A Critical Book Report on Lawrence Wright's the Looming Tower.

The repercussions of September 11, 2001 have been numerous and one thing that certainly cannot be repudiated is that 9/11 resulted in Americans needing a scapegoat. In his book, Scapegoats of September 11th, Michael Welch devotes the first chapter, “Hate Crimes & State Crimes in the War on Terror,” to a discussion of how the September 11th attacks have resulted in stereotyping and the discrimination against a few ethnicities and religions in the United States. In looking at the aftermath of the attacks, Welch also talks about how politicians responded to the attacks and the strategies that they used to advance their political ambitions.

On September 11, 2001, a series of terrorist attacks were directed for the United States by means of four hijacked planes. Two of which hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center, one hit the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Department of Defense, and the fourth crashed in a field near Pittsburg after it was meant to hit the White House. The terror spread in the United States and brought concern and fear to the citizens. The impact of these terrorist attacks caused serious and detrimental damages within the country, and their result on the people were enormous; insecurity, helplessness, and susceptibility spread. Especially after the release of a videotape in which Osama Bin Laden, head of Al-Qaeda, admitted that he was responsible for the terrorist attacks. Hence, President George W, Bush declared the “war on terror” against all terrorists in the Arab world, specifically Afghanistan and Iraq. In the following paper, we will be discussing how the war on terror was waged, its effects on the target countries, and how it was perceived by political thinkers, where some saw it as a conspiracy theory against the Arab countries, and others believed the USA was the victim.

Foreign and domestic policies are not linear, rather the policies are connected in a circle, with each policy reinforcing the values of another. Domestic American terrorism in the prison and detention systems and governmental reforms are influenced by the mobilization and ethnocentrism abroad. The militarization internationally is justified by the domestic handling of the same cultural issues within the United State borders. The United States has strangely used a near Catch-22 to handle dilemmas. The United States has allowed perspective to become reality, whether with oneself or regarding issues abroad, specifically in the Middle East. Terrorism is the use or threat of fear for political or economical gain. An internal characteristic of terrorism is how dependent it is of perspective, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. To understand “terrorism,” a focus must be applied to the history, what drove an organization to commit such acts. Respectively, the Middle East has been a hotbed for the key word “terrorism,” especially because of 9/11. Subsequently, Muslims have been stigmatized by the United States as terrorists. The consequences spawned because of 9/11 require a look to the past to understand the present.

September 11th catalyzed a major revival in the American public’s concern for domestic national security, which had dropped off following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The attacks, which were the first on American soil since Pearl Harbor, prompted American leaders to respond with swift and ambitious military action. At this time, the public perceived security of American territory against “terrorism”–an intentionally broad and emotionally charged term– as its chief national interest. Following the attack, President Bush announced the launch of a “global war on terror”, an international effort to combat terrorist groups and the nations that harbor them–prompting him to establish the Department of Homeland Security later that year.

Following the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, the Unites States found itself in a search for answers and revenge against those that had brought about this atrocity. The attack that has been compared to that of Pearl-Harbor elevated the tracking and collecting of terrorism from barely a priority, to the forefront of the American radar. I honestly believe that terrorism as the #1 priority is destined to remain at the top for the foreseeable future. The elemental thoughts on almost all American minds following the attacks were who had the strength and capability to could carry out such an attack on a country with the world’s strongest military and what led to their focus to attack the Untied States: In short, who

D.  How it shook the illusion held by many Americans of a nation safe from

On the morning of September 11, 2001, an Islamic terrorist group known as al-Qaeda carried out a series of four attacks on the United States. The most well-known attack is when two commercial airline planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City. Many innocent lives were lost and families were torn apart. While many Americans were determined to show their resilience towards the attacks, this is a day many Americans will never forget. Although the attacks happened sixteen years ago, Americans are still dealing with the impacts these attacks have had on life in America. The 9/11 attacks have had several long-lasting effects on everyday life in America, some of which include an increase in airport security, a change in national security, and an increase the fear of terrorism.

The horrific events of that day definitively answered Linenthal’s question, the scale and scope of the 9/11 attacks understandably pushing the 1995 bombing from center stage. The 9/11 attacks, by their very destructiveness, helped to relegate the Oklahoma City bombing to a side exhibit in the national memory—to somewhere in the background of Linenthel’s “landscape of violence.” The 9/11 attacks were larger, far more deadly, and committed by a more faceless, harder-to-comprehend enemy, whether defined as Al Qaeda or more broadly as violent Islamic radicals in general.

From this perspective Lewis believes the economic, political, and general aspect of Middle Eastern societies formed based on those factors; meaning the increase of Islamic driven terrorism and radicalization was somewhat inevitable. However, the viewpoint of Wright in The Looming Tower fixated on the personal identity of certain individuals, choices made by the free will of people, and the idea that these specific people and choices were the sole backbone of the movement of radical Islamic terror; had they not existed, the issue may not have been present.

On September 11 2001, an attack was made on United States. Four systematic terrorist attacks were pulled off by the group al-Qaeda simultaneously bringing down the World Trade Centre in New York and damaging the Pentagon in Washington D.C. As extensive and in depth as the cause for the attack may have been, September 11 is an event that has undoubtedly left its mark in American history. A turning point, as some would call it, of the political, social, and economic systems of the United States. Quickly following the terrorist attack on 9/11, President George W. Bush called for a “war against terrorism.” Instead, what truly occurred was an act of counter terrorism. After 9/11, the political system of America took a turn for the worst;

The looming tower by Lawrence wright is a nonfiction book that covers the decades that lead to the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East, and around the world. This book described the how the lives of men from different backgrounds and countries came together and organized the most fear terrorist organization in the modern history. This book goes on to show the lack of understanding that the United States intelligence community had when dealing with the Islamic community, and how all of this culminated into what most remember as 9/11.

“Muslims, Bin Laden argues, must reverse a series of humiliations that they’ve endured since the Ottoman Empire, the last Muslim great power, was dismantled after World War I. Al-Qaeda’s 1998 declaration of a jihad, or holy war, against ‘Jews and Crusaders’ urges Muslims to attack ‘the Americans and their allies, civilian and military,’ supposedly as a response to U.S. policies that al-Qaeda feels oppress Muslims: the stationing of troops in Saudi Arabia; the backing of U.N. sanctions against Iraq; support for repressive Arab regimes; support for Israel; alleged complicity in Russian attacks on Muslims in Chechnya; and interventions in Bosnia, Somalia, and other Muslim regions that bin Laden sees as attempts to spread America’s empire. These Western policies, according to al-Qaeda, add up to a ‘clear

The horrible attacks that occurred on September 11th, 2001 left many Americans wondering one simple question: Why do they hate us so much? The devastation caused by these attacks was so much that it left the Americans confused and making up their own theories regarding what the main reason behind all this hatred is. Surely, there isn't one American out there who would approve of the terrorism that has been ongoing since 2001. The most direct and automatic assumption being made is that the Taliban, terrorist and even Assassins for that matter just hate the Americans because America promotes freedom and democracy. Wardlaw (1989) stated that the most common question about terrorism is why people go on this path. As plain and simple as that sounds, it shows that most of the Americans don't really have a clue about why these attacks occurred in the first place. The time today has come that every single American and not even American, every person out there should understand the motivations behind terrorists and Assassins. Crenshaw (1990) stated that terrorism itself affects the individuals, the society, the government and of course the terrorist organization. Thus, when we look at the terrorism act happening in the U.S. or Afghanistan, it will ultimately affect us regardless of where we leave. This leads into the major hypothesis that this paper presents. Americans as a whole should be aware of the motivation and the major reasons as to

September 11th changed the lives of many Americans, irrevocably. The horrendous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon altered the way American’s viewed their positions within the world, not to mention their lives and their safety. The attacks brought terrorism to the forefront of national attention, in every aspect. The government became immediately immersed in an effort to understand and defeat terrorism, and simultaneously, the media, with its perverse fascination with violence and profit-driven espousal to round-the-clock, up-to-the-minute coverage, demonstrated an obsession with the attacks, by broadcasting almost nothing but the latest developments in the search and rescue efforts and investigations

Over the course of the twentieth century, numerous governments across the globe established organizations and agencies with aims of combating international terrorism. However, these agencies did not establish vast public attention or immense government spending until the fall of 2001. The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 marked the transformation of not only the American economy, but also a shift in public perceptions of terrorism, both at home and abroad. The attacks of September 11th also allowed for an expansion of political power for United States’ officials as citizens overlooked the lack of regard for civil liberties and adherence to policy due to personal fears regarding terrorism. While