The Twenty-First Century, 2001–present

This is Unit Seventeen, part one, on September eleventh, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Katrina, and the crash of two thousand eight. Unit Sixteen closed on why the Cold War ended and what Reaganomics achieved, and opened the twenty-first century. Carry the course's standing wartime question into this part: what was the danger, and who decided? Unit eight asked it of the Sedition Act and unit twelve of internment. Here it returns with the Patriot Act and Guantánamo, and this time the Supreme Court rules against the government. Watch also how two wars began for different stated reasons. By the end you will be able to describe the attacks of September eleventh and the Bush Doctrine. To distinguish the stated reasons for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. To apply the course's wartime question to the Patriot Act, Guantánamo and Hamdan. To explain why Katrina's deaths were not the storm's alone. And to trace the financial crisis from subprime mortgages to the bailout.

Four entries on September eleventh: the towers, the Pentagon and Shanksville, the attackers, and the doctrine that answered them.

The attacks.

USH2 2401 September Eleventh

On September eleventh, two thousand one, al-Qaeda hijackers flew two airliners into the World Trade Center's towers in New York, killing everyone aboard and two thousand six hundred six people in the buildings, among them three hundred forty-three firefighters and seventy-two law enforcement officers. Digital History notes that more than three thousand people died in the attacks as a whole.

The Pentagon and Shanksville.

USH2 2402 The Pentagon and Shanksville

A third plane struck the Pentagon; a fourth, bound for Washington, came down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers who knew of the other attacks tried to storm the cockpit. Digital History records that the nation's mood recalled the shock after Pearl Harbor in nineteen forty-one.

Bin Laden.

USH2 2403 Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda

Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi, led al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, where the radical Islamic Taliban government sheltered it, the Yawp records, and Digital History lists his grievances: American troops in Saudi Arabia, support for Israel, and the Iraq embargo. It notes that the United States had helped him and fellow fighters expel the Soviets from Afghanistan in the nineteen eighties.

The Bush Doctrine.

USH2 2404 The Bush Doctrine

On September twentieth Bush told a joint session of Congress that the nation was at war with terrorism and demanded that the Taliban surrender bin Laden, announcing what the anchor calls the Bush Doctrine: a right to wage pre-emptive war against terrorist threats. The anchor adds that it extended to ousting hostile governments in favour of friendly, preferably democratic, ones.

Three entries: the war in Afghanistan, and two new defences at home.

Afghanistan.

USH2 2405 Afghanistan

When the Taliban refused to turn bin Laden over, the United States began bombing in October two thousand one, allied with the Afghan Northern Alliance, and drove the Taliban from Kabul by November. Bin Laden and his followers had already escaped into the mountains of northern Pakistan, the anchor records.

Homeland security.

USH2 2406 Homeland Security

In October two thousand one Bush created the Office of Homeland Security, and in two thousand two Congress created the Department of Homeland Security, bringing the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and customs under one department. The anchor names the cause: chronic lack of cooperation among federal law enforcement agencies.

The Patriot Act.

USH2 2407 The Patriot Act

Congress also passed the USA Patriot Act at the administration's urging; the anchor says it let law enforcement agencies monitor citizens' email and phone conversations without a warrant. That is the anchor's characterisation, not the statute's text. Civil liberties were weighed against security again, as in the Sedition Act of unit eight and the internment of unit twelve.

Four entries on Iraq: the case for war, the two wars compared, the invasion, and the toll.

The case against Iraq.

USH2 2408 The Case Against Iraq

Congress authorised force against Iraq in October two thousand two; Iraq began cooperating with United Nations inspectors, but the administration pressed on, the Yawp says, and in February two thousand three Colin Powell presented allegations of a robust Iraqi weapons programme to the United Nations. Protests broke out worldwide, the Yawp adds, but majorities of Americans supported military action.

The two wars.

USH2 2409 Afghanistan and Iraq

The two wars began for different stated reasons, and the difference is the lesson. Afghanistan followed a refusal: the Taliban would not surrender bin Laden, who had planned the attacks of September eleventh. Iraq followed a claim: the administration argued, the anchor says, that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction and might use them against the United States. The misreading merges them into one response to September eleventh. The Yawp records that Iraq had suspended its weapons programme while Saddam Hussein fostered ambiguity about it, and that no evidence of weapons of mass destruction was ever found. The anchor's word is claiming; the course keeps the distinction between a refusal and an allegation.

The invasion.

USH2 2410 Mission Accomplished

American bombs first hit Baghdad on March twentieth, two thousand three, the Yawp records, and Baghdad fell on April ninth; on May first Bush stood on the USS Abraham Lincoln beneath a Mission Accomplished banner and declared major combat over. The Yawp says combat had not ended: an insurgency had begun that would take ten years to contain.

The war's toll.

USH2 2411 Iraq's Toll

In Iraq four thousand four hundred seventy-five American soldiers died and thirty-two thousand two hundred twenty were wounded, the anchor records, and Saddam Hussein was captured in December two thousand three and hanged three years later, as the Yawp records. American troops left Iraq in December two thousand eleven, though airstrikes against militants resumed in two thousand fourteen.

Four entries on detention and the long war: Abu Ghraib, rendition and Guantánamo, a Court's ruling, and bin Laden's death.

Abu Ghraib.

USH2 2412 Abu Ghraib

From late two thousand three to early two thousand four, prisoners held by American troops at Abu Ghraib in Iraq were tortured and humiliated, the anchor records, and photographs of the abuse surfaced months before the two thousand four election. Kerry, the Yawp says, attacked Bush over the abuse and the missing weapons.

Rendition and Guantánamo.

USH2 2413 Rendition and Guantánamo

The CIA transferred some prisoners to other nations for interrogation methods not allowed in the United States, a practice called rendition, the anchor records, and detainees at Guantánamo Bay were labelled unlawful combatants, to deny them the protections owed prisoners of war. The Yawp says Guantánamo became infamous for harsh treatment, indefinite detention and torture.

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.

USH2 2414 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, in two thousand six, the Supreme Court held that the tribunals trying Guantánamo prisoners broke both federal law and the Geneva Conventions, setting limits on wartime detention. Unit eight's Schenck and unit twelve's internment were earlier tests of liberty in wartime; this one went against the government.

Bin Laden's death.

USH2 2415 Bin Laden Killed

In May two thousand eleven Navy SEALs raided deep into Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden, the Yawp records, and a phased withdrawal from Afghanistan began that year, with combat troops to leave by two thousand fourteen. The Yawp counts three thousand three hundred ninety-seven American service members killed in Afghanistan through December two thousand thirteen; the Taliban had not been defeated.

Five entries on Bush at home: a tax cut, a school law, a reelection, a hurricane, and a new Congress.

Compassionate conservatism.

USH2 2416 Compassionate Conservatism

Bush had campaigned, Digital History records, as a compassionate conservative, committed to limited government, personal responsibility, strong families and local control, and in two thousand one he won a one point three five trillion dollar tax cut, weighted toward the top brackets, the anchor records. Digital History calls it a major legislative success before September eleventh reshaped the presidency.

No Child Left Behind.

USH2 2417 No Child Left Behind

The No Child Left Behind Act, signed in January two thousand two with strong bipartisan support, set up testing in reading and math at every school receiving federal funds, making standardised tests the measure of a school's performance. Bush had proposed competency testing in his campaign, Digital History notes.

The election of two thousand four.

USH2 2418 The Election of 2004

In two thousand four Bush won reelection over Massachusetts senator John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran whose vote for the Iraq war weakened his criticism of it, the anchor says, while Republicans called him the Waffler. The Yawp says Bush used abortion and same-sex marriage as wedge issues to rally religious conservatives.

Hurricane Katrina.

USH2 2419 Hurricane Katrina

In August two thousand five Hurricane Katrina struck the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. In New Orleans the levees gave way under the storm surge, a failure the Army Corps of Engineers had warned of, and the flooding killed some fifteen hundred people and trapped tens of thousands who could not evacuate, the anchor records. The misreading blames the storm alone. The anchor's cause of death is the flooding that followed the levees' failure, and it calls the response a failure of the homeland security apparatus; the Yawp says Bush's presidency took a heavy blow from his perceived failure to respond. Theme four's thread, from the Dust Bowl to the Tennessee Valley, reaches here.

The midterms of two thousand six.

USH2 2420 Democrats Take Congress

Katrina and discontent over Iraq handed Democrats both houses of Congress in two thousand six, for the first time since nineteen ninety-four, the anchor records, and in January two thousand seven Nancy Pelosi of California became the first female Speaker of the House. Unit sixteen's Contract with America had won the Republicans that majority.

Four entries on the financial crash: subprime loans, Lehman Brothers, the bailout, and homes underwater.

Subprime mortgages.

USH2 2421 Subprime Mortgages

Banks made high-risk, high-interest subprime mortgages to buyers who often misunderstood their terms and could not make the payments, the anchor records, and bundled the loans and sold them as bonds, separating the lender's interest from the borrower's ability to repay. The anchor traces securitisation to changes in finance and banking laws in the nineteen nineties and early two thousands.

Lehman Brothers.

USH2 2422 Lehman Brothers

A real estate boom peaked in two thousand seven, and in September two thousand eight the investment firm Lehman Brothers was wiped out, the anchor records, the largest bankruptcy in the nation's history, months after the Federal Reserve had rescued Bear Stearns. Credit card debt had passed one trillion dollars by two thousand eight, the anchor adds.

TARP.

USH2 2423 TARP

Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, committing seven hundred billion dollars to bail out troubled institutions through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the anchor records, and approved an emergency loan of seventeen point four billion dollars to the auto industry, to be carried out by Bush's successor. The Yawp says the giveaways to bankers created shock waves of resentment.

Underwater mortgages.

USH2 2424 Underwater

By two thousand nine nearly a quarter of home mortgages were underwater, the homeowner owing more than the house was worth, the anchor records, and millions defaulted into foreclosure or bankruptcy after job losses, wage cuts or rising adjustable payments. Many resented the bailout of the rich, the anchor says, as ordinary citizens lost jobs and homes.

Look at what you can now do. You can describe September eleventh, with more than three thousand dead, and the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive war. You can distinguish the two wars: Afghanistan after a refusal to surrender bin Laden, and Iraq after a claim of weapons that were never found. You can apply the course's wartime question to the Patriot Act, Abu Ghraib, rendition and Guantánamo, and to a Court that in Hamdan ruled against the government. You can explain why Katrina's deaths were not the storm's alone. The levees failed, as engineers had warned, and the response failed too. And you can trace the crash, from subprime loans sold as bonds to Lehman's bankruptcy, a seven hundred billion dollar bailout, and a quarter of mortgages underwater.