Example of Terrorist Economic Weaponry:
Total cost of 9/11 terrorist acts was about $500,000
Total economic damage of 9/11 terrorist acts was about $500,000,000,000
Ruins of WTC
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Tactical and Strategic Economic Instruments of Mass Terror
Any economic means utilized in order to break enemy’s will to resist are in fact Economic Weaponry. Usage of economic means in battle existed throughout all the History of War. Economic blockades, for instance, have been always an integral part of “conventional” Economic Weaponry utilized in siege warfare of the past. This type of Economic Weaponry is proven to be extremely powerful as means of operation.
Economic blockade could become a devastating weaponry in total siege warfare. The most recent example in usage of “conventional” Economic Weaponry is the 900-day (1941-1944) economic blockade occurred in siege of the City of Leningrad (currently St. Petersburg, the Russian Federation) by Germans during World War II. More then 1.25 million people perished as a result of deprivations of food, energy, and other material necessities during the siege of the city.
In contrast, economic means as material of global strategy happened to be one of the latest perilous achievements of modern warfare. It greatly differs in scale from all types of economic means used in battles of the past. The very first, and almost accidental use of economic means as material of strategy was performed during the Arab-Israeli Conflict of 1973. It was initiated by the Arab Oil Producing States by imposing an embargo on oil exports to countries being friendly to Israel.
Surprisingly, the Arab Oil Producing States discovered new and extremely powerful strategic arms of modern warfare. The Arab cutbacks created a chain reaction of panic on the part of oil companies, consumers, oil traders, and some governments. The embargo on crude oil, that represented a loss of just less than 7 percent in world supply, turned into the major World Energy Crisis of 1973. It hit especially hard the National Economy and general population of the United States.
1973 was a historic year of the birth of strategic Economic Weaponry capable of manipulating foreign and domestic policies of sovereign States with their dependency on basic material necessities. It became self-evident that all basic necessities including production of food, clothing, shoes, housing, energy, medical supply, transportation, communication, entertainment, and etc. could be turned into strategic materials in modern warfare.
Accordingly, countries with a lack of basic material necessities became “economic hostages” of other countries who realized their strategic advantage by offering “cheap” basic material necessities as an integral part of International Trade. It also became evident, that any weak spot in production of basic material necessities could be taken advantage of with a price manipulation at a time of peace, and a potential threat of using lack of basic material necessities as Economic Weaponry against nations and states at a time of war.
Terrorist’s general line of attack consists of exhausting entire human and economic resources of the Nation by employing any available Instruments of Mass Terror. One of them is Economic Weaponry. Using it, terrorists expect the U.S. National Economy to collapse, and consequently, achieve their strategic goal to “wipe out from the World Map” the United States. The following are general strategic directions of using Economic Weaponry against the United States by International terrorists:
1. Damaging the National Economy to the point of breakdown by terrorist acts on the territory of the United States with conventional and unconventional weapons;
2. Ruining the United States financially with high cost damages inflicted by terrorist acts, pricey false alarms, expensive “one-man-hunt” military anti-terrorist operations, and etc.;
3. Jeopardizing the International Trade by destroying existing supply lines with terrorist acts on the ground, in air, on sea, in ports, and etc., including, but not limited to supply lines of basic material necessities imported by the United States from foreign countries;
4. Blackmailing foreign States, producers, and suppliers of basic material necessities with all sorts of punishments for both, political and economic ties with the United States;
5. Cyber-attacking U.S. networks on the Internet, compromising security of electronic transactions, jeopardizing E-commerce, counterfeiting U.S. dollars, and etc.
Contributed by Boris Tiraspolsky
Founding Member of
American Ideological Society