Thursday, February 24, 2011

Terrorism, A Costly Issue.


Terrorism is known to be a costly problem through out the world. Many associate terrorism with terrorist attacks and that is why terrorism is so costly. Not only are destructive terrorist attacks costly, so are the policies going towards terrorism, and the war of terrorism is also costly. This is why, as a whole, terrorism is considered to be a problem known to expensive. When 9/11 occurred, this horrific attack cost 95 billion dollars (theatlantic.com). To terrorists this is considered to be a successful attack. Along with 9/11, the Madrid bombing and the London bombing is considered to be a successful attack to terrorists because these two other incidents were known to be costly. These incidents are causing major loss of money for either the businesses or costing the countries money to rebuild these structures. When it comes to terrorism, the damage to building structures is extremely costly, but the attacks are not the only reason why terrorism is considered to cost so much.

The holding of terrorists might seem to many people as a movement forward to stopping terrorism, but there is always a cost for holding anyone in a cell. According to BBC news, it costs 120 euros a day to hold a terrorist under a holding center. Since the year of 2006 to present, the cost to hold terrorists as reached 11 million euros. (BBC News). There is more to terrorism than just terrorist attacks. The holding and questioning of terrorists is a costly matter. It’s costing, worldwide and the United States, millions of dollars to help fight terrorism. I mean, 120 euros a day is more than holding an inmate in a prison cell. This is part of terrorism that is causing the cost to continue to rise. Not only is holding terrorists costly, but so are programs or actions that are going towards fighting terrorism. It is estimated that it cost 500 billion dollars annually to fund the fight for terrorism (about.com). This not a cost that is over a period of time, but this is how much it costs yearly and will continue to cost yearly if fighting terror continues.

The war on terrorism is another costly issue.. Money is spent on deploying troops, supplying weapons, supplying food, and so much more. Not only are innocent lives being lost, but also the money being spent continues to increase. It has been estimated that 802 billion dollars is being spent in Iraq, 455 billion dollars is being spent on Afghanistan, 29 billion dollars for enhanced security, and 6 billions dollar is being spent on unallocated DOD (Department of Defense) (http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf). This adds up to a total of 1.3 trillion dollars being spent on the war of terrorism. This is not a inexpensive fight, but an extremely costly situation. So much money is being spent to continue to fight terrorism. The war of terrorism to some people is seen as solution to stop terrorism from occurring, but it is more than that. It is a solution that is continuing to cost the United States billions to trillions of dollars. This number is not going to decrease, but will continue to rise until a solution is found to stop the war of terrorism.

Terrorism is a term that is well known world wide and well known to be an extremely costly problem. People associate terrorism as being costly because of the damage terrorists attacks cause, but that is not the case.. The war on terror is costing the United States 1.3 trillion dollars as well as 11 million dollars being spent to hold terrorists under control. This dollar amount is going to continue to rise if terrorism continues to occur. Innocent lives and the money being spent on terrorism will continue to increase unless something is done to stop terrorism or solution is found to stop the war on terror.


References:

Zalman, A. Economic Impact of Terrorism. Retrieved on 22, February, 2011 from

Unknown author (2009). Tories attack control-order cost. Retrieved on 23,

Indiviglio, D. (2009). The Economic Cost of Terrorism. Retrieved on 23, February,

Belasco, A. (2010). The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror
Operations Since 9/11. Retrieved on 23, February, 2011 from
www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf.






7 comments:

  1. I did not realize 9/11 cost so much because I was not paying attention to that. Rather I was wanting to know who attacked us and where are they from. I also liked how you brought up other terrorist attacks around the world because it shows terrorism as an international problem.

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  2. I must agree with Jack that I too never realized the high costs outcome of 9/11. I guess the natural reaction is who would do such a horrible act. After taking the Terrorism course last semester, I learned how many other countries have been attacked like the U.S. It was amazing to learn how many other countries have suffered like the U.S. but also in such extreme ways that I never even knew could happend. Example; Biochemical being one. It's good that you mentioned London and Madrid as some international countries that have been attacked.

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  3. The war on terrorism is a serious issue that is extremely expensive but if the U.S. does not do anything to try to stop terrorism it is only going to get worse. I agree with you it is very costly and apparently whatever we are doing to try to stop it is not working. We need to find another solution to stop terrorism and the war on terror.

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  4. I do agree with you that terrorism is an expensive issue. I did not realize exactly how much, so it made it very helpful to have all of those numbers available. I really liked how you brought up different ways that terrorism is costly; I did not know that there was that much money being spent on the war on terrorism!

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  5. I do agree with your post, terrorism is expensive both Financially and mentally. the fact that much damage was done on 9/11 Unbelievable.

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  6. I didn't know 9/11 cost 95 billion dollars. That is a lot of money. I agree with your post, terrorism is expensive. We never think how much these terrorism attacks cost, instead of that we only care where did it happened and how many people died. Thank you for this post.

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  7. What was your motivation to write this? What is your purpose to achieve by writing this? What do you want the audience to do or feel about your work?

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