Ford 1

Anthony Ford

Mr. McClintic

History of Wars

26 January 2017

9/11 deadliest attack on U.S Soil

One of the most thought of questions you could ask yourself is should the United States

be more involved in the fight against ISIS and other terrorist groups? In addition, could the

United States have prevented the deadly terrorist attack know as 9/11? Lastly, what things went

wrong in the process leading up to 9/11. Many of these questions will be answered throughout

this piece.

The 9/11 attacks were a surprise, but they should not have come as a surprise. Islamist

extremists had given plenty of warning they had meant to kill many Americans in large numbers.

During the spring and summer of 2001, United States intelligence agencies received a stream of

warnings that Al Qaeda planned something very, very, big. Bin Laden was determined to a large-

scale attack in the United States. While the United States continued their disruption efforts

around the world, their emerging strategy to eliminate the Al Qaeda threat was to include an

enlarged covert action program in Afghanistan, as well diplomatic strategies for Afghanistan and

Pakistan. There was also a process cumulated during the summer of 2001 in a draft presidential

directive and arguments about the Predator Aircraft, which was to be deployed with a missile of

its own, so it might be used to attempt to Kill Osama Bin Laden or his chiefs.
 Ford 2

Many things went wrong in the process leading up to 9/11. Here are many ways the

United States failed to protect itself from 9/11. There were multiple reasons why this attack

happened but probably the main reason was the not sharing of information between sections of

the government. Other smaller reason included not discovering false statements on visa

applications, not recognizing false passports, and not expanding no fly lists to include names

from terrorists then another key important failure was one of their imagination. People believe

leaders do not understand the gravity of the threat. Bin Laden and Al Qaeda was a huge major

topic for policy debate among people and the media, but it barely even surfaced during the 2000

presidential campaign.

Al Qaedas new brand of terrorism presented many different challenges to the United

States Governmental institutions that were not well designed to meet. Even though top officials

all told us that they understood the danger, we believe there was uncertainty among them. As to

whether this was just a new and especially bad version of the ordinary terrorist threat the United

States had lived with for decades, or it was indeed a radically new, posing threat beyond what

anyone had ever seen before.

The United States policy on terrorism was not the national securitys biggest concern for

the United States government under both the Clinton, and the pre 9/11 bush administration.

These policy challenges were linked to the failure of imagination that I talked about earlier. Both

officials in the Bush and Clinton campaign thought a full U.S invasion of Afghanistan was

practically not possible before 9/11.

So throughout this piece I Explained One of the most thought of questions you

could ask yourself is should the United States be more involved in the fight against terrorist

groups. Also, how the United States could have prevented the deadly terrorist attack know as
 Ford 3

9/11. Lastly, what things went wrong in the process leading up to 9/11. So this is why I believe

the United States should of done to prevent it from happening.

.
 Ford 4

SOURCES

http://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/terrorism/rare-new-footage-of-9-

11-wtc-attack/1785368803001

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks

http://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/terrorism/rare-new-footage-of-9-

11-wtc-attack/1785368803001

http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-attacks

http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report_Exec.htm