Maile Pham

History 1700 Final

In 2008 Barak Obama was elected as our Nations President and was

also known as the first Black President ever been elected into office. He had

beaten Democratic former front runner up Hillary Clinton and won the hearts

of the American people over the years with what had happened during his

Presidency.

After his first year of presidency on January 27, 2010 Obama delivered

his first State of the Union Address in a joint session with Congress. His State

of Union Address held a famous message, Rescue, rebuild, restore A New

Foundation for prosperity. With Vice President Joe Biden by his side,

President Obama gave Americans hope for the creation of jobs throughout

the Nation, Incentives for clean energy, the Launch of a Nation Export

Initiative, plans to boost school funding and make it more affordable, the

Recovery Act and Federal deficit reduction and many more programs.

In his Speech, he had stated that those reasons were behind his want

to become President of the United States. One in 10 Americans still cannot

find work. Many businesses have shuttered. Home values have declined.

Small towns and rural communities have been hit especially hard. And for

those whod already known poverty, life has become that much harder I

know the anxieties that are out there right now. Theyre not new These

struggles are what Ive witnessed for years in places like Elkhart, Indiana;
Galesburg, Illinois. I hear about them in the letters that I read each night.

The toughest to read are those written by children asking why they have

to move from their home, asking when their mom or dad will be able to go

back to work. For these Americans and so many others, change has not

come fast enough. Some are frustrated; some are angry. With the emotional

message of change he won the hearts of so many with those promises. He

made changes in the time he was in office and another huge impact, with no

republican voice of opinion on March 23, 2010 Obama signed the Patient

Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) into law.

Obamacare was the nickname that the Patient Protection and

Affordable Care Act (ACA) was given due to Obama signing the act into law

on March 23, 2010. The affordable care act was put in place to make

healthcare more affordable. Under the act, hospitals and doctors would offer

low costs medical assistance and improve methods of treatment as well as

improving insurance. The law required insurance companies and insurers to

accept all patients and cant turn those away with certain medical conditions,

they also had to abide by the laws and regulations that were going to be

introduced as the Law worked out its quirks.

It was mandated that each person is to have insurance or they will be

penalized during tax season if they didnt have coverage the previous year.

This caused a lot of anger with some people, those who believed that they

were healthy and didnt need to go see a doctor felt that they were being

cheated and charged for something that they shouldnt be responsible for.
The ACA had a lot of things that needed to be resolved and this was one way

that they felt they could boost the healthcare in America.

On January 15, 2011, three U.S. troops were killed in Iraq, two of them

were targeted and shot for a training exercise by two Iraqi soldiers and

another was shot in an operation in Central Iraq. Decreasing the number of

soldiers that the U.S. had in Iraq, U.S. was working on finding the leader and

founder of the group called Al-Qaeda Osama Bin Laden. The United State

Navy Seals were part of the special team that lead to Osama Bin Ladens

death on May 2, 2011. Operation Neptune Spear placed these men in

Pakistan where they carried out the plan and were known as the Night

Stalkers and invaded Osamas hide out and killed him. They were able to

bring his body and identify it in Afghanistan. Some claim that after the

identification was completed that his body was buried at sea in accordance

with Islamic Tradition. Since the leader was now dead and U.S. President

Obama implementing change to the nation. On December 15, 2011, he

called for the last troops in Iraq to come home and began the end of

Operation Iraqi Freedom. Since the launch in 2003 lead by George W. Bush

estimated 151,000 to 600,000 or more Iraqis were killed in the first 3 to 4

years of the war. As the years went by, more and more were killed and

change needed to be done and once the demand for the return of the U.S.

soldiers things started to calm down.

After the Presidential election in 2012 Obama beat Mitt Romney on

November 6, and he was elected for a second term and deemed as the 44th
U.S. President. Shortly after the delivery of his second inaugural speech,

Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton stepped down in her position after

serving 4 years. Tracing back the reasons of the reasons of her removal of

the position was later found out during the election of 2016 with Donald

Trump and Hillary R. Clinton. It was discovered that she had been part of the

2012 Benghazi attack that killed some American and angered a lot of people.

During an interview with CNN she stated, "I'm in charge of the State

Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The president

and the vice president wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions

that are made by security professionals. They're the ones who weigh all of

the threats and the risks and the needs, and make a considered decision."

She had to turn over her email and there were over 50,000 pages of emails

Clinton provided to the State Department, roughly 900 were reference to

Libya and were later sent to the House Committee. Clinton has violated so

many federal laws and it affected her presidency greatly when it began to

matter. Due to the email scandal Hillary was part of, it gave Americans the

ideas that they have always questioned in the back of their minds about the

government and Clinton made it a reality.

Obama fought hard to create peace and make a change throughout his

presidency. During the Boston Marathon, the first successful terrorist attack

was carried out and it resulted in numerous deaths. Two bombs were stashed

and later detonated around the finish line, when it they were ignited it killed

3 patrons including an eight-year-old boy and injured nearly 200 individuals.

This brought fear to the people and First Lady Obama had traveled back to

Boston to give hope to those who it hit home to most and spoke to those

grieving from the loss during the bombing at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

On the way to better America, Obama declared that he was going to go

on strike against ISIS and since the first uprising about ISIS (Islamic State of

Iraq and Syria) in August of 2012. On September 10, 2014 Obama delivered

a speech that laid out his plan to fight ISIS and destroy the terrorist group.

He had stated in his speech, We've done so while bringing more than

140,000 American troops home from Iraq, and drawing down our forces in

Afghanistan, where our combat mission will end later this year. Thanks to our

military and counterterrorism professionals, America is safer. Which was

true, as a nation we had been through some great hardships and were able

to make America safer, one of promises that he gave American when taking

his oath as President of the United States. He believed that taking down ISIS

would help Americans feel safer and give them the security that we crave as

citizens in a country that is supposed to have freedom and rights versus

living in a communist country. He planned on taking ISIS out by doing these

few things. First, we will conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes against

these terrorists. Working with the Iraqi government, we will expand our

efforts beyond protecting our own people and humanitarian missions, so that

we're hitting ISIL targets as Iraqi forces go on offense Second, we will

increase our support to forces fighting these terrorists on the ground Third,

we will continue to draw on our substantial counterterrorism capabilities to

prevent ISIL attacks. Working with our partners, we will redouble our efforts

to cut off its funding; improve our intelligence; strengthen our defenses;

counter its warped ideology; and stem the flow of foreign fighters into -- and

out of -- the Middle East Fourth, we will continue providing humanitarian

assistance to innocent civilians who have been displaced by this terrorist

organization. These were the steps Obama wanted to take to remove ISIS

and there were successful operations and others that were not. Leading up to

the attack in Paris France, On January 11, about two million people, including

more than 40 world leaders, met in Paris for a rally of National Unity. Obama

went there and gave a speech about ISIS and terrorism following the Charlie

Hebdo terrorist attacks.

The three-day attack took place in the capital Paris, and there was a

massacre at the offices of the satirical magazine by two brothers two

brothers, Sad and Chrif Kouachi, that ended with a huge police force and

operation that took two days to siege and left 12 people dead and 11 injured.

This left the nation of France in a hardship and the U.S. stood firm by

Frances side to help bring down national problems and the U.S. Aided in

peace and unity around the world. Giving France security to their people by

showing them that we are here to fight for peace as well. This lead to an

attack on the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas where there was an

event presented as a response to the attack on Charlie Hebdo, and organized

by the group American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI). Both gunmen

were killed by police and during the event only one was injured but survived

the gunshot wound to the ankle.

Towards the path to freedom and security in the United States we have

fought on a National level to Rescue, rebuild, restore for a New Foundation

for prosperity like Obama wanted when he began his presidency back in

2008. We as a nation have overcome so much stress in the past 8 years and

have resulted in peace in places where we never expected it to come. I feel

that our Nation is so focused on what is going on around the world and

others want to resolve what is going on in America and have been struggling

to grasp the reality. We do need to rescue and rebuild our nation first before

we can assist others in their struggles.

Our last election in 2016 was one that the Nation will never forget.

Donald Trump was deemed the 45th American President winning against

Democratic Hillary Rodham Clinton. There was so much he said and she said

going on and a lot of people viewed this election as very childish. During this

time Hillarys secrets about her involvement with were released and some

felt that she shouldnt be allowed to run as president due to the disgrace and

problems that she caused with having the government information in her

personal email.

These events have been acts of terrorism to make Americans fear the

worse. Obama wanted to give America the push we needed to get back on

our feet and can give Americans a peace in mind that we are going to be
taken care of. Throughout the past 8 years we have gone through happy

times with the death of Osama bin Laden and capturing those involved with

killings during the sad times we faced with massacres among the nation and

have changed laws to better keep America safe. Obama lead the country in

the right direction and could make a big impact to begin improving our

government. We just started our next chapter with our New President and

the nation will be changing due to changes that are already brewing in the

White House.

Resources:

"Barack Obama Timeline." Barack Obama Presidency & Timeline ***. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2017. <http://www.presidential-power.org/presidencies-
timelines/barack-obama-presidency-timeline.htm>.

"Charlie Hebdo attack: Three days of terror." BBC News. BBC, 14 Jan. 2015.
Web. 19 Apr. 2017. <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30708237>.

CNN. Cable News Network, 10 Sept. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.

<http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/10/politics/transcript-obama-syria-isis-
speech/index.html>.

HKSurrey. "Hillary Clinton's Role in Benghazi: What You Need to Know." Mic.
Mic Network Inc., 28 June 2016. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.
<https://mic.com/articles/133513/hillary-clinton-s-role-in-benghazi-what-you-
need-to-know#.UJOICZyYu>.

PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-secret-history-of-isis/>.

Course Text Book:

American Civilization, A Brief History SLCC 2nd Edition 2016.