America's Global War on Terrorism

At 8:46 am, on September 11, 2001, the world would take witness to an event that would change it forever. Five hijackers, with the support of a terrorist group named Al Qaeda, crashed a passenger jet into World Trade Center Tower 1, and seventeen minutes later a second passenger jet was crashed into World Trade Center Tower 2. Now, everyone can remember exactly where they were when they received the news of the attack, but, what most American’s didn’t realize is that these events would lead to the majority of the world into war. This was the first time that the United States would participate in a war against and idea, terrorism, and not a declaration of war against a country itself. In every war that the United States had been involved in, they had been faced against an enemy in the form of a country. Whether it was Spain, Mexico, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, or even against itself, the United States always had a target. These “targets” usually had a uniform; they were also in support of a dictator, king, or even a tyrant. But with the War on Terror, the United States and its allied NATO Nations were not taking actions against a country; they were taking actions against an ideology that had affected the entire planet. The route of this ideology can be traced back to one man, Osama bin Laden. Osama bin Laden, with the help of the United States, forced an invading Soviet Russia out of the country of Afghanistan in the 1980’s. Then, with the support of a radical Islamic state, and the formation of a radical group calling themself al-Qaeda, he declared war on the United States in 1996 (Lansford, Watson & Covarrubias, 2009). Bin Laden was quoted saying, “If the instigation for jihad against the Jews and the Americans…is considered a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal (Lansford, Watson & Covarrubias, 2009).” With this foundation of hatred towards Western influence in the modern world, Osama bin Laden and his radical group