Fasttrack to America's Past
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Background for the discussion questions  

1.  What group was responsible for...

   The terrorist attacks of 9/11 were planned and carried out by an Islamic fundamentalist group that formed in 1988 called al Qaeda.  It was led by a man named Osama bin Laden.  He was one of the sons of a billionaire businessman from Saudi Arabia, a country in the Middle East.  Bin Laden was banished from that country for his activities, however, and later established a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. 
    Al Qaeda and its leader were motivated by many beliefs.  These included his claim that U.S. actions around the world were aimed at harming Muslims, and that an extreme fundamentalist version of Islam and its religious laws must be spread over all the nations of the world.
   Bin Laden encouraged his followers to wage "jihad" (holy war) against the U.S.  He hoped that repeated terrorist attacks by his followers against the U.S. would throw the nation in chaos, and cause America's economy to collapse. 

2.  How did Americans respond...

   Americans responded to the 9/11 attacks that day with remarkable heroism and patriotism.  Firefighters, police, and rescue crews rushed into the burning buildings to save as many people as possible, ignoring the obvious danger to themselves.  Many of these first responders died when the buildings collapsed some hours after the attack.
   Americans all over the country immediately began lining up in their local communities to donate blood, in case it was needed by doctors helping survivors of the attacks.  By that evening, millions of people were putting out American flags in front of their homes in an inspiring display of unity and patriotism.
3.  What were the main goals...

   The U.S. invaded Afghanistan to capture or kill the terrorist leader of the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden, and destroy the terrorist training camp he was operating there.  At that time, Afghanistan was largely controlled by another extreme Islamic fundamentalist group called the Taliban.  When the Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden, the U.S., helped by military forces from a number of other countries, went in.
   The U.S. later invaded Iraq because the dictator there was suspected of supporting terrorist groups.  There was also a fear that the country was developing chemical and germ warfare or other deadly weapons that terrorists could use against America. 
   In both countries, the U.S. ran into many unexpected difficulties.  Bin Laden avoided capture in Afghanistan for many years.  He eventually fled to nearby Pakistan where he was finally located and killed by American forces in 2011.
   In Iraq, the American action to remove that country's cruel dictator led to a long and deadly power struggle between competing Islamic groups for control of the country's government. 

4.  What happened to the American economy...

   The U.S. economy went into a sudden drop in 2007 that lasted so long and with such bad effects that the period is called the Great Recession.  The  downturn was triggered in part by a crisis in the banking industry related to home loans.  Fears that the entire banking system might fail led to a sharp drop in the stock market and home values.
   Many businesses began laying off workers to cut expenses as consumers cut back on their purchasing.  The unemployment rate rose to a peak of 10 percent in 2009.  That, of course, was more bad news for the nation's economy.
   The federal government, hoping to avoid a repeat of the 1930s Great Depression, provided key banks and some large businesses with billions of dollars of government money in the form of loans and investments.  That did help, but the nation's economy did not bounce back quickly.  Going by the technical economic definition, the recession ended in 2009.  But a period of very slow growth in business, jobs, and wages lingered for another five or six years after that.

5.  What were some of the reasons...

   Barack Obama appealed to many voters in the 2008 elections for many reasons.  The economic crisis that hit just at the end of the presidency of George W. Bush left many voters worried and angry.  The war in Afghanistan was bogged down, and Osama bin Laden had evaded capture.  The war in Iraq, which had some success at first, had turned into a disaster as various groups in that country began fighting each other for control of the new government there.
   As a candidate, Obama's slogan "Hope and Change" resonated with many voters.  His personal story was inspiring - he is an African American who graduated from a top law school, then went on to work as a community organizer in poor neighborhoods of Chicago.  Many voters liked his youthful energy and style.  His pledge to try new approaches to dealing with terrorism and trouble in the Middle East also won him many supporters.

6.  What did President Obama mean...

   The attacks by Al Qaeda on the United States on September 11, 2001 led President George W. Bush to organize a multinational military effort to strike at terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.  But that effort, and a later military action in Iraq, had disappointing results.  Ancient cultural and religious divisions among the people in those lands led to constant fighting among the various groups wanting to take power, as well as attacks against American soldiers.
   President Obama believed that the military "hard line" approach was not solving the problem of terrorism, but making it worse.  He felt that it would be better, as the saying goes, to "offer a carrot rather than a stick."  Early in his presidency, Obama made official visits to Middle Eastern countries to call for a better understanding between cultures.  He publicly praised the religion and culture of Islam, and explained at each stop that Americans wanted to help build peace, not wage war.
   While President Obama's efforts at a Middle East "reset" were praised by many people, it was not as successful as he had hoped.  After he pulled most American troops out of Iraq, for example, an Islamic fundamentalist group called ISIS expanded very rapidly and launched a new wave of horrific attacks all across that country and other parts of the Middle East. 






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   Copyright 2018 by David Burns.  All rights reserved.  Illustrations and reading selections appearing in this work are taken from sources in the public domain and from private collections used by permission.  Sources include: the Dover Pictorial Archive, the Library of Congress, The National Archives, The Hart Publishing Co., Corel Corporation and its licensors, Nova Development Corporation and its licensors, and others.  Maps were created or adapted by the author using reference maps from the United States Geological Survey and Cartesia Software.  Please see the home page for this title for more information.