Summary of September 11, 2001 Attacks - Essay Example

9/11 was therefore an attack in the running conflict between faiths. According to al Qaeda, Koran teaches that giving ones life when killing infidel enemies, the Americans is a holy act. Therefore, they committed the attack because it is what their god destined them to do. The attack was also committed because of the fact that Americans are not living as Islamists do and they are therefore sinners in whatever endeavor they undertake. The al Qaeda stated that their attacks on Americans will continue until specific foreign policies on the Middle East are stopped.

On the day of the attack, four planes were hijacked by terrorists and later two of them were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. This led to huge fires that after a short while led to the crumbling of the towers. One of the remaining two planes crashed in the Pentagon in Washington D.C and the last crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The terrorists had planned that the planes crash in buildings and landmarks but this efforts were thwarted by passengers who were on board (Lloyd 45-58).

Most of the passengers were mainly sailors and solders. Due to the negative devastating effects of September 11, 2001, it is believed to be the worst terrorist attack ever to be experienced by the Americans. Some of the direct horrific outcomes were the death of about 3000 Americans and massive destruction of property. The broader vision of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 however shows different consequences including political, economic and social problems. The immediate economic effect of the attack was a sharp drop in performance of global stock markets.

It was the largest insured event leading to about 40 billion dollars of insurance losses. The opening of the New York Stock Exchange had been delayed since the first plane had crashed on the north tower of the World Trade Center. The subsequent attacks led to the closure of the NYSE. Trading on the bond market also ceased as a result of the attacks. The Federal Reserve acted fast by introducing the discount window that was put in place to meet liquidity needs. This helped to stabilize the economy and reduce disruptions that arose in the financial system as a result of the attacks.

Prices of several commodities escalated to extremely high levels. Travel and entertainment stocks experienced immediate shake up including online travel agencies while tourism plunged in New York. This led to massive losses that included sharp decline in the tourism earnings as a result of fall in hotel occupancy. This was because of lack of tourists who were reluctant to fly due to fear of repeat attacks. All these direct impacts on the economic position of USA show the elementary correlation between a country’s ability to generate wealth and the ability to defend itself.

Several issues therefore came up including the worst effects of threats of terror to an economic superpower and use of economic tools to curb devastating effects of terrorist attacks. The attacks came at a time when the US economy was in the process of recovery. The costs of the attacks were devastating; the mostly affected was the infrastructure and the rescue and clean up operations. The insurance losses were due to the increased insurance rates that made insurance premium too high