Monsters to Destroy: Understanding the War on Terror

In Monsters to Destory, Navin A. Bapat addresses why the U.S. continues to spend trillions of dollars fighting terrorism when Americans are more likely to die from accidental drownings or lightning strikes. He argues that the U.S. fights the war to protect its dominance over global energy markets, and the peg between the U.S. dollar and oil trades. To do so, the U.S. guaranteed permanent protection for the governments that served as the key suppliers of energy, and those that had key areas for transit. Unfortunately, this gave these states no incentive to fight their terrorists, and ultimately contributed to the growth of these movements, which is now pushing the U.S. into a long-term war on terror.