911 Terrorist Attack

    In the presidential election of 2000,George W. Bush became the new president of the United States. Only a few months later, the United States suffered the most devastating foreign attack ever against its mainland. On Sept. 11th, 2001, some terrorists hijacked four airplanes and used two of them to destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Thousands of people died during the attack. The Bush administration soon launched a war against terrorists hidden in Afghanistan, where many terrorist bases were destroyed.

Iraq War

    In March 2003, the United States launched the Second Gulf War（第二次海湾战争） against Iraq, completely ignoring the Charter of the United Nations and the strong opposition of people in most countries. With both air and land attacks against Iraq, the war lasted for a little more than 20 days and presented to the world a completely new and modern war. It successfully overthrew the government of Iraq, but the US troops have fallen in great troubles in Iraq.

  After the Iraq War, the United States turned its attention to the nuclear experiment in Iran and North Korea, and forced the two countries to stop the  experiment by threatening the two on economic blockade. Under the pressure from the United States, Iran eventually accepted the inspection of its experiment by the UN.