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After the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States emerged as the world's sole remaining [|superpower] and continued to involve itself in military action overseas, including the 1991 [|Gulf War]. Following his [|election in 1992], President [|Bill Clinton] oversaw unprecedented gains in securities values, a side effect of the [|digital revolution] and new business opportunities created by the [|Internet] (see [|Internet bubble]). The 1990s saw one of the longest periods of economic expansion. Under Clinton [|an attempt to universalize health care], led by [|First Lady] [|Hillary Rodham Clinton] failed after almost two years of work on the controversial plan, however Hillary Rodham Clinton did succeed, along with a bipartisan coalition of members of congress, in establishing the [|Children's Health Insurance Program].[|[79]] The regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq proved a continuing problem for the UN and Iraq's neighbors in its refusal to account for previously known stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, its violations of UN resolutions, and its support for terrorism against Israel and other countries. After the 1991 Gulf War, the US, French, and British military's began patrolling the [|Iraqi no-fly zones] to protect Iraq's Kurdish minority and Shi’ite Arab population – both of which suffered attacks from the Hussein regime before and after the 1991 Gulf War – in Iraq's northern and southern regions, respectively.[|[80]] In the aftermath of [|Operation Desert Fox] during December 1998, Iraq announced that it would no longer respect the no-fly zones and resumed its efforts in shooting down Allied aircraft.[|[81]] During the 1990s the [|al-Qaeda] terrorist network and other Islamic fundamentalist groups attempted terrorist attacks against the United States and other nations. In 1993, [|Ramzi Yousef], a [|Kuwaiti] national, and suspected al-Qaeda operative, planted explosives in the underground garage of [|One World Trade Center] and detonated them, killing six people and injuring thousands. Later that year in the [|Battle of Mogadishu], [|US Army Rangers] engaged Somali militias supported by al-Qaeda in an extended firefight that cost the lives of 19 American soldiers. President Clinton subsequently withdrew US combat forces from Somalia (there originally to support UN relief efforts).[|[82]] Terrorist attacks occurred in the 1996 [|Khobar Towers bombing] in Saudi Arabia, and the [|1998 United States embassy bombings] in Tanzania and Kenya. There was an attempted bombing at [|Los Angeles International Airport] and other attempts of acts of terrorism during the [|2000 millennium attack plots]. In Yemen the [|USS //Cole//] was bombed in October 2000, which the government associated with [|Osama bin Laden]'s al-Qaeda terrorist network.[|[83]] US responses to terrorist attacks included limited [|cruise missile strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan (August 1998)], which failed to stop al-Qaeda's leaders and their Taliban supporters. Also in 1998, President Clinton signed the [|Iraq Liberation Act] which called for regime change in Iraq because Saddam Hussein had possessed weapons of mass destruction, oppressed Iraqi citizens and attacked other Middle Eastern countries.[|[84]] Al-Qaeda and other Islamic fundamentalist groups were not the only groups responsible for terrorism during this time. In 1995, a domestic terrorist bombing took place at a federal building in [|Oklahoma City], which killed 168 people, and was then the biggest terrorist attack on US soil since World War II. The perpetrators, [|Timothy McVeigh] and [|Terry Nichols], objected to the federal government and sought revenge for the sieges at [|Ruby Ridge] (1992) and [|Waco] (1993).[|[85]] In 1998, Clinton was [|impeached] for charges of [|perjury] and [|obstruction of justice] that arose from lying about a sexual relationship with White House intern [|Monica Lewinsky]. He was the second president to have been impeached. The [|House of Representatives] voted 228 to 206 on December 19 to impeach Clinton,[|[86]] but on February 12, 1999, the [|Senate] voted 55 to 45 to acquit Clinton of the charges.[|[87]]

POINTOFDIVERGENCE The [|presidential election in 2000] between [|George W. Bush] (R) and [|Al Gore] (D) was one of the closest in the U.S. history, and helped lay the seeds for political polarization to come. Although Bush won the majority of electoral votes, Gore won the majority of the popular vote. In the days following Election Day, the state of [|Florida] entered [|dispute over the counting of votes] due to technical issues over certain Democratic votes in some counties.[|[88]] During the case of Bush v. Gore in the supreme court Al Gore won the case 5-4 and became president. The following image is a Journal from a news reporter written the day after the Supreme Court's decision.

Throughout Al Gore's presidency it was all pretty calm Up until one day in August of 2001 there was a fax message trying to tell the Government that there was going to be an attack. The fax message was ignored, until there was another one about two weeks later. The President took great caution and had people in airports screened much more carefully. On September 10, 2001 there were a few men from the Middle East trying to get into the United States, and were not allowed access due to these fax messages and because the President was scared. It was later revealed that those men who were not allowed to board the plane were members of Alqueda and were planning on rigging the planes to crash them into the Twin Towers in New York, The Pentagon, and either the White House or the United States Capitol Building. The Picture below is an image of the fax message.



After helping keep the Twin Towers and every other great building on the East Coast safe Al Gore's presidency was very calm other than the occasional praise that was raised by the public. His term was over in 2004 and he ran again, against Bush. Although this time Bush won presidency. After becoming President George W. Bush had a calm presidency, until 2007. In 2007 there was an unannounced attack on the Twin Towers, this time though, no one was notified. The attack gave Americans a reason to be scared, of war and who they thought were warlike people, known as Middle Eastern people. The United States invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, creating a war between the two countries. George Bush was hated for the way that he went about dealing with this situation, people wanted him impeached, and he obliged, in 2008 he did not run for a new election, instead the election was between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Below is a painting of the twin towers going down with an enscription:

The people chose Hillary Clinton to become president over Barack Obama. She is the first female president. Hillary does not believe in war, and she expressed that greatly throughout her campaign. People liked the fact that she was going to try to change the war, end it even. As she began this process she took out more troops than she put in, which left less troops in the Middle East. In December 2009 she took out all troops completely. This left the Middle East in ruins, they were not yet ready to have a government of their own to lead them successfully. It is still to this day in 2010 devastating to even think about it, they are trying to have a democratic government.. but they are successfully unsuccessful.