I was in my 5th grade math class, I was called to the main office because my mother was coming to school to pick me up early. I was very confused to why my mom would be taking me out of school early but I wasn't gonna complain about it. When my mom got there she looked real nervous, and now I started to worry about what had happened. When we got in the car my mom told me that there was an attack in the city and that my dad had to go down there and work. I didn't know what to expect, but when we got home my mom hurried to put the news on and then I saw what was happening to us. I was very young and never understood why the attacks were happening, and then after reading chapter 15 I was able to expand my knowledge about a day that will never be forgotten.
When the terrorist attacks happened the US wanted to know answers. We needed the media to give us knowledge about 9/11, however they failed to explain one of the five Ws. Why? They didn't tell us why the terroristt attacked the World Trade Center and the pentagon. The newspapers covered millions of ways how the story happened after the attacks, but not one said what the motivations of the terrorist were. Our president George W. Bush's explanation for the attacks were simply "cause terrorists are bad and America is good." And when asked why do they hate us? Bush answered "They hate our freedoms- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble." However, our president and the journalists didn't mention anything about Osama bin Laden's criticisms of American foreign policy.
Lucky for us technology leaves us limitless. Even though Bush and journalist didn't want to educated us on the real details of the attacks, the Internet took leap forward with information. People wanted answers so users of the Internet found some. They searched the web and found a statement from Osama Bin Laden that was published in 1998, called The "Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders". By 2001, it was posted all over different sites for the public to see. It was now clear to us that Bin Laden hated us for a reason, "... Laden saw himself not as evil terrorist but as a heroic defender of Muslims who wanted to fend off what he believed was a Western invasion that threatened his faith and culture much the way that the Christian Crusaders had done some 900 years earlier." (Mightier Than The Sword, Rodger Streitmatter) This statement gave us answers to why the attacks occurred. Since Bush and mainstream news didn't inform us about the why, this made people debate if we could trust our country and why were they trying to hide all of this?
Bush did a very good job with convincing the people that terrorist were bad and we were innocent, he declared us to go to war. The reasoning for us being there was to weaken al-Qaeda, and to weaken the Taliban. Then we were told that the president of Iraq was a evil man and that he had nuclear weapons to use. Americans trusted in our president, then one cold day in the White House something was releaved. Bush's former treasury secretary told everyone that Bush had been planning a attack on Iraq for more than 8 months before 9/11 occurred. Economists have estimated that the Iraq War could eventually cost as much as $2 trillion, and 3,000 U.S soldiers lives had already been taken. If journalist had done their jobs and covered the 5 Ws, we would had been aware of the situation. It was said that "The American media failed the country badly," however, the Internet was awarded for covering the information when no one else would speak up.
I found this chapter very interesting to me. Since I was only in 5th grade I never really understood but after reading I feel better that I now know what caused the Trade Centers to dropped and how the war started. What I liked about this chapter is how it ended, I liked that it ending with them answering the 5th Ws. Why did George W. Bush want to go to war so badly? They listed several reasons, he could have wanted to bring freedom to the people, to control the production and distribution of the world's oil supply, to finish what his father started in the Persian Gulf War. We will never know what his motivation was, but what we do know is that we failed American by leading us into the Iraq War.
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