War on Terror

After 9/11

the US focused on attacking any individual, organization, or nation it deemed a threat

used drones to spy

Patriot Act - increased police powers to root out suspected terrorists

distributed propaganda to eliminate people from supporting terrorists

US targeted Afghanistan and invaded them

• they removed power from the terrorist Taliban

• supplied aid to villages and spread propaganda to win people over to go against the Taliban and terrorists

US invaded Iraq because it had WMD

• US didn’t want these weapons to fall into the hands of terrorists, so took out the government and established a democratic government and oversaw the elections in 2005

• Arrested and killed terrorist leaders, diminishing Al Qaeda’s ability to carry out attacks in the region

• but there was still instability and violence

• then it was revealed that Iraq did not even have WMD, making the war more unpopular in the US

• eventually, the US withdrew from the war

PATRIOT ACT

• expanded government access to private records held by businesses

• expanded government’s ability to search private property without telling the owner

Islamophobia - spike in hate crimes

• irrational bias and fear of all Muslims, even in America