The military, War and Terrorism - Research Paper Example

Military War and Terrorism For several years debate over military spending has been taking place. The question that concerns all is that whether high military spending is good or bad for the economy and the society of United States. Those in the favor of heavy military spending state that when military spending increases, the government’s demand for goods and services increases. When demand for goods and services increase, employment within the nation even increases and due to spending conducted by military officials in order to obtain goods and services, further jobs are created.

The question under scrutiny is whether it is more beneficial for a nation to spend more on military or spend more for other purposes. Research states that the number of jobs and employment opportunities created by spending on military is far lower than the number of jobs created when government spends money for other purposes. According to the office of Congress, when an amount of $10 billion is expend to purchase artillery and weapons used for military purposes, it leads to creation of 40,000 fewer jobs that would have been created if this amount was expended for different programs aiming at civil society (Spike 113).

On the contrary the DOD (Department of Defense) of United States of America argues that due to expenditure for military purposes, new technologies and research and development takes place (Foray 139). For example: the need for nuclear energy was realized when the need for nuclear weapons was realized. If this need would not have arisen, then nuclear energy might not have been pursued by the civilian society. War can have both positive as well as negative impacts on the society, economy and political conditions of a society.

Same is the case experienced by United States of America after taking part in several wars. One of the wars that majorly impacted the US was the American War for Independence that came to a stop during 1783. One of the major changes this war added to the US society as the acceptance of the rule of equality within the society. When the war ended, the inequality caused by unequal distribution of wealth among the soldiers and the citizens of the US decreased gradually and now importance was given to contribution through hard work rather than financial history of an individual (Charfi 68).

This war even changed the political side of the nation, women who were once looked upon as weak and inferior to men were not assigned any rights within the American society. After the war women were able to gain ample amount of rights (Nugent 59). War has a major effect on the economy of a country, the destruction conducted by war helps in increasing the well being of the society as the government starts constructing and spending money to reverse the effect of destruction. When construction projects take place, employment in different sectors of the economy takes place.

For example: finance organizations are created through which money is regulated, workers are required to construct new buildings and investment in construction raw materials leads to increased employment. Terrorism has a very negative impact on the society and the people belonging to a society. Terrorism is a term used to define coercive actions used by organized teams with the purpose of attaining political benefits. Terrorism causes problems to the mental and physical fitness of individuals who have witnessed it.

It causes negative impacts on the political and economical fronts. For example: after 9/11 attacks it was projected that heavy number of jobs would be lost in New York because these attacks will make New York a dangerous location and tourists would avoid visiting New York (McMahon 55). Due to this he stated that the major losses of employment will be experienced by the industries of clothing, tourism and architecture. For long the United States of America was being considered as a safe heaven for people of all race, color, gender and religion.

But after the attacks the sentiments changed as terrorism and fear of terrorist attacks became a concern within the nation. These terrorist attacks changed the mindset of the individuals living within US and outside US and these attacks damaged the peaceful mindset of the civilians of the US. Muslims and Arab nations were held responsible for these attacks. After these attacks the non Muslim societies of US including Christians and people from other religion started looking down upon the Muslim community and started fearing that all Muslims are terrorists and would attack US again and again (Cainkar 8).

Works Cited Cainkar, Louise. Homeland insecurity: the Arab American and Muslim American experience after 9/11. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2009. Print. Charfi, Mohamed. Islam and liberty: the historical misunderstanding. New York: Zed Books, 2005. Print. Foray, Dominique. The new economics of technology policy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2009. Print. McMahon, Thomas F.. Ethical leadership through transforming justice. Dallas: University Press of America, Inc., 2004. Print. Nugent, Walter T. K., and Martin Ridge.

The American West: the reader. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999. Print. Spike, Marie, Charles Reskin, and David Reskin. Outcry: American voices of conscience, post-9/11. Boca Raton, Fla.: Universal Publishers, 2005. Print.