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| War on
Terrorism: Afghanistan as a Case Study |
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| Different nations at different times
have engaged in one kind of campaign or war of one kind or another
to combat terrorism either on an internal level within a particular
country or on a global level. In recent times however, "war on
terrorism" has become a household term following the response
of the United States to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the WTC
and the Pentagon. |
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| It was on Tuesday
morning, 9-11-2001, the day which later came to be popularly tagged
"A Day of Terror" when two hijacked jetliners hit the twin
towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, both of which collapsed
within half an hour later. While this was going on, a third hijacked
plane hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and the fourth crashed
into a field in Pennsylvania. Every thing came to a stand still. Trading
on Wall Street, N.Y. stopped and for the first time in US history,
the Federal Aviation Administration halted all flight operations at
all the airports in the country. The US military was placed on high
alert and President Bush labeling the attack as as an "act of
war" vowed to "find those responsible and bring them to
justice". The initial death toll was feared to be over twenty
thousand, but after the records were checked it came to less than
three thousand. For more details on the facts of the 9-11-2001 terrorist
attacks go to: |
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| http://www.september11news.com/ |
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| Within a few months
the US found out that this act of terrorism was planned and executed
by an organization called the Al Quida under the leadership of a man
named Osama bin Laden, a Saudi-Arabia dissident based in Afghanistan,
who was being harbored and protected by the Taliban regime there.
Several appeals to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to release Osama
bin Ladin failed and the after the last dead line passed the US launched
a war on terrorism tagged "Operation Endure Freedom" which
dismantled the Al-Quida network in Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban
regime. Little pockets of this war continue even today. |
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http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/zhuanti/Zhuanti_197_1.html
(Surf through some of the articles in this large archive.) |
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http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/sept11/
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