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9/11 Attack
The key event that signaled a change in American foreign policy at the beginning of the twenty-first century was the first attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor: 9/11. On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists affiliated with the radical Islamist organization al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes in the United States. Two of them were flown directly into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, killing nearly 3,000 people. Another was flown into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., while the last crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to stop the hijacking. The 9/11 attack was the deadliest attack on Americans since Pearl Harbor and created massive public support for military interventions abroad.
The origins of the 9/11 attack are related to the rise of Islamic extremism in the Middle East in the 1970s and 1980s. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the United States backed Afghan resistance fighters—the mujahideen—against the Soviets. The United States helped arm and train the mujahideen much as they had done local military forces in earlier Cold War hot spots. However, once the Soviets were defeated, these Islamist groups turned against America and formed the base for armed terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda. American involvement in the region more broadly, especially its close alliance with Israel and military bases in Saudi Arabia, created widespread hostility. America was seen as a nation whose cultural and political values were antithetical to those of the religious, authoritarian regimes of many Middle Eastern nations. The combination of these factors resulted in terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in 1998 in Africa, the attempted bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, and eventually the 9/11 attacks.
The War on Terror
The 9/11 attacks shocked the nation and the world and prompted a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy, leading to military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. This conflict, called the War on Terror, aimed to combat terrorism globally and became the centerpiece of President George W. Bush’s foreign policy in response to 9/11. The goal was to dismantle Islamist terror groups and prevent any future attacks. To do so, the Bush Doctrine stated that the United States had the right to preemptively act with its military to protect against any potential threats to national security. This resulted in the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 to remove the Taliban regime, which had provided a safe space for al-Qaeda as it planned the 9/11 attacks. Additionally, Iraq was invaded in 2003. This action was justified by claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and ties to terrorist groups. Hussein had a complicated past relationship with the United States. Hussein had been a U.S. ally against Iran in the 1980s but was also the Iraqi leader during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. While the War on Terror successfully removed Hussein from power and helped to move the Iraqi government toward democracy, the existence of the weapons was never proven, leading to criticism surrounding the false pretense of the invasion.
Impacts of the War on Terror
As part of the War on Terror, the United States created facilities to detain suspected terrorists in places such as Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Reports of mistreatment of detainees and the legal issues regarding holding these prisoners indefinitely without trial led to Guantanamo Bay becoming a symbol of concerns about human rights and civil liberties. In efforts to identify potential terrorist attacks, the use of enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding—a form of torture—and sleep deprivation by the U.S. military led to domestic and international criticism. Domestically, the USA Patriot Act was passed in late 2001, expanding the government’s ability to access large troves of personal data (such as phone records) from average American citizens also in the name of national security. This allowed for increased monitoring of communications, including phone calls and emails, without a warrant. Supporters argued that this expansion of government authority was necessary for keeping Americans safe from future attacks. Critics worried about the potential for the abuse of power and loss of privacy rights. The USA Freedom Act of 2015 limited some of the actions permitted by the Patriot Act and clarified methods available to the government to protect national security.
