Week 11
Part 1
9/11 and London Bombings
Min word count 200
You should not use any outside sources beyond the actual document to complete these assignments. Your submissions are intended to be your own analysis and reflections, not based on what you found on the internet or work you did with another student in the class (either past or present).
Introduction
A series of terrorist attacks occurred eight months into Bush’s first term as president on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 victims lost their lives in the attacks. On the night of September 11, George W. Bush addressed the nation in a speech that has become very well-known.
The July 7, 2005 London bombings, were a series of coordinated terrorist suicide bomb attacks in central London which targeted civilians using the public transport system during the rush hour. On the morning of Thursday, July 7th, four Islamist extremists separately detonated three bombs in quick succession aboard London Underground trains across the city, and later, a fourth on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square. Fifty-two people were killed and over 700 more were injured in the attacks, making it Britain’s deadliest terrorist incident since the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, as well as the country’s first ever Islamist suicide attack.
At the time of the attacks, Prime Minister Tony Blair was at the G8 Conference in Scotland as part of an international effort to provide aid to Africa, cancel international debt owed from impoverished nations, and find a solution to global warming by reducing carbon emissions (the United States refused the agreement, but the other 7 nations created their own pact). Because of the bombings, Blair decided to leave the G8 meeting temporarily to be present in London. He held a brief press conference, saying that the incidents were obviously terrorist attacks directed at the gathering of the G8. He also said that the meeting would continue in his absence, with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw filling in for him. Reports suggest that the bombings may have been planned that day because the terrorists knew that a large number of London police officers would be deployed in Scotland, weakening the city.
Read the attached documents and answer the following questions (you also have the option to watch the speeches, linked here):
- Examine the reactions to attacks on the United States by George W. Bush after 9/11 and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair after the 2005 London Bombings. Imagine yourself as a citizen who has just woken up to news of these attacks (both events happened in the morning hours). Keep in mind that Bush responded in the evening after the morning attacks with a prepared statement, while Blair responded unprepared within minutes of hearing the news. Which reaction would you prefer from your nation’s leader? Why?
911 Speech.docx Download 911 Speech.docx – 9/11 Speech Video (Links to an external site.)
London Bombings Speech.docx Download London Bombings Speech.docx – London Bombings Video
Part 2
National Security and the Islamic World
Min word count 200
You should not use any outside sources beyond the actual document to complete these assignments. Your submissions are intended to be your own analysis and reflections, not based on what you found on the internet or work you did with another student in the class (either past or present).
Introduction
In September 2002, one year after the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Bush Administration released a document called the National Security Strategy. It outlined a fundamental shift in American foreign policy. The National Security strategy announced that the United States must maintain an overwhelming preponderance of military power, not allowing any other country to challenge its overall strength or its dominance in any region of the world. To replace the Cold War doctrine of deterrence, which assumed that the certainty of retaliation would prevent the attacks on the United States and its allies, the document announced new foreign policy principle –preemptive war. If the United States believes that a nation posed a possible future threat to its security, it had the right to attack before such a threat materialized.
In the wake of the American invasion of Iraq, respect for the United States sank to a low ebb in the Islamic World. In June 2009, President Obama traveled to Egypt to deliver a speech aimed at repairing American relations with the world’s one billion Muslims, severely damaged by the war and the sense that many Americans identified all Muslims with the actions of a few terrorists. Entitled “A New Beginning,” it acknowledged past American misdeeds and promised to respect Islamic traditions and values rather than trying to impose American ideas on the Muslim world. But he also reminded his audience of the importance of principles like democracy or equal opportunity for women, widely denied by Islamic governments the Middle East. How to promote these values without being seen as an outside power seeking to impose its will on others would remain a challenge for the Obama Administration and its successors.
Read the attached documents and answer the following questions:
- How does Obama’s speech repudiate the National Security Strategy? In other words, what does the National Security Strategy say, and how does Obama reverse some of these claims? Be sure to cite specific examples from each document.
Part 3
Discussion
Word count min 250
In these discussion forums, you are allowed and encouraged to use outside resources for your responses.
Are peace and stability in the Middle East vital to the United States’ economy and national security?
Part 4
Reply to Dieter
Min word count 150
Considering that the Middle East still seems to be a source of oil and gas for many countries including the United States unfortunately, the answer to this question is a hard yes. This seems to be especially true recently as the Biden administration has shut down most oil and gas pipelines within the country and instead chooses to approach Venezuela and Saudi Arabia for oil. If by the “Middle East”, we are specifically referring to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Dubai, or any other country close to this region, then any outbreak of war will be felt by the price we pay at the gas pump.
Another reason peace in the Middle East is important to us here at home in the United States is that we don’t want to provoke people into hating the United States so much that they are willing to do whatever it takes to avenge whoever they lost due to United States military action. Many people in Iraq and Afghanistan lost their entire family and friends due to American airstrikes or shootings. Many of these were just innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, and the United States military was especially careless during the 2003 Iraq invasion when many civilian areas were hit. An Onion article writer by the name of Nathan Eckert even said “From this war, a million Bin Ladens will bloom”. Despite the Onion being a satirical website, it seems like his prediction was right given the rise of ISIS. At the very least, the US needs to leave the Middle East alone so that future generations aren’t provoked to violence and the desire for revenge.
https://www.theonion.com/this-war-will-destabilize-the-entire-mideast-region-and-1819594296
