THE AFTERMATH OF SEPTEMBER 11 AT HOME ★^1117made by officials who had little or no
knowledge of the countries to which
they were sending troops and dis-
trusted State Department experts on
these regions, who tended to be skep-
tical about the possibility of achieving
quick military and long- term political
success.
The World and the War
The war marked a new departure in
American foreign policy. The United
States had frequently intervened uni-
laterally in the affairs of Latin Ameri-
can countries. But outside the Western
Hemisphere it had previously been
reluctant to use force except as part of
an international coalition. And while
the United States had exerted enor-
mous influence in the Middle East
since World War II, never before had it
occupied a nation in the center of the
world’s most volatile region.
Rarely in its history had the United
States found itself so isolated from
world public opinion. Initially, the war
in Iraq proved to be popular in the United States. Many Americans believed
the administration’s claims that Saddam Hussein had something to do with
September 11 and had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction. The realiza-
tion that in fact Hussein had no such weapons discredited the administration’s
rationale for the war. By early 2007, polls showed that a large majority of Amer-
icans considered the invasion of Iraq a mistake, and the war a lost cause.
THE AFTERMATH OF SEPTEMBER 11 AT HOME
Security and Liberty
Like earlier wars, the war on terrorism raised anew the problem of balancing
security and liberty. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Congress rushed
to pass the USA Patriot Act, a mammoth bill (it ran to more than 300 pages) that
11
755543
3(^59)
(^105)
34
3
3
(^41)
6
7
10
7
11
6
9
10
211120
8 5
11
6 9 15
8
15
27
13
21
31
34 4
412
157
3
310
17
3
4
Democrat
Republican
Party
Obama
McCain
Candidate Electoral V(Share)ote
365 (67.8%)
173 (32.2%)
Popular V(Share)ote
66,882,230 (53%)
58,343,671 (46%)
ISRAEL, THE WEST BANK,
AND GAZA STRIP
How did the war on terror affect the economy and American liberties?