America’s Response to TerrorismUSS Cole – Afganahstan

Attack on the USS Cole October 2000

A suicide bomber drove a small boat full of explosives into an American warship in the Persian Gulf

17 Sailors killed; 39 wounded

Terrorism = Attack on a military unit far from home

9/11 Attacks Terrorist hijack 4 airliners and use them in

suicide attacks on targets in America 2 planes – World Trade Center in NYC 1 plane – The Pentagon in Washington DC 1 plane – crashed into a field in Pennsylvania

2,996 people killed Terrorism = Civilians killed within U.S.

borders

American Response to 9/11 War in Iraq

U.S. believed that Iraq had helped fund the 9/11 terrorists and that the had weapons of mass destruction (which we never found)

Goal = take Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein out of power

War in Afghanistan Goal = take the terrorist network Al Qaida

out of power

Problems = civilians live in the war zone, and setting up a new democracy proved to be very difficult

Successes = Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was killed as a direct result of efforts in Afghanistan