America Under Attack Essay, Research Paper

There have been countless tragedies caused by man throughout history. The sinking of the ship Titanic, the two World Wars, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and the Oklahoma City bombing were all terrible disasters. However, none of these events have created as much hatred and anger in North America than the recent terrorist attack on the United States.

On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four planes, crashing two into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and the other into a field in western Pennsylvania. Soon after this happened the president of the United States vowed to exact revenge on the individuals who committed this horrible act. Despite the President?s promise, the U.S. should not use military force against the organization that orchestrated the attack because it would almost certainly be the start of a very big war and it would destroy many innocent people?s lives.

The United States is an extremely powerful country and it has already declared itself in the state of war. President Bush addressed the American public telling them to prepare themselves for war. The Pentagon has already issued deployment orders to Army units, in addition to the dozens of warplanes already ordered to go to the Persian Golf. The United States also has an enormous influence over other countries, and has already begun to form ?anti-terrorism? coalitions with many other countries, including Mexico, Spain and Pakistan. These ?anti-terrorism? are in effect alliances between countries. Our country has also already declared its intention to help the United States in any way we can. This has effectively committed us to fight with them in any war in which they might participate. In the event of a war, all the countries in these alliances will be involved in the war, making it very large, very quickly. As well, if the countries involved in this war were to choose to use nuclear weapons in combat, it is likely that it would mean the complete destruction of at least some parts of those countries, like what happened in Japan at the end of the World War II.

A third World War, especially one involving the United States, would hurt many innocent people. We can see from the past that America will take extreme measures to ensure they get what they want. We?ve seen an example of this recently when the United States bombed Kosovo, killing many innocent people. America wanted the president of Yugoslavia to sign a peace agreement and when he refused, they bombed his troops. This bombing caused mass destruction in Kosovo, and lots of innocent bystanders were killed or maimed. This shows how the United States is willing to sacrifice helpless citizens to get what they want. And it is not only citizens of other countries that America will consider sacrificing.

Soon after the first plane hit the world trade centers, President Bush authorized the military to shoot down any unauthorized civilian aircraft that might have been heading to the White House or the Capitol. This would have cost a lot of innocent people their lives. The Vice President said that this was the toughest decision they had to make, but one they felt was justified. This shows how extreme the leaders of America are and how easily they would do the same to the citizens of another country. In the event of a war, the United States definitely would not take into consideration the cost of the loss of innocent lives.

The recent attack on the United States affected people around the world tremendously. The perpetrators of this assault should most definitely be punished for their terrible crimes. These people should be tracked down and dealt with accordingly. However, innocent people from their countries should not have to pay for something they had nothing to do with, nor should the world have to support another World War.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

?Cheney: Bush OK?d shootdown of rogue planes? CNN.com (Sept. 16, 2001)

(Sept. 19, 2001)

?Army gets orders: ‘We’re ready to go’? CNN.com (Sept. 20, 2001)

(Sept. 20, 2001)

?Bush works phones to build coalition? CNN.com (Sept.15, 2001)

(Sept.17, 2001)

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