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Five Years of Turmoil After September 11

Agence France Presse
September 3, 2006


WASHINGTON, Sept 3, 2006 (AFP) - The fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks finds the United States bloodied by foreign war, polarised politically and coping with terrorism's curbs on freedoms that helped define American life.

After airborne terror strikes that killed nearly 3,000 people, President George W. Bush transformed America's global posture and refashioned his government's relationship with citizens in the name of fighting terror.

But five years on, initial gains seem fragile at best, with fighting crackling in Afghanistan, parts of Iraq paralysed by violence and the legal pillars of the "war on terror" crumbling.

Attempts to mend ties with estranged allies, meanwhile, were tempered by staunch US support for Israel in its war with Hezbollah -- a conflict viewed by the administration through the prism of the struggle against terrorism.

And surveys show people in the Arab world remain highly suspicious of the United States.

"Nearly five years after the attacks on 9/11, American diplomacy has succeeded not in isolating the terrorists, but the United States," James Dobbins, a Rand Corporation analyst at a Middle East forum, said Thursday.

Bush backers reject criticism by pointing out that five years have passed without another attack, though bombings in London, Spain and India and the thwarting of a plot to bomb US airliners were a chilling throwback.

In September 2001, an initially shaky Bush climbed a pile of rubble in New York and took an unassailable grip on politics.

But two years into his second term, his political star has faded, and he faces a grim fight to secure his legacy.

Nowhere is gloom deeper than Iraq, after a 2003 invasion based on the post-September 11 rationale that threats must be met before they become a "mushroom cloud."

In the past two months, in Baghdad alone, 3,200 people have died in fierce fighting, according to Iraqi figures -- a sum in excess of the carnage on September 11. More than 2,600 US troops have also died since the conflict began in March 2003.

In the Afghan theater, 171 coalition troops have died, and the US-backed government of Hamid Karzai is increasingly unpopular.

At home, the US Supreme Court has thwarted administration trials of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Interrogation techniques have prompted claims the administration condoned torture.

An electronic eavesdropping program the administration said was vital to snaring terrorists is also in trouble, after a federal court declared warrantless wiretaps illegal.

Despite the fear that gripped America after September 11, life outside New York and Washington seems to have returned to normal, though Ohio Wesleyan University professor Sean Kay says a sour mood has gripped his bellwether state.

"What has changed out here in the heartland ... is a growing sense of awareness that there may be different ways to approach this problem (terrorism)," he said.

"Iraq just hangs over everything," he said, adding that even those who buy Bush's claim that Iraq was a central front in the war on terror are concerned.

Osama bin Laden -- who Bush once vowed to track down "dead or alive" -- is free, though thanks to US-led efforts to fracture Al-Qaeda, he is seen now more as an inspiration for attacks than a day-to-day terrorist mastermind.

Analysts say the anti-terror fight has improved coordination between agencies like the CIA and the FBI and their counterparts abroad.

"The lethargy when it came to terrorism before September 11 is gone; the triumph of bureaucracy over counter-terrorism has been reversed," said James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Horror that came out of clear blue skies on September 11, 2001 laid a pall of smoke and ash over New York as the twin World Trade Center towers folded, and tinted Washington's night sky red as the Pentagon burned.

In those first hours after terrorists seized fuel-laden airliners, it was clear America's illusion of invulnerability had been shattered.

"Night fell on a different world," Bush told Congress nine days later, as grief gripped the nation.

But global sympathy would run dry over Iraq, as the implications of Bush's warning to the world -- "either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists" -- became clear and he grouped Iraq, North Korea and Iran into an "axis of evil."

Domestically, Homeland Security warnings frayed nerves and soured politics before a vitriolic 2004 election.

All of this seemed to dim freewheeling confidence germane to American life, as passengers shuffled shoeless through airport X-ray machines, and anthrax and sniper scares -- not linked to Al-Qaeda -- rattled Washington.

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