Before the terrorists attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States was at war with Iraq and had a presence in Saudi Arabia which lead to conflict to terrorist groups and terrorists attacks within the US, but no action was taken that would change American politics, society, or foreign policy. After the attacks, everything changed. The US became much strict in its search for and elimination of terrorism, both within the country and around the world. The events also brought the country together, but at the same time separated the country into parties and groups. We also wanted to spread democracy to prevent the spread and start of terrorism. The terrorist attacks on 9/11 affected American politics by consequently allowing the government more
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We had declared war on terrorism shortly after the attacks which lead to our involvement in multiple wars in the Middle-East in an effort to eliminate terrorism and spread democracy to prevent terrorism. In Bush’s speech at West Point he says how our military must be ready at all times to put down terrorism wherever it pops up at a moment 's notice to defend our liberty (doc 3). After 9/11, the US wanted to prevent any future attack of the same kind and we would do so by building up our military to stop terrorism at it’s source, extremist groups. Along the way we also wanted to spread democracy to nations still under dictatorship, like Iraq, to prevent the fostering of terrorism. In Secretary of State Powell’s address in 2003 he says that the liberation of Iraq is a victory for freedom and has prevented future conflict and how a democracy will be put into place (doc 4). However this wasn’t all great, even though we installed a new government in Iraq it didn’t really help the country that much. It was unstable before and almost just as much after as not all want to obey a democratic government or support the way it works. This is why we still have a presence there and are still trying to stabilize the country. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq following the 9/11 attacks also lead to many civilian casualties in the countries they were fought in. During the Iraq war alone 10s of thousands of civilians casualties were reported (doc 9). This lead to the wars becoming controversial in American and the American foreign policy being questioned as a few thousand were killed in the 9/11 attacks, but many, many more were killed in countries we fought in
We had declared war on terrorism shortly after the attacks which lead to our involvement in multiple wars in the Middle-East in an effort to eliminate terrorism and spread democracy to prevent terrorism. In Bush’s speech at West Point he says how our military must be ready at all times to put down terrorism wherever it pops up at a moment 's notice to defend our liberty (doc 3). After 9/11, the US wanted to prevent any future attack of the same kind and we would do so by building up our military to stop terrorism at it’s source, extremist groups. Along the way we also wanted to spread democracy to nations still under dictatorship, like Iraq, to prevent the fostering of terrorism. In Secretary of State Powell’s address in 2003 he says that the liberation of Iraq is a victory for freedom and has prevented future conflict and how a democracy will be put into place (doc 4). However this wasn’t all great, even though we installed a new government in Iraq it didn’t really help the country that much. It was unstable before and almost just as much after as not all want to obey a democratic government or support the way it works. This is why we still have a presence there and are still trying to stabilize the country. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq following the 9/11 attacks also lead to many civilian casualties in the countries they were fought in. During the Iraq war alone 10s of thousands of civilians casualties were reported (doc 9). This lead to the wars becoming controversial in American and the American foreign policy being questioned as a few thousand were killed in the 9/11 attacks, but many, many more were killed in countries we fought in