Paper Example. 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

For a good number of years now, the world has witnessed many terrorist attacks, bombings, and mass shootings. The most horrific instance, however, continues to be the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The aircraft that were hijacked flew into the Pentagon, the Twin Towers, and another in Pennsylvania crashed into a field. Several lives were lost, many mourned, and some lives were spared. The attacks had been planned and executed by Al Qaeda, a terrorist group that was led by Osama bin Laden, who was later tracked and killed in 2011, almost ten years later. Since they occurred, the attacks have been the subject of many official and independent investigations that seek to examine different angles of what could have happened. Conspiracy theorists have raised many issues that have triggered controversy, like why did the buildings collapse so quickly or why the hijacked plane was not shot down by the military. Substantial evidence has been found by conspiracy thinkers that show that the terrorist attack on 9/11 was an inside job. Such conspiracy theories are why it is difficult to accept that the US government was not involved in any way.

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A Boeing 767 hits World Trade Center tower one at precisely 8.48 am on September 2001. A few minutes later, at 9.02 am, the second tower is hit by another plane. People seemed stunned, terrified, devastated, puzzled, and furious. They were not prepared for what would happen next. The second tower falls about one hour later, causing a massive cloud of ashes and dust. At approximately 10.30 am, tower one collapses, causing another wave of dust. That would be a disaster that would worsen gradually. Before any investigation was conducted to discover the cause of both Twin Towers' collapse, it was believed that the planes hitting them did it. In 2006, the History Channel did a documentary, The 9/11 Conspiracies; Fact or Fiction, aimed at reliving the events and asking questions from experts in different fields to try and decipher the puzzle. In the documentary, various experts assert that the buildings collapsed as a result of the plane’s trauma when hitting the building. Conversely, according to the conspiracy theorist, controlled destruction was planned by the government. If a close look is put on the videos of controlled demolition and videos showing the towers collapsing, one can see that they appear very similar in the way they collapse and crash into a heap.

Numerous bombs are put inside a building to take it down, and most importantly, they are perfectly timed to bring it down with minimal damage to surrounding buildings. Several eyewitnesses point out that they saw and heard bombs explode right before each tower collapsed. Furthermore, a detailed study of Twin-Towers' video demonstrates smoke escaping from below the place where the floors above were collapsing. It is believed claim this could not have happened due to bombs from within, so it was a demolition that was controlled. The thought does not convince most people that the fall of the Twin Towers was a demolition that was controlled, and bombs were within. However, a critical examination with this in mind shows that the collapse of the towers could not have occurred due to any other thing. It is also suggested that the destruction was actually due to steel weakening from the plane fuel flames. This appears reasonable, but Kevin Ryan, a chemist, has a different opinion, "Steel requires samples to be exposed to 2000 degrees F for multiple hours… un-fireproofed Steel will not melt until 3000 degrees F. why Dr. Brown would imply that 2000 degrees F would melt high-grade Steel used in buildings makes no sense at all. If it did soften or melt, it was not due to the briefly burning fires,". The Steel did not burn enough because the fire did not burn long enough to allow the towers to fall so fast. What makes sense is that this was done by bombs or controlled demolition.

It was after around a half an hour when the second plane crashed into the second tower that in Wahington DC, the Pentagon was crashed into by a plane at about 9.35 am. What seems peculiar is the way the plane crashed into the Pentagon. The government says that the plane that hit the tower belongs to American Airlines; however, there is no definite proof to confirm this. Only one video shows the collapse, but it has poor quality, so it is difficult to verify that what one sees is an airplane. Many say there were surveillance cameras from the nearby hotels that captured the footage, and the FBI took them shortly after the event. Due to the absence of visual footage and tangible proof on the ground, conspiracy theories claim that what struck the Pentagon was a missile. A lot of evidence strongly supports the concept of a rocket crashing into the Pentagon rather than an airplane. The first justification why it was not an airplane is that it would have resulted in traces in the grass, but there were not any marks at the vicinity.

Furthermore, it is incredibly odd that there was only a little plane debris like the engine and the wings. The only things found were only tiny metal pieces. People claimed a little was discovered because, according to the plane's speed, it would have collapsed on collision. If that purportedly occurred, then why were the bodies found in the wreckage not disintegrated? The reasoning that attests that this was not an aircraft is the hole's size in the building. While the plane was about 44 feet high with 125-foot wings, the gap had a diameter of approximately 15 feet. There was only one hole, and there were no holes where the engines or wings would have entered, making it weirder. Therefore, it was a missile that hit the Pentagon as it is not possible that the object that crashed into the Pentagon was an airplane.

The United Flight crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, is among the most enigmatic incidences on 9/11. The government claimed that the plane crashed due to the courageous individuals who retaliated when the hijackers invaded the airplane. At this moment, several of the travelers had learned of what was going on in Washington, DC, and New York City. Once these individuals realized they were being hijacked, they contacted their family members from the aircraft phones. According to conspiracy theories, the calls were fake due to the difficulty in making the calls in the plane. One incident from the documentary shows a person calling his mother at home but gives his full name, which is unusual as many individuals do not state their full name when calling their family. Experts claim the calls were fake since Los Alamos National Lab discovered a voice morphing technique that might have been used in doing that. Believing that this might be true is tragic; however, that might have likely happened.

Conclusion

The 9/11 attacks marked a paradigm shift in the US on terrorism and US foreign policy. Combating terrorism became a top priority for the US government. Since then, the US has engaged in wars with nations that, in its view, support terrorism. "The War on Terror," as it has been branded, is seen as the driving force behind US military activities like the war in Afghanistan. A study by Boston University, reveals that the United States is obligated to have spent $6.4 Trillion by the end of 2020 in costs directly related to the war on terror globally. The report also says that the war will cost more than 800,000 American lives. The Middle East policy of the United States government was changed drastically in the post-9/11 foreign policy review and has since been one of deep suspicion and unwarranted antagonism. Internally, national security has been used as an excuse to invade the privacy of citizens, and many of the violations can be traced to the war on terror. Guantanamo Bay, the notorious terrorist prison, was commissioned in 2002 during the administration of President George W. Bush. The camp has been accused of numerous human rights violations, like indefinite pre-trial detention, and for using torture. These are just some of examples of how the war on terror that began in the wake of the 9/11 attacks has affected the lives of Americans and other people around the world. For some time, Americans of Muslim Arab descent were viewed with suspicion and even hate crimes were committed against them. This is a high cost for Americans, and hence there is some justification for the independent investigations that have been shunned as conspiracy theories.

Several theories exist as to why the government would decide to do this to its nation. Such theories encompass: a German corporation named Convar could retrieve details from government machines directly regarding 9/11 plans, going to war with Afghanistan, and finding one of the world's biggest gold depositories beneath the World Trade Center, "Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced that more than $230 million was recovered from Ground Zero". All these theories are significant explanations for the government to invade their nation. The reality of what transpired is out there; perhaps, it will be disclosed someday.

Works Cited

Avery, Dylan. Loose Change. 2006.

Hoffman, Bruce. "Rethinking Terrorism And Counterterrorism Since 9/11". Studies In Conflict & Terrorism, vol 25, no. 5, 2002, pp. 303-316. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/105761002901223

Knight, Peter. "Outrageous Conspiracy Theories: Popular And Official Responses To 9/11 In Germany And The United States". New German Critique, vol 35, no. 1, 2008, pp. 165-193. Duke University Press, doi:10.1215/0094033x-2007-024.

Olmsted, Kathryn S. Real Enemies: Conspiracy theories and American democracy, World War I to 9/11. Oxford University Press, 2019

"9/11 Conspiracies; Fact Or Fiction". Peacock Productions (II), 2006.

Kimball, Jill. "The Cost Of The Global War On Terror: $6.4 Trillion And 801,000 Lives". Brown University, 2020, https://www.brown.edu/news/2019-11-13/costsofwar.