Since October 7th, 2001, the United States of America has spent an estimated $1.2 trillion dollars on the War on Terror. The War on Terror, also known as the Iraq War, is an international military campaign led by the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries enrolled in NATO. It was launched by the invasion of Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attacks; however other operations have started including Operation: Enduring Freedom. It was fought against Al-Qaeda and other factions and is a struggle that continues even today. This war was highly unnecessary for many countries and it caused many problems, one being such as the United States’ $14.2 trillion dollar debt.  The War on Terror had a huge impact on civil liberties and freedoms of Americans and citizens all around the world. What are the true motives for the War on Terror? To ensure freedom or to ensure oil? The War on Terrorism is ineffective and should be stopped because debt is rising, freedom is being reduced, and international support is facing a decline.
As of February 28, 2011, the debt that the United States of America had accumulated was $14.19 trillion dollars. According to the 2005 Mid-Session Review, 22 percent of this debt ($3.13 trillion dollars) was due to spending for the War on Terror, the Iraq War, and Homeland Security. In 2007, the Department of Defense received $161.8 billion dollars for the global War on Terrorism. According to the National Counter Terrorism Center, in 2004 roughly 2,000 people were killed due to terrorist acts. The leading cause of death in America is coronary heart disease, and in 2007, the government’s funding for this was about 3 billion dollars. This means that the U.S. Government in 2007 spent 54 times the amount for preventing terrorism than for preventing a disease that kills over 450,000 Americans a year.
Since the September 11 attacks had occurred, American freedom and rights have been reduced and more controlled by laws created in response to the attacks. Ever since the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the government and police have not been granted the right to search someone unless the government could prove that a crime had been committed by that person.  However, since the USA Patriot Act has been implemented, your home can now be searched at any time without a warrant without you even being present if the government suspects you are a “terrorist”. The error in this is that you cannot define someone as a terrorist, and suspicion is far from probable cause.
International support for the War on Terror has been on a sharp decline. Was the War on Terror looking for weapons of mass destruction, or just an excuse to secure Iraq and Afghanistan’s much needed oil supplies for future decades?  According to Alan Greenspan, an economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve for 20 years, the war on terror was “largely about oil”. So exactly why are American troops involved in Afghanistan and Iraq? None of those directly involved in the September 11 attacks were even affiliated with Afghanistan, they were mostly Saudi Arabian.
The War against Terrorism largely appears to be an elaborate fraud. One of the poorest and most disease stricken nations is being bullied by the most powerful country in the world. Instead of wisely investing money, the American Government has spent over 3 trillion dollars fighting this phony war. The American people are not even safe in their own home and their rights and freedoms have been dwindled greatly. Sadly, the government prefers to have over 1 million innocent civilians killed in Iraq alone than to end the war and send their brave soldiers home with their families, finally ending a decade of struggling.