IT MUST BE WITHIN THE TIME PERIOD COVERED BY YOUR U.S. HISTORY COURSE( FROM 1877 TO THE PRESENT) - Essay Example

ed, another plane smashed into the west side wing of the Pentagon, the American military nerve centre within an hour after the first attack in New York. As all this happened, another plane was high jacked at an airport in California with 45 passengers on board; it later crashes in a farm in Pennsylvania. An estimated 3000 people died in the New York attacks with the pentagon losing 125 military officers and 64 passengers aboard the high-jacked plane (www.history.com). The president at the time, George W.

Bush, later addressed America and the world from his oval office, recounted the day’s events, and reminded the world that America could not watch as terrorisms reigned over its soil. He concluded his speech with a declaration that the American military will take action in dealing with not only the terrorists, but also their masters. This was the beginning of what would later be known as the War on Terror that would last years, cost billions of dollars, American and foreign lives, and cause a shift in America’s foreign policy and well the world opinion of the United States.

Following the September 11 attacks, America declared war on al-Qaeda and decided to take the battle to their stronghold of Afghanistan. The alleged mastermind of these attacks was Osama bin Laden, a Saudi born fugitive living in Afghanistan and fully supported by the Taliban government that was the authority of the day at the time in Afghanistan. This war, initially intended to last just a few weeks if not months, later took years and is to this day yet to be wound up, finally becoming the undoing of the American government under the leadership of President Bush.

The objective was to capture Osama bin Laden, something that never happened until his death in 2011 under president Obama. The reason for this failure was what was described as ‘bad intelligence’, as a matter of fact, as the troops moved in the rocky mountains of Afghanistan, it emerged that the alleged complex caves that were