeda attacked the US because it supports the other faction of Islam; those whom the al Qaeda seeks to oust from power. Social effects of 9/11 The effects of 9/11 could broadly be categorized into three: social, political and economic effects. The social effects can best be illustrated by the change in attitude of the Americans and their relationship with the Islamic culture within and without of their communities. There is no better example to this than observing how Muslims are treated an American international airports and border entry check-points. Another example is the heated debate with regards to the building of Park51 or Cordoba House two blocks from ground zero. According to Head (2011) this social problem also stems from the lack of strong Islam personalities in the US, say of the order of Malcolm X. Head (2011) argued that the presence of such a strong representative could have made the American people much harder to demonize by the likes of al-Qaeda on one side and by fellow non-Moslem Americans on the other. This personality could also have helped the US government in fostering better understanding between Islam and the other religious faiths in America. Political effects of 9/11 The political effects of September 11 include introduction of tough anti-terrorism legislation by many countries across the globe and collaboration by law enforcement and intelligence agencies in breaking up of suspected terrorist cells worldwide. 9/11 also fueled the American-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq with the blessings of NATO. However, the most recognizable political effect of 9/11 is the legislation of the US PATRIOT Act. This piece of legislation has caused so much controversy, both in the US and abroad especially because it makes privacy, individual or corporate, an abstract concept. While previously individuals were guaranteed of their right to privacy, US PATRIOT Act gives law enforcement agencies somewhat absolute powers. These powers include the discretion to search personal, group or business communications and other record and the power to detain and/or deport immigrants suspected of terrorism-related activities at the law enforcement or immigration agencies discretion. Economic effects of 9/11 Finally, the economic effects of September 11 were of both short-term and long-term impacts. The short term effects included the loss of manpower, resources for the companies that operated at the World Trade Center, increased cost and hassle of air travel and so on. The long-term economic effects will be due to the increased deployment of resources to securing the USs production, finance, distribution, communication and so on. The argument here is that America has been forced to shift extra resources that could have been used to increase its national productivity to secure the country from overdependence on imports, foreign capital and so on (Makinen, 2002). Another obvious example of the economic effect of 9/11 is the increased spending on domestic law enforcement, public safety, and private security services. Conclusion The events of September 11 continue to draw a lot of debate with scholars seeking to identify its real causes and its long-term effects. However, with time, as more information is gained we expect there will be greater clarity with regards to understanding the causes of this tragic occurrence. Most of the immediate socio-political and economic repercussions from 9/11 proved to be temporary, though some medium- and long-term effects continue to be played out. The world has learned important lessons on combating terrorism; the value of religious tolerance and global peace. The fact though is that 9/11 did leave an indelible mark in America’s history. References Bergen, P. (2006, September 24). What were the causes of 9/11? Prospect Magazine. Retrieved July 27, 2011, from http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2006/09/whatwerethecausesof911/ Head, T. (2011, May 19). Could Malcolm X Have Prevented 9/11? About.com: Civil Liberties. Retrieved July 22, 2011, from http://civilliberty.about.com/b/2011/05/19/could-malcolm-x-have-prevented-911.htm Levingston, S. (2010, April 1). Political Bookworm - The cause of 9/11 -- a clash of Arab civilizations. The Washington Post. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-bookworm/2010/04/the_cause_of_911_--_a_clash_of.html Makinen, G. (2002). The Economic effects of 9/11: a retrospective assessment (Report for Congress No. RL31617). Congressional Research Service.  Read More