Terrorism †Wake Up America! :: September 11 Terrorism Essays

Terrorism Wake Up AmericaAmerica, wake up Thats what we think we heard on the eleventh of September 2001 and maybe it was, but I think it should have been Get Out of Bed In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then. It was a composed fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil it was an attack that held the worlds most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign US embassy set the stage for the events to follow for the next 23 years. America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Viet Nam experience and had a stark threat from the Soviet Union when then President Carter had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission end in ruin, but stood as a symbol of Americas inability to deal with terrorism. Americas military had been decimated and downsized / right sized since the end of the Viet Nam war. A poorly trained, poorly fit out and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission doomed from the start. Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the centre of attention East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued. In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was determined into the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more. Then just six-spot short months later a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut. 241 US servic emen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more. Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber. The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the furnish of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.