September 11 - The Attack on America

This Day in History: 11 September 2020

 

11 September 2001

 

19 years ago, today, the Attack on America, also known as 9/11, occurred when two American Airliners crashed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City. The collisions caused massive explosions that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. Hundreds of people were instantly killed and hundreds more were trapped in the building's higher floors. At first, it seemed like a freak accident, but when the second plane hit, it was clear that the attackers were Islamic terrorists, reportedly financed by al Qaeda.

 

The terrorists were reportedly acting in retaliation for America's support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War, and its continued military presence in the Middle East. After the attack was over, it was revealed that only six people in the World Trade Centre towers at the time of collapse survived. 10,000 other people were treated for injuries, and close to 3,000 people died. In order to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Ladin's terrorist network there, Operation Enduring Freedom was launched in October. Ten years later, bin Laden was killed during a raid of his compound in Pakistan by US forces.

 

Want to find out more about the 9/11 attacks? Click here for more information, or here for more about how the attacks changed America.

Does Bin Laden Deserve a Place in History?

The dramatic events in Pakistan on Monday led to the death of Osama Bin Laden and the end of a nearly ten year-long manhunt following the terrorist attacks on September 11. His death is clearly significant, and has led to a huge amount of media coverage around the world and given Barack Obama a helpful victory at a politically significant time. This BBC article takes a longer view, considering Bin Laden's background and career and whether historians will consider him of significance in the long term, particularly in the light of the recent dramatic events in Egypt, Libya and Syria which have had little involvement from Al Qaeda.

9/11

Channel 4's programme 9/11: State of Emergency was an appropriate reminder of just how devastating the attacks were on 9/11 to the USA's feeling of security at the top level and the personal tragedies and survival for those ordinary people caught up in what was the USA's worst terrorist attack. Watch it on Channel 4 OD. Particularly revealing are Condoleezza Rice's comments. As National Security Adviser she was crucial to the response and her interview is fascinating for the processes put into action (Cold War links here abound) and the chaos that was unleashed at the heart of the world's most powerful government. If you watch it, please add your own comments.

PS: Here is the angry analysis of the consequences of 9/11 by the Independent's Robert Fisk. This extract from his conclusion shows his point of view pretty clearly:
"Anniversaries are newspaper and television events. And they can have an eerie habit of coalescing together to create an unhappy memorial framework. Thus do we commemorate the Battle of Britain – a chivalric episode in our history – and the Blitz, a progenitor of mass murder, to be sure, but a symbol of innocent courage – as we remember the start of a war that has torn our morality apart, turned our politicians into war criminals, our soldiers into killers and our ruthless enemies into heroes of the anti-Western cause."

Obama and the mosque

As promised, some arguments for and against the mosque in New York. The mosque or Islamic cultural centre is to be built two blocks away from ground zero, the space where the twin towers used to be until they were destroyed by Islamic extremists on 9/11. The Economist puts both points of view but very quickly refutes those against it. Here is the New York Times's reporting of three Congressmen's explanations of why they are against it. For Obama it is increasingly an important issue as in mid-August in a CNN poll 70% of people claimed that they were against the building of the mosque and there are mid-term elections in November...

What do you think? Is this bringing out latent islamophobia in America or should there be an islamic symbol so close to the place where those of that faith killed over 3,000 people?

9/11 Leaks

The Wikileaks website has published over half a million electronic messages that were sent on 11 September 2001. It is unclear how it acquired these and the legality and morality of publishing private messages is rather dubious. However, it does provide further insight into the chaos, confusion and high emotion of that day. Here is more information on the story, plus an article about how Wikileaks has gained a reputation for exposing information others would prefer the public not to see.

PS: Please note Wikileaks is not available on the school system.

Changing attitudes to 9/11

Today is the 8th anniversary of "9/11", when terrorists hijacked aircraft to attack the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC. President Obama has attended a memorial service at the Pentagon, and Vice-President Biden laid a wreath at Ground Zero. Today is now known in the US as the "National Day of Service and Remembrance". However, 8 years on, is people's attitude to this event now changing? Can it now be described as an event "from history"? Certainly the new intake of Year 7s at Nonsuch(aged three at the time) have no memory of it. Perhaps the inauguration of President Obama makes it easier to consign 9/11 to a previous "chapter" of history. What do you think, and what are your memories of the day?

On another note, there was a documentary on BBC2 last night about the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. It approached the subject, through its narrative and interviews with key figures, clearly a historical event. Is this too soon, and when is it acceptable to treat events in the past as history?