U.S. Military Interventions

There have been many U.S. military interventions aimed at fighting terrorism since the 9/11 attacks in 2001. There are several countries that the U.S. is currently involved with. It must be determined if current U.S. interventions are working at combating terrorism. There is a high cost for using the military in multiple countries. This article will explore U.S. military interventions and determine if they are successful at combating terrorism or not.

Current Military Presence

There are several countries that the U.S. is currently involved with militarily. Bialik states the U.S. overseas military presence in 2016 was 193,442 active-duty personnel or 15% of all active-duty personnel, which is the lowest number in 60 years (2017). This would seem to suggest that the U.S. has a lower military presence throughout the world than in years past. The problem is this number does not tell the whole story. Desjardins says that active-duty military personnel are in 177 countries overseas (2017). The breakdown is 73,206 active-duty military personnel in Asia, 62,635 in Europe, 25,124 in Middle East/North Africa, 2,620 in Americas, and 2,581 in Sub-Saharan Africa (Bialik, 2017). This shows that even though the number of active-duty U.S. military personnel is low, they are spread out in many countries. Many of the countries are U.S. allies so the active-duty military personnel in those countries are there in a supportive role. These numbers do not accurately show what countries the U.S. has a military presence in an open conflict.

Current Military Interventions

There are many countries that U.S. military is currently involved in for purpose of fighting terrorism, but there is a cost. The countries the U.S. has bombed in recent years are Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and Libya (Selby, 2017). That is quite a few countries the U.S. has bombed in recent years and bombs cost money to make. That is a cost that would add up especially with more than one country in a short time period. The U.S. military budget according to Carroll (2016) was $610 billion in 2014 while the seven countries below the U.S. in terms of military spent $601 billion. This is a high price for military but not all that is going to current conflicts, but it is likely a significant percentage.

President Trump wants to increase the military spending to $639.1 billion to provide more money for Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and other counter-terrorism operations (defense.gov). The total cost of the wars in Middle East was $1.6 trillion from 2001-2014 according to a Congressional Research Service study (Qui, 2016). It cost $4.79 trillion from 2001-2016 for four wars according to a Brown University study and $4-6 billion for just Iraq and Afghanistan according to a Harvard University study (Qui, 2016). This shows wars in the Middle East have cost anywhere from $1.6 billion to $6 billion. Fighting terrorism can be costly based on this information, which could be due to terrorist groups being spread out over several countries.

Results of the War on Terrorism

Knowing how successful the war on terrorism has been is important when considering how much it costs. One way to measure the success of the war on terrorism is to look at the number of terrorist attacks worldwide over several years. According to Statista the number of terrorist attacks was 14,371 in 2006, 14,414 in 2007, down to 6,771 in 2012, up to 13,482 in 2014, and down to 11,072. A conclusion that can be drawn from this data is the war on terrorism was successful in lowering the number of terrorist attacks until 2012 but has been less successful since 2013. The lowest number in 2012 could also be an outlier because nine out of 11 years had over 10,000 attacks. It would appear the war on terrorism has had a minimal effect on the number of terrorist attacks worldwide since 2006.

One cost to the war on terrorism is the loss of life for U.S. service members, allied soldiers, and civilians. According to the Watson Institute, there have been “over 6,800 US service members and over 6,900 contractors who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan”. The Watson Institute also says, “approximately 43,000 uniformed Afghans, Iraqis, and other allies have died as of May 2014”. These numbers do not include the other conflicts the U.S. has been involved in since 2001, but gives a good idea how many people have died fighting in the war terrorism. There have also been many civilian deaths with about 210,000 Afghan, Iraqi, and Pakistani dying in the wars involving all three countries (Watson Institute). One of the biggest costs in the war on terrorism has been human lives based off these numbers. The amount of deaths lost due to the war on terrorism is especially devastating considering terrorist attacks worldwide are almost as high as they were 11 years ago.

Conclusion

The war on terrorism has cost trillions of dollars, which should have decreased the total number of terrorist attacks worldwide significantly. Unfortunately, that has not been the case because there are still a high number of terrorist attacks just as there were 11 years ago. Thousands of people have died as a result of the war on terrorism, which would include armed forces for the U.S. or allied countries and civilians. Terrorism should be at a low level considering the high cost in dollars and humans lives caused by fighting terrorist. Fighting terrorism is an important issue because terrorist groups threaten human lives, but the current strategy is not working. A new strategy must be found because the current one is too costly in terms of money and human lives.

References

Bialik, K. (2017, Aug. 22). U.S. Active-Duty Military Presence Overseas Is at Its Smallest in Decades. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/22/u-s-active-duty-military-presence-overseas-is-at-its-smallest-in-decades/

Carroll, L. (2016, Jan. 13). Obama: US Spends More on Military Than Next 8 Nations Combined. Retrieved from http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jan/13/barack-obama/obama-us-spends-more-military-next-8-nations-combi/

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1190216/dod-releases-fiscal-year-2018-budget-proposal/

Desjardins, J. (2017, Mar. 20). Nearly 200,000 US Troops Are Currently Deployed Around the World — Here's Where. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-personnel-deployments-by-country-2017-3

Selby, W.G. (2017, Oct. 21). Jill Stein, Green Party Candidate, Correct About U.S. Bombing Seven Countries. Retrieved from http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2016/oct/21/jill-stein/jill-stein-green-party-candidate-correct-about-us-/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/202864/number-of-terrorist-attacks-worldwide/

Qui, L. (2016, Oct. 27). Did U.S. Spend $6 trillion in Middle East Wars? Retrieved from http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/oct/27/donald-trump/did-us-spend-6-trillion-middle-east-wars/

http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/civilians

http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/military/killed