The title of the article is pretty self-explanatory on what this article is about, the war on terror. Some people don’t even know how the war started, but it all started because of the tragic terrorist act of September 11, 2001 when the towers fell to the ground. After that, President Bush declared war on theUnited Arab Emirates. In 2000 Osama Bin Laden himself actually declared that theU.S.policy of supporting corrupt regimes in the Middle East and killing scores of civilians inIraqthrough sanctions was the reason he would attackAmerica. So after 9/11, Bush declared war on theUnited Arab Emirates, creating a new war overseas. You will hear a lot of people these days talking about the war; about where we are in the war, what the war is costing us, is it worth it, and how many people have been killed or wounded. I’m here to set all that straight.
In my opinion, I think the war overseas is pointless and wasteful and here is why. The war on terror has put many dents inAmerica, especially financially. There is no telling what the war will cost in the long run, but an estimate is around 3 trillion dollars, says economist Joseph Stiglitz. The government is still doing really big operations, like a three billion dollar operation inIraq, and we just leftIraq! Using a “top-down” calculation based onU.S.budget appropriations, the group estimates the total money spent or allocated comes to about $255 million per day, or a little less than $1.8 billion a week. And just so you know, all this money is from citizens inAmerica, from our taxes! This might be a big abundance of money, but what’s the real price we pay?
We pay money for the war, but the people who really pay are theUSsoldiers overseas and their families. These interventions have been far too costly in blood and treasure; 3,000 Americans died on 9/11, thousands of Americans suffer from mental trauma or have become amputees because of these wars without end, 48,430 people so far have been wounded or killed in “fighting for freedom”.
More than 100,000 Iraqis and tens of thousands of Afghans have died. An estimate of US Military deaths is approximately 50,000 soldiers. The real price we pay is the American lives who have died “fighting for freedom”, overseas and inAmerica.
In the war we are in many different places now and they change often. We recently leftIraqand are now inAfghanistan, but now we are in both, but it will change again. We are also stationed inSaudi Arabiaand other places in theMiddle East. So to summarize, we are fighting all over theUnited Arab Emirates.
Out of all the things that are happening overseas, is there any purpose? Many say this War on Terror is a war for oil and other natural resources. Others claim the War on Terror is simply to support the defense industry, and some contend it “spreads democracy” and keepsAmericasafe.
Whatever the purpose, the War on Terror has clearly been negative for millions here and abroad, and now it is simply time to end it. The freedom that Americans believe is being defended by troops overseas, but the lives of our soldiers are not.