Remembering 9/11

USSR vs. Afghanistan 1979 - 1989

Soviets in Afghanistan 1988

Thanks USA – Gave Afghanistan arms

http://media.militaryphotos.net/photos/Replicator-Gun-Works/aac?full=1

Soviets leaving Afghanistan 1989

Taliban Takes Charge of CountryTaliban were the strict Islamic government of

Afghanistan

1993 WTC Bombing

• 6 people killed when a bomb goes off beneath WTC.

Al-Qaeda• Claims

responsibility for attack on USA

• Taliban lets Al-Qaeda hide out in their county because they are allies.

Al-Qaeda Alliance with Taliban

• 1996 Osama bin Laden moves from Sudan to Afghanistan

• Leader of Al-Qaeda

According to Bin Laden, he is concerned with• American foreign policy towards, and American actions

in, the Muslim world • US support for Israel in its ongoing theft of Arab land• US support for corrupt and repressive regimes in the

Muslim world (Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states).

• Post 9/11, the US has added to an already long list of Muslim grievances by occupying Afghanistan and Iraq. 

Why did these people want to attack America?

2000

• Men who Hijacked planes begin arriving in the U.S.

9/11/01

• 19 Terrorists hijacked four planes.

• The intended targets were:– Twin Towers (North and South)– The Pentagon– Washington D.C. (White House?)

Airplanes

• American Airlines Flight 11– Departure: Boston, MA– Destination: Los Angles, CA

• United Airlines Flight 175– Departure: Boston, MA– Destination: Los Angles, CA

• American Airlines Flight 77– Departure: Dulles, VA– Destination: Los Angles, CA

• United Airlines Flight 93– Departure: Newark, NJ– Destination: San Francisco, CA

Timeline

• 8:20am: Flight 11 declared hijacked• 8:42am: Flight 175 declared hijacked• 8:46am: Flight 11 crashes into North

Tower• 8:50am: Flight 77 is hijacked• 8:55: President George W. Bush is

alerted. The President is at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida

Timeline

• 9:02am: Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower. Broadcasted on live television.

• 9:08am: FAA grounds all planes.

• 9:28am: Flight 93 is hijacked.

• 9:37am: Flight 77 crashes into the Westside of The Pentagon.

• 9:43am: The White House is evacuated.

• 9:59am: The South Tower collapses.

Timeline

• 10:02am: The Sears Tower in Chicago is evacuated.

• 10:03am: Flight 93 crashes in Somerset County, PA.– Passengers overthrew the terrorists and crash

the plane before it hits Washington D.C., its intended target.

• 10:28am: The North Tower collapses.• 5:20pm: 7 World Trade Center collapses.

Camera That Captured the First Plane

The Aftermath

• Heightened security at airports and various mass transit locations.

• The Patriot Act

• Homeland Security

• War On Terrorism

• Surge in military enrollment

• October 7, 2001– The U.S. attacks Afghanistan and the Taliban,

beginning a war that continues until 2013. 2326 Americans were killed, more than 20,000 wounded.

– Up to 360,000 Afghans died from the war and its effects.

NATO• North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• “committed to preserving peace through international cooperation and collective (joint) security.”

• Have given forces to War in Afghanistan (49 countries – now 37)

Taliban• “Thanks Iran!”

2003: Iraq War

• President Bush 2 justified invasion of Iraq in that…

• Iraq had WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction)

• Iraq had not complied with UN inspectors

• Iraq had supported Al Qaeda in the past

• Turns out none of the above was true

But US still got Hussein - and he was executed in 2006

More than 4,400 U.S. soldiers killed, more than 40,000 injured.

Up to 500,000 Iraqi dead.

Are both wars another Are both wars another Vietnam?Vietnam?

• Long dragged out conflicts with no end in sight.

• Can’t tell whose an friend or foe.

• Not popular at home.

• Not popular with other governments or their people.

• Not winning the hearts and minds of the people.

• Fighting primitive people with nothing to lose

What are the problems?• Friend or Foe?• Suicide Bombers• IED- Improvised

Explosive Devices• Taliban Aid from Iran• Taliban Aid from Russia• Drug Trade Flourishes

(92% of World’s Heroin)• Famine• Never known democracy• Extreme Islamic Groups

• Mountains and Terrain

• Border crossing• Inadequate amount of

US troops• Untrained Afghani

Troops• Legitimate Government?

• Civilian Casualties+3,000 Deaths

Death of Osama Bin Laden

• Osama bin Laden, head of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1 a.m.

• Operation Neptune Spear, was ordered by United States President Obama.

• The mission was carried out by US Navy SEALs from the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group of the Joint Special Operations Command.

• He was killed in his compound in Pakistan.

Bin Laden’s Compound

Viewing of Operation Neptune Spear

Conspiracy Theories of 9/11

• 9/11 was an inside job– US planned 9/11 to initiate war on Al-Qaeda

• The planes had no windows and carried bombs.• The US Government knew about the attacks before they happened.• 9/11 did not exist.

ISIS• Islamic State of Iraq and Syria evolved

from a group called Islamic State of Iraq

• Islamic State of Iraq evolved directly from Al Qaeda in Iraq, a cousin branch of Bin Laden’s group. Al Qaeda and ISI fought the U.S. for many years in Iraq

Video

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNNTcHq5Tzk