Hopes of hi-tech sector recovery bombed

The mighty American economic machinery was bombed to a halt on Tuesday (Sept 11). And on Wednesday, a numbed society filled with anger and frustration started on the road back to the days of 1999 and 2000 when the US economy was running on all cylinders.

A long road it will be. Hopes of a near-term recovery of the high-tech sector are now completely dashed. There is no telling to what extent the terrorist attacks will affect the high-tech and other sectors of the American and world economy. But likely, the impact will be strikingly similar to that of the impact of the two jets when they crashed into the World Trade Center towers.

Amazingly, the buildings appeared to have miraculously absorbed the crashes that had the equivalent energy of 1/20th of the nuclear bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. But a hour or so later, the heat from the fire weakened the steel frame of the buildings and the entire structure that took six years to build, collapsed in a matter of five seconds.

Similarly, the US economy will not topple immediately in the aftermath of the attack. But as the damage onto the insurance, airline, energy, tourism and other local and global industries will accumulate over the next three to six months, the increased pressure will probably become too large for even the American economy to sustain.

Not helping matters economically will be impact on the world as the United States begins to flex its military and diplomatic muscle in the determined effort to eradicate terrorism. There should be no doubt in anyone's mind about the resolve of this nation on this issue. The anger of this people is as thick and all-engulfing as the London Fog and a few long-range cruise missiles are not going to heal the wounds these terrorists inflicted.

A war against terrorism, an almost invisible force, will a long, brutal and complicated one that will profoundly affect our global way of life for a long, long time to come.