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VICModern HistoryQuick questions
Unit 2: Change and conflict (The changing world order, 1945 onwards)
Quick questions on Terrorism and 21st-century conflict (VCE Modern History Unit 2)
15short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is al-Qaeda?Show answer
Founded by Osama bin Laden in 1988. Based in Afghanistan under Taliban protection from 1996.
What is the attacks?Show answer
Nineteen al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four passenger aircraft. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Flight 175 flew into the North and South towers of the World Trade Centre in New York; American Flight 77 into the Pentagon; United Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania after passenger revolt.
What is casualties?Show answer
$2\,977$ killed (in addition to the $19$ hijackers). The bloodiest foreign attack on US soil since Pearl Harbor.
What is bush response?Show answer
Declared a "War on Terror" (20 September 2001). NATO invoked Article 5 (collective defence) for the first time.
What is uS invasion?Show answer
Operation Enduring Freedom. Taliban government collapsed within weeks. Hamid Karzai installed as interim leader.
What is twenty years of insurgency?Show answer
Taliban regrouped after 2003. Insurgency intensified. Civilian casualties high.
What is death of bin Laden?Show answer
US Navy SEAL raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan (2 May 2011).
What is withdrawal?Show answer
Trump-era Doha Agreement with Taliban (February 2020). Biden completed withdrawal (August 2021); Taliban retook Kabul within days. Twenty years; $2\,461$ US dead; estimated $176\,000$ Afghan deaths.
What is australian involvement?Show answer
$39$ Australians killed; about $26\,000$ deployed.
What is justification?Show answer
Bush administration alleged Iraqi WMD and links to al-Qaeda. Neither claim was substantiated.
What is invasion?Show answer
"Coalition of the willing" including the US, UK and Australia. Baghdad fell within three weeks.
What is occupation and insurgency?Show answer
L. Paul Bremer's de-Baathification and dissolution of the Iraqi army (May 2003) created conditions for insurgency. Sunni, Shia and sectarian civil war from 2006.
What is abu Ghraib?Show answer
Photographs of US military personnel abusing Iraqi prisoners exposed publicly. Severe damage to US moral standing.
What is iraqi casualties?Show answer
Estimates range from $150\,000$ to over $1$ million Iraqi deaths.
What is caliphate declared?Show answer
Controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria including Mosul and Raqqa. Sophisticated propaganda; terrorist attacks in Europe (Paris November 2015, Brussels March 2016, Nice July 2016).