The Price of 9/11

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The September 11, 2001, terror attacks by Al Qaeda weremeant to harm the United  States, and they did, but in ways that Osamabin Laden probably never imagined. President George W. Bush’s response to theattacks compromised America’s basic principles,undermined its economy, and weakened its security.
The attack on Afghanistanthat followed the 9/11 attacks was understandable, but the subsequent invasion of Iraq was entirely unconnected to AlQaeda – as much as Bush tried to establish a link. That war of choice quicklybecame very expensive – orders of magnitude beyond the $60 billion claimed atthe beginning – as colossal incompetence met dishonest misrepresentation.
Indeed, when Linda Bilmes and I calculated America’swar costs three years ago, the conservative tallywas $3-5 trillion. Since then, the costs have mounted further. With almost 50%of returning troops eligible to receive some level of disability payment, andmore than 600,000 treated so far in veterans’ medical facilities, we nowestimate that future disability payments and health-care costs will total$600-900 billion. But the social costs, reflected in veteran suicides (whichhave topped 18 per day in recent years) and family breakups, are incalculable.
Even if Bush could be forgiven for taking America, and much of the rest ofthe world, to war on false pretenses, andfor misrepresenting the cost of the venture, there is no excuse for how he chose tofinance it. His was the first war in history paid for entirely on credit. As Americawent into battle, with deficits already soaring from his 2001 tax cut, Bushdecided to plunge ahead with yet anotherround of tax “relief” for the wealthy.
Today, Americais focused on unemployment and the deficit. Both threats to America’s future can,in no small measure, be traced to the wars in Afghanistanand Iraq.Increased defense spending, together with the Bush tax cuts, is a key reasonwhy Americawent from a fiscal surplus of 2% of GDP when Bush was elected to its parlous deficit and debt position today. Directgovernment spending on those wars so far amounts to roughly $2 trillion –$17,000 for every UShousehold – with bills yet to be received increasing this amount by more than50%.
Moreover, as Bilmes and I argued in our book The ThreeTrillion Dollar War, the wars contributed to America’s macroeconomic weaknesses,which exacerbated its deficits and debt burden. Then, as now, disruption in theMiddle East led to higher oil prices, forcing Americans to spend money on oilimports that they otherwise could have spent buying goods produced in the US.
But then the US Federal Reserve hid these weaknesses byengineering a housing bubble that led to a consumption boom. It will take yearsto overcome the excessive indebtedness andreal-estate overhang that resulted.
Ironically, the wars have underminedAmerica’s(and the world’s) security, again in ways that Bin Laden could not have imagined.An unpopular war would have made military recruitment difficult in anycircumstances. But, as Bush tried to deceive America about the wars’ costs, he underfunded the troops, refusing even basicexpenditures – say, for armored and mine-resistant vehicles needed to protectAmerican lives, or for adequate health care for returning veterans. A US courtrecently ruled that veterans’ rights have been violated. (Remarkably, the Obama administration claims thatveterans’ right to appeal to the courts should be restricted!)
Military overreach haspredictably led to nervousness about using military power, and others’knowledge of this threatens to weaken America’s security as well. But America’s realstrength, more than its military and economic power, is its “soft power,” itsmoral authority. And this, too, was weakened: as the US violated basic human rights likehabeas corpusand the right not to be tortured, its longstanding commitment tointernational law was called into question.
In Afghanistanand Iraq, the US and itsallies knew that long-term victory required winning hearts and minds. Butmistakes in the early years of those wars complicated that already-difficultbattle. The wars’ collateral damage has beenmassive: by some accounts, more than a million Iraqis have died, directly orindirectly, because of the war. According to some studies, at least 137,000civilians have died violently in Afghanistanand Iraqin the last ten years; among Iraqis alone, there are 1.8 million refugees and 1.7 million internally displacedpeople.
Not all of the consequences were disastrous. The deficitsto which America’sdebt-funded wars contributed so mightily are now forcing the US to face thereality of budget constraints. America’smilitary spending still nearly equals that of the rest of the world combined,two decades after the end of the Cold War. Some of the increased expenditureswent to the costly wars in Iraqand Afghanistanand the broader Global War on Terrorism, but much of it was wasted on weaponsthat don’t work against enemies that don’t exist. Now, at last, those resourcesare likely to be redeployed, and the US will likely get more security bypaying less.
Al Qaeda, while not conquered,no longer appears to be the threat that loomed so large in the wake of the 9/11attacks. But the price paid in getting to this point, in the US andelsewhere, has been enormous – and mostly avoidable. The legacy will be with usfor a long time. It pays to think beforeacting.

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关键词：Price Rice ice The Expenditures principles subsequent entirely invasion terror

President George W. Bush’s response to the attacks compromised America’s basic principles,undermined its economy, and weakened its security.
The attack on Afghanistanthat followed the 9/11 attacks was understandable, but the subsequent invasion of Iraq was entirely unconnected to AlQaeda – as much as Bush tried to establish a link.the conservative tally of that war was $3-5trillion.it was the first war in history paid for entirely on credit(principles)

Today, Americais focused on unemployment and the deficit. Both threats to America’s future can,in no small measure, be traced to the wars in Afghanistanand Iraq.But then the US Federal Reserve hid these weaknesses byengineering a housing bubble that led to a consumption boom. It will take yearsto overcome the excessive indebtedness andreal-estate overhang that resulted.(economy)

Ironically, the wars have undermined America’s(and the world’s) security.Military overreach has predictablyled to nervousness about using military power, and others’ knowledge of thisthreatens to weaken America’ssecurity as well. But America’sreal strength, more than its military and economic power, is its “soft power,”its moral authority. And this, too, was weakened: as the US violated basic human rights(security)

The war is not the cause of the economy crisis. The recession would start much earlier without the war.