hey there and welcome back to heimlich's history now we've been going through unit 9 of the ap u.s history curriculum and in this video ladies and gentlemen this video is the last topic of the entire curriculum if you've retained your sanity through all of this then give yourself a high five and if not then go and have yourself a proper cry and then come back when you're done because you still have to learn about the challenges america has faced in the 21st century including an attack on our homeland a war on terror and climate change so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked patriot act style then let's get to it so our aim in this video is simple explain the relative significance of the effects of change in the period after 1980 on american national identity so the first major event of 21st century american politics was the disputed election of 2000 republican george w bush ran against democrat al gore and the outcome of that election was so close that it eventually had to be settled by the supreme court and the settlement went in favor of george bush who became the 43rd president of the united states but unfortunately for him bush didn't have much time to celebrate his victory because on september 11 2001 members of the al qaeda terrorist group used the internet and cellular technology that we talked about a few videos ago to coordinate an attack on america early that morning after hijacking four commercial airplanes they crashed two into the towers of the world trade center in new york another into the pentagon and a fourth crashed into the countryside because the passengers rose up and resisted and thwarted their plans and not since the attack on pearl harbor had the american people been in such unilateral agreement that justice must be done and so bush led america into what he called a war on terror bush demanded that the afghanistan government hand over osama bin laden who was responsible for the attacks but the taliban government refused as a result bush sent troops into afghanistan less than a month after the attacks was september 11. u.s troops quickly overthrew the taliban but they were still unable to locate bin laden and so they brought the war into the wilderness of afghanistan and fighting an enemy they could barely locate in a land that was completely foreign americans found themselves in a losing battle pretty quick and just as a side note it wouldn't be till the presidency of barack obama that bin laden was found and killed anyway despite the difficulty of carrying on the mission in afghanistan bush also opened a war against iraq in 2003 this was related to the more general war on terror for two reasons first there was dubious evidence later disproven that iraq's leader saddam hussein played a part in the september 11th attacks second while hussein was already known as a brutal leader there was now evidence again dubious and again later disproven that he was developing weapons of mass destruction and so bush launched operation iraqi freedom to topple hussein's regime and install a more u.s friendly democratic government as it turned out ousting hussein was relatively easy but the instability of the region after the fall made it difficult to establish a stable government now because of the national sentiment following the attacks of september 11th many americans were willing to accept the more invasive measures taken by the federal government to root out terrorists in the homeland to this end we got the patriot acts of 2001 and 2003. essentially what these acts did was to increase the government's permission to enact surveillance upon its citizens from listening into their phone calls to reading their emails the bush administration sold these acts as necessary for the protection of americans but critics pointed out how the patriot acts infringed on americans basic constitutional right to privacy additionally another response to the september 11th attacks was the creation of a new federal agency namely the department of homeland security this constituted the largest governmental reorganization since the department of defense was created after world war ii it combined over 20 federal agencies that worked to protect the homeland from further attacks now in addition to fighting terrorists abroad and finding terrorists at home american continued to deal with environmental issues during this time as well you might remember from the last unit that we had ourselves an energy crisis in the 1970s and that was almost entirely due to our dependence on middle eastern oil when those countries restricted their oil exports it put americans in a bad way now this debate over america's dependence on fossil fuels was renewed during this period and two factors brought it back to the national consciousness first was iraq's evasion of kuwait in 1990 the tiny nation of kuwait happened to be a big source of oil for the united states and no small part of why america went to war with iraq and not the war i just mentioned in 2003 but the one in the 90s under george bush's father george h.w bush the main reason america got involved in that war against iraq was precisely because we needed that oil but the point is our dependence on middle eastern oil was now leading america into war and that renewed the debate on alternative sources of energy the second factor that got americans thinking in this direction was the growing concern over climate change this movement was brought to popular attention by al gore who toured the country lecturing and producing video content which argued that americans needed to wake up to the inconvenient truth that usage of fossil fuel energy was increasing greenhouse gases in the ozone layer and heating up the planet which if left to run its course would have disastrous consequences and this message as you can imagine was not uniformly embraced by all americans the need for regulation of carbon producing industries is generally supported by democrats while it is generally rejected by republicans who argue that global warming is a natural phenomenon not human induced however despite all the challenges that have arisen in the 21st century whether they are economic or environmental or foreign the united states continues to be the world's leading superpower okay before i close let me just say a few words like if you've been with me all through this year through all these videos or even just some of them let me tell you just how grateful i am for your presence here it's always been my goal to serve ap students the best way i know how and you guys have been so effusive in your comments and your appreciation that i can never lay my head on my pillow at the end of the day without feeling incredibly grateful for this community i wish you all the best on your exam in may and make sure that you stick around the channel because i'll be doing live reviews to get you all ready again thank you so much it's been a great year and i'll see you next year for ap government okay that's what you need to know about unit 9 topic 6 of the ap us history curriculum if you want to get an a in your class and a 5 on your exam in may then click right here and grab review packet and then watch all your dreams come true if you want to keep up with all the live reviews and all the other exam prep videos i'll be making next month and go ahead and subscribe so you don't miss any of them okay for the last time i'm lower out