I mentioned earlier this week running across a most annoyingly ignorant piece of silliness entitled How Bin Laden Failed to Wreck the US Economy. And as I wrote then, his main contention was "Taking the long view, the attacks utterly failed in their effort to create new economic realities for the U.S. and for the global economy."
I then pointed out the post 9/11 bailouts like $10 Billion to the airline industry that people completely forget, and the dramatic spike in our National Debt in less than 10 years from $8.95 Trillion to $14.3 Trillion today.
Today I found more evidence to refute that premise that Bin Laden failed to wreck the US economy--
"By conservative estimates, bin Laden cost the United States at least $3 trillion over the past 15 years, counting the disruptions he wrought on the domestic economy, the wars and heightened security triggered by the terrorist attacks he engineered, and the direct efforts to hunt him down. What do we have to show for that tab? Two wars that continue to occupy 150,000 troops and tie up a quarter of our defense budget; a bloated homeland-security apparatus that has at times pushed the bounds of civil liberty; soaring oil prices partially attributable to the global war on bin Laden's terrorist network; and a chunk of our mounting national debt, which threatens to hobble the economy unless lawmakers compromise on an unprecedented deficit-reduction deal." (National Journal)
Three Trillion Dollars..
So why would someone write that the US economy was unaffected?
The honest reason- the author needed to for his own psychological benefit. You find this often, even in mainstream news. Its not that these journalists and columnists are always getting paid to continuously push fluff that does not mesh with the reality of life as it exists.
They, like many others, want to defiantly believe Bin Laden inflicted no mid-term or long term damage. Just like they want to defiantly believe we're in recovery economically and everything is getting better.. and better.. because, "The sun will come out.. Tomorrow.. you can bet your bottom dollar that Tomorrow... there'll be sun..."
But this is irresponsible and harmful. Personally I want to see unemployment down to 2-3% (no such thing as zero unemployment), everyone making good wages and leading productive, prosperous and terrorism-free lives. But since we're nowhere near this point, it would be reckless to write narratives as if that desire was today's Truth.
Some people pretend reality doesn't exist just like some people felt the desire to chant USA!, USA! in the streets at 2a.m. as if to pretend the entire War on Terror was now over, celebrating a death like their favorite baseball team won the World Series
"Ants & Grasshoppers" just isn't that kind of information source
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