Today is the 12th anniversary of the world trade centre attacks in New York. So we thought
we'd take a look at the costs which, directly or otherwise, have been incurred by 9/11 over
the years.
Because the attacks didn't simply result in a "war on terror" and military interventions
in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They totally changed the world outlook in regards to foreign
policy, in regards to Government operations, and in regards the world economy.
The initial repercussions of the event were obvious. Within just three weeks troops were
on the ground rooting Al-Queda and their Taliban hosts out of Afghanistan. Then, in 2003, partly
under the untrue documents pertaining to weapons of mass destruction and partly amid patently
untrue claims that Al-Queda had infiltrated the government, the coalition moved into Iraq
to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein. Many people would argue, and millions did at the
time, that the wars were a political program that was enabled by 911, rather than a result
of the attack, but they couldn't have happened without it.
And the result? Carnage, in both cases. Iraq is now suffering at the hands of more sectarian
violence than it has for years, and vast swathes of Afghanistan are back in the hands of the
Taliban, whilst much of the country is still growing opium poppies, the refined produce
of which is finding its way onto European and US streets.
And the cost is staggering. 911 itself is estimated to have cost around $20 billion
in damages immediately and $100 billion in the long run, with 2,996 lives lost. Afghanistan
has cost $657 billion, with 3,372 coalition lives lost, and around 20,000 civilian ones,
not to mention countless Afghan soldiers and police. Iraq has cost $814 billion, 4804 coalition
lives, and perhaps as many as 130,000 civilians. Drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere have
since killed an estimated 4,000 civilians.
But that's just the surface. Because 911 also had a lasting effect on the world economy.
The market impact on 9/11 is valued at negative $1.9trillion dollars. Meanwhile, the physical
effects of increased homeland security readiness - increased airport scans and investigations,
investigations and embargos relating to financial dealings and the like, is estimated to have
cost an extra trillion.
The fact that private contractors were used extensively in the conflicts following 9/11
hasn't helped matters. It's estimated that 25% of spending on private contractors was
wasted or mis-spent. The war was clearly very profitable for some people, even if the cost
to the American taxpayer was eye-wateringly high, around $70,000 per family. Oh, and then
there's the cost of oil, which, barring a big dip in late 2008, has risen steadily in
price from a stable $25 ish a barrel to over $100.
But the War on Terror that stemmed from 9/11 has also had a drastic effect on the way we
see government. The result of increased homeland security, keeping watch on its own citizens
and continued attacks by extremist elements in the Middle East has been a disintegration
of trust in the governments of the West from their own people. Gallup polls show that trust
in the government's foreign policy in Washington rocketed from around 68% to 83% in the wake
of 911, then dropped off rapidly ahead of the invasion of Iraq, reaching an all time
low of just 51% in summer 2007. Domestically, too, a post 911 high of 77% trust has fallen
to the low 40s.
So the cost of 9/11 is a lack of trust in government, a lasting economic legacy, and
hundreds of thousands of dead and injured on all sides. All stemming from just one attack
on one block in New York 12 years ago. I guess that's what you call the butterfly effect.