September 11- Two Lost Years

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Published on Thursday, September 11, 2003 by the Guardian/UK
September 11- Two Lost Years
Editorial


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If al-Qaida's claim that its ranks have doubled in number is credible (and it probably is), Mr Bush's mishandled, violent interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, his disastrously unbalanced approach to the Palestinian question, and his suborning or bullying of states like Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey are largely to blame. From Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and north Africa to Britain and the US, Muslims everywhere have grown increasingly convinced of America's hostility. Just as there is a terrorist threat in Iraq where none previously existed, so the clash of civilizations predicted two years ago is more nearly a reality than it was then. Just as Mr Bush's cynical exaggeration of Iraq's WMD threat and 9/11 links has eroded trust in him at home, so has it shattered European and Arab confidence that the US can be a dependable friend, not a reckless juggernaut.

Mr Bush has broken alliances with the same abandon that he has broken lives, causing permanent damage. Nor is there an end in sight. As pressing global issues of fair trade, poverty reduction and the environment languish unresolved or largely neglected, and as the "war on terror" transmutes into a loose, catch-all justification for all the US does or does not want to do, Mr Bush's divisive policies presage new, avoidable physical confrontations with Iran and North Korea, especially if he is re-elected next year.



http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0911-07.htm