________________________________________ Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies 18.1-2. 2012. Copyright © 2012 by HJEAS. All rights to reproduction in any form are reserved. Terrorism and Anti-Americanism: 9/ 11 Ten Years After Tibor Glant _______________________________________________________HJE AS Introduction The shocking attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001 changed the course of history. It was a cataclysmic event, like the assassination of President Kennedy or the attack on Pearl Harbor: everyone can recall exactly what they were doing when they got the news or first saw the footage on CNN. An eventful ten years have passed since then. Americans became painfully aware that they were not untouchable anymore: the myth of Fortress America collapsed in an hour of mayhem. The US launched a war on terror, attacked Afghanistan and Iraq, and warned Iran and North Korea. The Bush administration gradually lost its support, and Republicans were voted out of power in favor of America’s first black president, Barack Obama in 2008. Subsequent attacks on the US were prevented, but her allies (especially Britain and Spain) proved less fortunate. Al-Qaeda was reduced to a regional, Middle Eastern terrorist organization, but anti-American sentiments continue to flourish all around the world. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden were liquidated, but both incidents raised just as many questions about America’s alliances as they answered. At home, a “9/11 truth movement” emerged, and conspiracy theories about the attacks continue to abound. Much to the amazement of the outside observer, many Americans tend to believe in fantastic and elaborate conspiracy theories 1 rather than the official findings of the 9/11 Commission, whose final report was published in 2004. What follows are: 1) a historian’s take on America’s rise as a European colonizer in the Middle East; 2) an explanation of how the US subsequently became the target of Middle Eastern terrorism; 3) an evaluation of anti-Americanism and well-founded criticism leveled at the United States; 4) a review of the nature and scope of 9/11 conspiracy theories; and 5) an overview of what happened in the past ten years. The rise of the US as a E uropean colonizer in the Middle E ast The United States played a dominant role in the political, technical, social, and cultural development of the West in the twentieth century.