USA: The new millennium
Despite the doomsaying predictions of technology analysts and religious fundamentalists, the much-feared Y2K computer bug turned out to be more a product of media hype than an actual threat. The real challenges for the US, however, were just beginning. By the middle of 2000, the dot-com bubble had burst, sending countless high-tech companies into bankruptcy and devaluing their stocks to mere pennies. Once-triumphant businesses like and Kozmo disappeared overnight, and the technology sector started on a long, steep decline, taking other stocks down with it in a deepening recession that ended a decade of unprecedented growth and prosperity.As the Clinton era drew to a close, the country became mired in the disputed 2000 presidential election . Amid charges of improper ballot counting, the final verdict on the lackluster race between Texas governor and son of the 41st president George W. Bush and Vice President Gore was suspended for several months, while the nominees' parties frantically filed suits and countersuits to squeeze out every last advantage. The debacle ended in what amounted to a constitutional crisis, with the US Supreme Court deciding the winner for the first time in the nation's history. Despite a sizeable contingent doubting the legitimacy of the outcome, the Republican Bush - known for his linguistic blunders and a limited grasp of foreign affairs - took office on January 20, 2001, around the same time that Clinton was tacking on another scandal to his outgoing administration, centered on possible influence-peddling for presidential pardons.
That and any other affairs destined as news-of-the-month in 2001 were all subsumed by the events of September 11 , when a wave of terrorist attacks brought George W. Bush his first serious challenge in office. Using only knives and box-cutters, hijackers took control of four planes and plowed two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City - resulting in their horrific collapse - and the third into the Pentagon; the fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania forest. All told, upwards of 3000 died, and the country entered a period of mourning, accompanied by a strident patriotic fervor.
The attacks were quickly linked to the al Qaida network of Saudi Arabian terrorist Osama bin Laden , and a month later President Bush retaliated by declaring an open-ended war against terrorism, first targeting bin Laden's Islamic fundamentalist protectors in Afghanistan, the Taliban. US air and ground strikes in Afghanistan, with the support of an international coalition, brought Bush unprecedented popularity at home, if not necessarily overseas, and within weeks he was pushing for measures to extend the legal boundaries for electronic surveillance and suspect questioning.
Still, the months following the terrorist attack were marked by serious worries: the stock market continued to falter and the airline industries were hit especially hard by the sudden drop in leisure travel; an anthrax scare gripped the public consciousness, as letters containing the lethal spores showed up in the offices of prominent figures; and a few scattered incidents at airports and on public transportation reminded people that no matter how many precautions were put in place, safety could never be fully guaranteed. That said, perhaps all the talk of a "changed world" was slightly overstated.
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