Slightly separated from a majority of the world, it is fairly easy for America to watch the world's problems at a safe distance and remain relatively unaffected. History has occasionally rattled them, but the country never stalled until September 2001, on a day that stopped time. "In an act of supreme chutzpah, coordination and technical skill, nineteen men seized control of four commercial jet planes, crashed two into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, and rammed one into the shoulder of the Pentagon. In a single day of infamy- September 11, 2001- the terrorists had killed three thousand people." (D"Souza, 2002) Three thousand human lives buried in burning rubble. This number of casualties may not be significant in terms of world history, but American history is much different and sheltered. To find as many American civilian casualties one would have to refer all the way back to the civil war. Never has America suffered such an attack. Not since Pearl Harbor had America been directly attacked substantially by a foreign power, and even then Pearl Harbor was a completely different form of attack.
Pearl Harbor was the first major strike against America as a nation, which was terrifying enough, but it was different. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was during a time when Americans were on edge and the world was at war, unlike the peace and prosperity America was experiencing in 2001. The attack on Pearl Harbor wasn't as terrifying; the target was at American military off the American main land. September 11th was undiscriminating and aimed to strike down anything American. The people targeted were average American civilians going about their daily lives. This terrorist attack struck the people and their way of life rather than the leaders and the structure. The terrorists went for the heart of America-the people, after all it is a government "of the people, by the people and for the people.