People remember where they were when they heard that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. Most were in school although some parents decided to pull their children out of school for fear that they would be affected more greatly than others. While most teenagers can reminisce about their personal stories from September 11th 2001, not very many can really tell you the stories of the repercussions of this terrorist act.
For many students at Westminster Christian Academy the memory of 9/11 is permanently burned into their memories. Watching the news footage of those aircrafts colliding with the twin towers was something that would be traumatic for anyone, but imagine how upsetting it would be for a child in grade school who truly doesn’t understand the episode.
“I remember being in class and the teacher started crying but I didn’t understand why. She turned on the radio and we listened until people came to pick me up. I remember that I was so young and I didn’t really understand why they did it. My birthday was the day before and I thought they did it because of that,” said Matt Powers, freshman.
But now many teenagers have forgotten this event, and very few actually understand what is happening overseas now.
After the attacks on the World Trade Center, America waged a war on terrorism. The U.S. moved soldiers into Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and to destroy the terrorist organization Al Queda. Later, troops marched into Afghanistan to fight for the people of that nation and take down their government, which was run by the terrorist group the Taliban, because they were harboring terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attack.
In Afghanistan, many soldiers are frustrated because they feel like they have been forgotten. The war in Afghanistan has been going on since October 2001 and many troops and generals feel that people don’t pay attention anymore. Now the plan presented by President Obama would put the focus on Afghanistan. So far we have sent 21,000 more troops into Afghanistan and the President is contemplating sending 40,000 more.
Some people object to this plan saying that Afghanistan is a lost cause or that they don’t want the U.S. to be involved there anyway. However, recent polls show that most Afghanis appreciate outside troops among them because they have such a small military power themselves.