Total US war funding in 2003 was $US81billion. It now spends about $US500 billion annually or 20 per cent of the US federal budget. Photo: AFP
AS IT happens, I will be in New York on Sunday; the 10th anniversary of September 11. It's a date that needs no description and we all remember exactly where we were when it happened. I was in bed asleep when my daughter rang to say, as many people would have, "Dad, are you watching this?"
It's the story of our modern life. Something big happens and the media comes into play instantly, distributing images, text and sound in continuous relay around the globe with devices that no one dreamed of a generation ago.
Modern media have a massive effect on our daily life. We spend nearly eight hours a day engaged with it: three hours of television, about the same of radio and the rest spread between newspapers, magazines and increasingly the internet.
The events of 10 years ago dealt the media into the deadly game of terrorism like never before. For without the media coverage to every part of the globe, those involved would not have had the effect that has lived with us through this past decade. In fact, without the media it's unlikely that al-Qaeda would have even done it. It was not just the dramatic live pictures of the planes flying into the twin towers but the human drama played out for all of us to hear on the mobile phone calls of those who were to die.
And without satellite technology al-Qaeda could not have co-ordinated its secret operation from the angry hills of Afghanistan and other secret locations. Modern communications that have made our marketing world so efficient also have a dark side.
Those graphic images a decade ago will be with us forever. They have changed us. They have increased our fear that it might all happen again and ramped up our most basic and eternal fear - the fear of the unknown.
This fear of the unknown is with us in many ways at the moment and is contributing to the stalling of our economy. As a consumer, you act conservatively, spending slows down, savings go up and the economy tends to stall even when our economy is extremely strong compared with other national economies.
The September 11 event is a continual reminder of the tremendously damaging effects of fear. And that fear doesn't come cheap.
Those who travel internationally know only too well about the heightened levels of security and the enormous costs associated with it. These costs are a debilitating impost on every national economy that is struggling to provide its people with adequate standards of health, education, family support and the many other things that governments must do to encourage a fair and prosperous society.
For example, total US war funding in 2003 was $US81 billion. It now spends about $US500 billion annually, 20 per cent of the US federal budget, on government departments directly engaged in combating terrorism.
And in the two years following September 11, its defence budget increased by 30 per cent. Australia's defence spending in 2001 was about $14 billion. Now it's $26 billion.
Clearly the impact of that fateful day a decade ago has been enormous. However, it makes me recall a quote that has been uppermost in my mind for most of my life. It comes from Franklin D. Roosevelt's inaugural address: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself".
Harold Mitchell is the executive chairman of Mitchell Communication Group.
