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Anthony Blair 9/11 Speech Analysis

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On September 11, 2001, nineteen militants from the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger airplanes and attempted to decimate essential American landmarks and military targets using the planes. They were meant to strike the Pentagon (the headquarters of the US Department of Defense), New York’s World Trade Center, and the US White House. Two of the planes flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, and another crashed in a field in Pennsylvania when onboard passengers onboard fought back after hearing news about the other hijacked planes. Even though the WTC attack was the only success for the terrorists, the attack killed nearly 3,000 people, among them citizens from many different countries and religious backgrounds. In the ensuing warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, …show more content…

Led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, the UK went to great lengths to justify its participation in the United States’s “War on Terror,” by publicly setting clear guidelines about who was being targeted and how they were fought.
After news of the September 11 attacks reached the rest of the world, Blair soon gave a speech addressing the attacks and how they would affect the entire world. In the speech, he firmly supplied the message that the fight against terror is the UK’s burden. Blair stated that "The UK feels a duty to act in response to the September 11 attacks." When the terrorists attacked, they showed no regard towards the identity of the victims: their only concern was how much damage they could cause. The terrorists were, and still are, waging war on free democracies in the name of a radical offshoot of Islam. Chaos and anarchy is the goal. Blair was thus correct in stating that the UK must help fight radical terrorists who murder innocent civilians, as it affects not only America but the unity of the nations of the world. In the years since, similar terrorist bombings in the UK itself by

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