Sept. 11 is the day the 21st century began

by Cüneyt Ülsever for Turkish Daily News
Tuesday, September 12, 2006

This week is the week of Sept. 11.
I have been noting the same opinion since Sept. 12, 2001: Sept. 11 is the day when the 21st century truly began. The same day when World War III, which is the battle of the “re-allocation of resources,” began with technologies and strategies unique to it. World War I was the first battle of the re-allocation of resources. World War II was just the continuation of the first one. The new one is merely the continuation of World War II, which was left unfinished.
No matter what Turkey thinks, Sept. 11 is also the day when it became involved in this battle.
Let's just assess this incredible day by citing statistics.
The Hürriyet daily on Sept. 11, 2006, listed the following figures about Sept. 11.
Budget the U.S. Congress allocated for fighting terrorism and the war in Iraq: $432 billion
Estimated losses of airline companies: $40 billion
Number of troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan in the past five years: 1.35 million
Number of U.S. troops currently serving in Iraq: 145,000
Number of U.S: troops killed in Iraq: 2,662
Number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan: 272
Milliyet daily cites the following shocking figure, “180,000 people died in the last five years.”
The war against terrorism started by the United States and its allies five years ago after the Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington directly resulted in the deaths of 62,000 people, with 118,000 people killed indirectly.
Close to 3,000 people died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Why were 180,000 people killed in the past five years? Why was $500 billion spent?
OK. Incompetent neocons are governing the United States and are adhering to a mad ideology, but don't these figures mean anything?
Yaman Törüner published a very important article in Milliyet on Sept. 9, 2006. I took the figures from there.
1-- Some 21.6 percent of the world's proven oil reserves are in Saudi Arabia, 14 percent in Canada, 9 percent in Iraq, 8.1 percent in the United Arab Emirates, 8 percent in Kuwait, 7.4 percent in Iran, 6.4 percent in Venezuela, 4.9 percent in Russia, 2.4 percent in Libya, 2 percent in Nigeria and 1.9 percent in the United States.
2-- The world's biggest oil consumer is the United States with 20.1 million barrels of oil a day. China comes second with 5.6 million barrels, Russia 2.8 million, Germany 2.6 million, India, 2.2 million and France and Canada 2.1 million barrels each.
3-- China purchased 7 percent of the world's oil production, 25 percent of aluminum and steel produced, 33 percent of iron or coal and 40 percent of cement in 2003. China's production is increasing, and the world is consuming more Chinese goods every day. For example, 40 percent of furniture purchased in the United States comes from China.
4-- Between 1982 and 1992, the U.S. economy grew by an average of 3.3 percent a year while China's grew by 9.5 percent. China is growing three times as fast as the United States.