“Suffice it to say, terrorism is always cheap, if you are the terrorists, and, many times over, extremely damaging and expensive if you are it’s victims. But, doing nothing is not a choice for the victims. That’s just the way it is. Putting a” price tag” on it does not change the dynamics and the disparity in the costs, when terrorism is a global outreach enterprise and not simply domestic wackos.”
That sums it up nicely. Soft targets in large numbers hit with low-tech weapons - very cheap. Intelligence-gathering and high-tech security - not cheap.
Not the most logical allocation of resources to be combating terrorism through the financing of troops and nation building in the Mideast while our southern border security is deliberately lax, particularly when the enemy is part of a “global outreach” with a seemingly endless supply of crazed foot soldiers.
It may be that the only form of “concentrated” effort that we should be making in Afghanistan, and around its borders is the special ops, the increase of our own humint, the drone operations and all like manner of efforts - smaller “foot print” but, if concentrated as a bigger % of the effort, maybe more effective. Who knows? I sure don’t have a crystal ball.