Exploring the Significance of History: How It Shapes Our World - Essay Sample

Introduction

History is one of the most important aspects as it helps to understand various events that took place in the past years. In the world, there have been multiple events that took place in the past, and they have influenced how many things are being done currently. Moreover, history can help people to appreciate the present state Specifically, each country in the world has had its fair share of events that form part their history. These events means a lot to these countries as some of them are being remembered through memorials. The United States of America is one such country that experienced various events in its history and they have had a significant . Some of these events that occurred in the past had a huge magnitude, and as a result, they play an essential role in how certain activities should be carried out. According to van Campen, Hamers & Husslage, (2018)The most significant event that took place in the history of the United States is the 9/11 terror attack. As much as the 9/11 attack took place in the U.S., it shook the whole world for many days. Many people wondered how the US had been attacked considering that it was the super powers. The occurrence of this event had a lot of magnitudes, and as a result, it means a lot of the American People.

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The 9/11 Attack

The 9/11 attack became one of the world's most disastrous terrorist attacks, which not only affected the united states but the whole world. Moreover, the occurrence of this event ws devastating because it disrupted various activivtied such as the economy of the world for a certain period. The 9/11 attack took place on 11th September 2001.

The World Trade Center

On a bright Tuesday morning of 11th September 2001, at 8.45 am, an American Airlines Boeing 767, which was fully loaded with 20, 000 gallons of jet fuel, unfortunately, crashed into the North Tower that was situated within the World Trade Center located in New York City(Gill, Silver & Horgan, 2017). The impact of this crash was huge to the extent that it left a gaping, burning hole next to the 80 floors of the 110 story building. The resulting damage of this impact is that it instantly killed hundreds of people while leaving hundreds more trapped on the higher floors.

Immediately after the incidence, the evacuation process began in the tower as well as in its twin tower. As the evacuation continued, television cameras were relaying images of what seemed to be a freak accident(Gill, Silver & Horgan, 2017). Eighteen minutes after the first plane had hit the tower, a second Boeing 767, which was a united airline flight 175, was seen to be out of the sky, and within a second, it turned sharply and started moving towards the World Trade Center.

On hitting the World Trade Center, this plane completely sliced into the south tower that was near the 60th floor. The resulting collision caused a heavy explosion which spread burning debris to the surrounding buildings and on to the street that was below. Immediately after this attack, it was clear that the United States was under attack.

Osama Bin Laden (Leader of the Al-Qaeda Group)

The hijackers of these planes were Islamic terrorists who had come from Saudi Arabia and other Arab Nations. It is reported that this attack was financed by the A.L. Qaeda Terrorist Organization, whose leader was Osama Bin Laden(Gill, Silver & Horgan, 2017). The al-Qaida groups claimed that this attack was retaliation for the support that Americans had offered Israel, continued military presence in the Middle East, and the involvement of America in the Persian Gulf War.

Some of the terrorists who conducted the attack had lived in the United States for more than a year. These terrorists even took part in flight lessons at the American commercial flight schools. The other group of terrorists had sneaked into the country a few months before the event was carried out, and they became the muscle in operation.

A total of 19 terrorists took part in the event, whereby they easily smuggled knives and box cutters past the security within the three East Coast airports. They later took the four early morning flights that were heading to California. The terrorist chose these plans because they were loaded with fuel that would cover the long journey. Immediately after taking off, the terrorist took control and commanded the planes.

Pentagon Attack

As many people were watching as the events unfolded, the American Airlines Flight 77 started to go down while circling over downward Washington D.C. before it finally crashed into the west side of the Pentagon Military Headquarters. The jet fuel that Boeing 757 had resulted in the deadly inferno, which caused a portion of the Giant section of the building to collapse, and this was the headquarters of the U.S. Department of defense. After this event, 125 military, as well as civilian personnel, were killed in the attack that targeted the Pentagon together with 64 people who had boarded the plane.

Twin Tower Collapse

Fifteen minutes after the attack had hit the nerve of the U.S. defense, the horror took a new shape when the South Tower of the world trade center went down in a huge cloud of dust and smoke even though it had been built to stand a sizeable convectional power(Gill, Silver & Horgan, 2017). At 10.30, the northern tower of the World Trade center followed by collapsing, and only six people survived.

Flight 93

Meanwhile, there was a fourth California bound plane (United Flight 93) that got hijacked 40 minutes after it had left Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. The main target of this plane was not known as it crashed in the rural filled in Pennsylvania near shark vile(Gill, Silver & Horgan, 2017). At 10.10 am.

All the passenger shows were on board this plane was killed. As a result of this attack, a total of 2 996 were killed, including all the 19 terrorists that were aboard the four planes(Gill, Silver & Horgan, 2017) as well as those who were trying to prvide help. Moreover, a total of 7 foreign citizens died in this attack.

What the 9/11 Attack Meant to the American People

The War Was Doing More Harm Than Good

According to Gill, Silver & Horgan (2017), the occurrence of the 9/11 attack meant a lot to the American People. One of the ways that the 9/11 attack was significant to the American people is that is showed them the war that the U.S. had taken was doing more hard to them that the benefit (Gill, Silver & Horgan, 2017). The United States had taken part in the Persian Gulf War.

The Persian Gulf War started in early August 1990. This war began after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion as well as the occupation of neighboring Kuwait (Gill, Silver & Horgan, 2017). Due to these actions, other Arab powers, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, became alarmed and called for help from other western countries such as the U.S (Gill, Silver & Horgan, 2017).

Sadam Hussein defied the call to withdraw from Kuwait in mid-January in 1991. As a result, the Persian Gulf War started with a massive U.S. offensive that was led by the air, which was called the operation desert storm. There were 42 days of relentless attack and the president of the U.S. at the time, George H. W Bush declared a cease-fire on 28th February(Carafano, 2017). At this time, most of the Iraqi forces that were participating in the war had either fled or surrendered.

As a result of taking part in this war, the United States was attacked by the Islamist group as a form of retaliation (Pajic, Weimer, Bezzo & Sokolsky) 2017). This event showed the American people that as much as their military was trying to create peace in the world, everything was not going well with them (Hegghammer & Nesser, 2015). This result of this war was devastating since it led to the 9/11 attack, which caused massive destruction of property as well as life.

The National Intelligence Had to be Improved

The second way in which the 9/11 attack meant to the people was that it showed there national intelligence had to be improved (Falkheimer & Olsson, 2015). The national intelligence of the United States is mandated with the duty of ensuring that they could detect any event that may affect the security of the country.

Before the 9/11 attack, the National Intelligence Service predicted that there might be an attack on American soil (Street, 2015). However, the National Intelligence was not able to prevent the attack from taking place. Therefore, the occurrence of the terror attack meant to the American people that their security organs had some weaknesses (Hegghammer & Nesser, 2015). These weaknesses have to be corrected to prevent such events from re-occurring in the future.

The Americans Were Not Safe From Terror Attacks

The third factor which shows what the 9/11 attack meant to the American people as they were not safe from terror attacks (Lawson, Yeo &Yu, 2016). The United States had taken up operations in the Middle East with the main purpose of flushing out the members of the Islamic groups, A.L. Qaeda.

This activity frustrated the Islamic group, and they decided to retaliate by planning the 9/11 attack, which became the most deadly in the history of the United States as well as the whole world (Lawson, Yeo &Yu, 2016). These events showed the American people that they were not safe from these terror attacks even though the government had put in place measures to prevent them from occurring.

Terrorist Might Be Living Amongst Them

The fourth way that the 9/11 attack on the twin tower meant to the American people was that they could be living with some of the terrorists without their knowledge (Frank, 2017). In the 9/11 terror attack, there were a total of 19 terrorists that conducted the event.

Most of these terrorists had lived in the United States, and some of them even attending commercial aircraft schools to learn how to operate these airplanes (Cowen & Gilbert, 2016). These terrorists carried out their daily activities like any other citizen of the United States would do. In the process, these individuals were planning an attack.

Eventually, after the event had taken place, it was clear that the majority of the terrorists that were involved had been living in the United States for a long time(Cowen & Gilbert, 2016). Therefore, the American people should make sure that they are on the lookout for any person who might be a terrorist.

The Government Had Failed to Protect Them

Acccording to Rousseau, Jamil and Bhui, (2015), the 9/11 terror attack meant to the American people that their government had failed to protect them from the terror attacks (Gill, Silver & Horgan, 2017). The government of the United States has the mandate of protecting its citizens in any way possible and, most importantly, using the security agencies (Rousseau, Jamil & Bhui, 2015).

These security agencies have to be on the lookout to make sure that they are aware of any event that may occur, which may affect the citizens. In this case, the government, through its security agencies, had failed to protect American people, and this led to the occurrence of the 9/11 terror attack, which caused massive destruction of property and t...