Essay On American Terrorism

Words: 1615
Pages: 7

It has been over a decade and a half since Americans were first exposed to the power of foreign terrorism. The twin tower attacks left us helpless. Americans didn’t see it coming and we were even more unsure of how to respond to such a tragedy. Who would want to kill innocent people on purpose? Why? It wreaked fear over the American population for years. Its ghost, constantly revived with every sensationalized explosion, every failed attempt, every image of that Muslim man deeply dedicated to the Islamic ideology. Americans had never experienced such a huge attack from a foreign enemy since Pearl Harbor and we would do anything to prevent this atrocity from happening again. The United States responded much like it did in 1941. It sought vengeance. It made an enemy out of the organizations that propagated this attack. It started a war and eradicated any weapons of mass destruction that would leave us vulnerable again. It created a face for foreign terrorism. It generalized and stereotyped. It tried to make us feel safe even though it never could. Our fears continuously grew and our government’s power expanded with it. Americans gave the government a rubberstamp and told it to do whatever it wanted. …show more content…
It had been two years since 9/11, we began to hear horror stories about torture prisons, military personnel abusing war criminals, unsanitary living. (U.S. Abuse of Iraqi Detainees at Abu Ghraib Prison) We gasped as they were dehumanized and treated like animals. We reprimanded the actors who committed these atrocities but we justified the actions because it made us feel safe. The United States was warehousing the villains and it was working. We were no longer faced with the overwhelming dread of being attacked because our government was protecting us. We needed to expand government power so that we could maintain our