I know Iâm going to catch Hell for this , but here it goes.
19 guys with boxcutters, (not guns or knives) I repeat, $2.89 boxcutters, commandeered 4 airliners, one crashing into the ground killing the passengers and crew, two others destroyed perhaps the greatest symbol of Western capitalism, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in the heart of Americaâs greatest city, New York and the fourth crashed into Americaâs bastion of military/intelligence, the Pentagon, in the heart of Americaâs capitol.
The actual cost of the deaths, wounds, damage, repairs, insurance claims, physical and mental health care for survivors and rescue workers, mental health care for millions of American adults and especially children traumatized by the event and how it was shown again and again on public media, plus huge losses from our shattered airline industry for years.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index fell 684 to 8920, its biggest-ever one-day point decline, losing billions in one day.
Plus something directly related 9/11 attack: Americaâs terrible reaction, Bushâs preemptive attack on Iraq, a war predicated on false assumptions, (an attack that was initially suppose to cost 60 billion, but was grossly underestimated.) As much as President Bush tried to establish a link to Osama Bin Laden or al-Qaida, Iraq had no connection. When that lie was not bought by the American people and the UN, an excuse of Iraqâs supposed control of WMDâs was fabricated with threats of âmushroom clouds over Americaâ, a lie that soon became obvious as US troops quickly overran the country. This war of âchoiceâ quickly became very expensiveâorders of magnitude beyond the $60 billion claimed at the beginningâas colossal incompetence met dishonest misrepresentation.
Plus the Iraq war was terribly financed: it was the first war in US history paid for on credit. The war in Afghanistan was justified but also expensive in many ways. And we saw how that turned out.
Americaâs real strength, more than its military and economic power, is its âsoft power,â its moral authority. And this, too, was weakened: As the U.S. violated basic human rights like habeas corpus and the right not to be tortured, its longstanding commitment to international law was called into question.
Americaâs casualties are not insignificant - 2,996 people lost their lives when the twin towers fell in New York, at the Pentagon, and on the each of the three hijacked planes. I havenât been able to find reliable numbers of rescue workers who have died as a result of the attacks. The Department of Defense Casualty report official states as of January 2018 that these were our losses in the Middle East:
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) - This campaign includes casualties that occurred between October 7, 2001, and December 31, 2014. The DoD reports 2,346 military deaths and four civilian deaths, with a total of 20,095 injured in and around Afghanistan. There are other locations in the world that are classified within the OEF spectrum. These include deaths and injuries in Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.
Operation Freedom Sentinel (OFS) - This campaign includes casualties that occurred in Afghanistan immediately after OEF concluded December 31, 2014. OFS began on 1 January 2015. To date, there are 49 U.S. deaths and 268 wounded in this current military operation.
Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) - This campaign includes casualties that occurred in Iraq starting March 19, 2003. On August 31, 2010, President Obama announced that the American combat mission in Iraq had ended. There were 4,424 U.S. deaths and 31,957 wounded in that military operation. These casualties occurred in Iraq as well as in the Arabian Sea, Bahrain, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Kuwait, Oman, Persian Gulf, Qatar, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. Prior to March 19, 2003, casualties in these countries were considered OEF.
Operation New Dawn (OND) - This campaign includes casualties that occurred between September 1, 2010, and December 31, 2011. There were 73 U.S. deaths and 295 wounded in this operation. These deaths occur in the areas of the Arabian Sea, Bahrain, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Persian Gulf, Qatar, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates during the dates above .
Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) - Effective October 15, 2014, OIR was created to wage war against the terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, another name for the Islamic State) along the Syrian-Iraqi border. To date, there are 62 U.S. deaths and 64wounded in OIR. OIR campaign includes casualties that occurred in Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the Mediterranean Sea east of 25° Longitude, the Persian Gulf.
Thats 7,077 US Dead and 52,384 wounded, and US soldiers are still being killed, even after almost 17 years. Who knows how many are traumatized, have PTSD, depression, alcoholism and drug addiction, failed lives and marriages and the VA system has been put into an almost permanent state of crisis, with inadequate beds and staff and appointments taking as long as a year for desperate men and women.
Plus these two wars contributed to Americaâs macroeconomic weaknesses, which exacerbated its deficits and debt burden. Then, as now, disruption in the Middle East led to higher oil prices, forcing Americans to spend money on oil imports that they otherwise could have spent buying goods produced in the U.S. The Federal Reserve hid these weaknesses by engineering a housing bubble that led to a consumption boom. It will take years to overcome the excessive indebtedness and real-estate overhang that resulted. The current reneging of the USâs Iran Nuclear Deal by President Trump is poorly thought out and potentially dangerous. It could very likely throw the Middle East into further upheaval, and continue this 17 year cycle of shooting ourselves in the foot
When President Bush tried to deceive America about the warsâ costs when he âsoldâ the idea to the American people with a paltry 60 billion price tag, he underfunded the troops, refusing even basic expendituresâsay, for armored and mine/IED-resistant vehicles needed to protect American lives or for adequate health care for returning veterans.
So whatâs the final tally of this attack by 19 guys with boxcutters? The New York Times says in all, the U.S. government has spent more than $7.6 trillion on defense and homeland security since the 9/11 attacks. That only covers the wars and additional security. How much for the rest of most of the all-above? We donât know in reality. $4 trillion or more. And much of that spent on credit. Itâs a bill that will come due some day, for us, our kids, our grandkids.
Americaâs military spending still nearly equals that of the rest of the world combined, three decades after the end of the Cold War. Some of the increased expenditures went to the costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the broader âglobal war on terrorism,â but much of it was wasted on weapons that donât work against enemies that donât exist. You can buy 100 of the latest, design-flawed-plagued F-35 fighters, (a Marine STVOL version costs $130,000,000 apiece, yes, you read right) with electronic, computer and STOVL packages, that are of great use if we were at war with China but they are of little use against a band of terrorists in the mountains of Pakistan. Imagine how many SEAL team special forces unit you could create and maintain for the price of a single F-35. It seems in many ways the U.S. could get more security by paying less.
I could go on and on but you get my point: so many terrible things resulted not only in the 9/11 attack but in the equally terrible decisions made afterwords.
One last point, which makes this a hot take. Was al-Quidaâs attack on the US a âmilitary operationâ or a simple terrorist attack? It depends on where youâre standing.