9\11's impact on the Economy

[irunthereforeiam]

I was discussing with my friend the other day that Bin Laden in a way brought lot of misery post 9/11 eventhough his attempts to attack on the US again has not been successful.

Post 9/11, the government started focussing and chanelling money towards the security and 2 wars ( 1 being tagged pre-emptive ) that their is lack of focus on developing the economy and other social welfares.

Combine that with GW Bush's lack of forsight and other policies, that US lost it's Economic Supremacy.

In a way, by effectively shifting the focus from domestic growth to combating terrorism, these terrorist groups seem to have acheieved their mission of bringing misery to lots of common folks.

What's your thoughts?

[JDuff]

I think you are giving Bin Laden too much credit. As is so often said on this website, how you respond to the environment, and what choices you take, are entirely up to you. If the American government chose to spend trillions of dollars on wars that is not Bin Laden's achievement - that was the choice that the US government made. It could have responded in a far more responsible manner, for example by focusing more intelligently on the 'war on terror' instead of invading other countries that had nothing to do with it, i.e. Iraq. The 'war on terror' was used as a pre-text for invading Iraq.

Furthermore, the economic problems are about far more than just the military spending. They are primarily caused by lack of banking regulation and oversight, bad credit and consumer debt, globalisation, energy prices, economic mismanagement, etc etc...