What was the response?
Answer
The War on Terrorism
Explanation
The American response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks was the War on Terrorism, also called the War on Terror, a sustained and global military, intelligence, diplomatic, and law enforcement campaign launched by President George W. Bush against al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other terrorist organizations and the governments that supported them. Bush addressed a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001 and declared that our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda but it does not end there. Congress had already passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force on September 18, 2001, granting the president broad authority to use force against those responsible for the attacks.
The first major military operation was the invasion of Afghanistan, code-named Operation Enduring Freedom, launched on October 7, 2001 to overthrow the Taliban regime that had sheltered Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. American special forces, working with the Afghan Northern Alliance, drove the Taliban from Kabul by November 2001. The war in Afghanistan continued for nearly twenty years, the longest in American history, until the final American withdrawal in August 2021.
The United States invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003, on the disputed grounds that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed a terrorist threat. The Iraq War overthrew Saddam quickly but produced a long insurgency, ending in formal American withdrawal in December 2011 and partial reentry to fight the Islamic State in 2014.
The response also reshaped American government and society. The USA PATRIOT Act, signed October 26, 2001, expanded surveillance and law enforcement authority. The Department of Homeland Security was created in November 2002, the largest reorganization of the federal government since 1947. The Transportation Security Administration took over airport security in 2002. The Director of National Intelligence position was created in 2004. The detention center at Guantanamo Bay opened in January 2002 to hold suspected terrorists. Enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA generated lasting controversy.
United States Navy SEAL Team Six killed Osama bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2, 2011. The War on Terror cost more than 7,000 American military lives and an estimated 8 trillion dollars by 2021, and contributed to long-running debates about civil liberties, executive power, and American foreign policy.
Why this matters for your test
USCIS asks how the United States responded to 9/11 because the answer covers two long wars, major changes in federal government structure, and continuing debates over surveillance and civil liberties. Knowing the response is essential for understanding twenty-first century American foreign and domestic policy.
Source: USCIS 128 Civics Questions (2025)
