Opinion by Shaheen Chughtai, al-Jazeera
After the United States overthrew the Taliban in Afghanistan and then ousted Saddam Hussein in Iraq, President George Bush assured his compatriots the world was a safer place. But two years and two foreign wars after 9/11 triggered Bushâs War on Terror, Americans do not feel safer, according to a US survey. While US troops are busy fighting âterrorâ abroad, their compatriots are often terrified back home.
| Actually, we're not, usually. In fact, I'd say our attention span's short enough that we're coming to feel overly secure again, much more interested in Ben and Jen and Britney's honkers than in Zarqawi, Binny, the ayatollahs or Sheikh Yassin... |
Worse still, Bushâs so-called War on Terror is creating more hostility, thus raising the risk of attacks against the US â a catastrophic policy failure.
| The alternatives aren't something the rest of the world would like. I suppose we could give Osama a nice group hug, assuming we could find him, and tell him all is forgiven, but he (or his successors) would keep trying to kill us all because we don't wear turbans and our wimmin are free to drive around in cars, drink beer, get laid for recreation, and even hold opinions. That'd never do. The other alternative would be to briely raise the temperature in Mecca and Medina to 4000 degrees (Fahrenheit or Celcius, it wouldn't matter to the recipients, would it?) and slaughter all the turbans we can find. Because we, unlike our adversaries, are a civilized people, we don't want to do that. Instead, we follow a middle ground, trying to defeat the actual perpetrators of actions of terrorism â notice there aren't any quotes around the word â without killing too many innocent by-standers. If you don't like it, that's really pretty tough. Buy yourself a turban and get in line. |
Many Americans remain fearful because they are sceptical the battle against global terrorism will end soon, says Professor Robert Shapiro, a specialist in public opinion and mass media at the University of Columbia, Massachusetts. âThe $86 billion that (President George) Bush just asked for â thatâs not for a quick fix,â he says.
| "It's not a sprint, it's a marathon." Rumsefeld said that, a month after 9-11-01. |
âAnd there are reminders. At the airport, train stations, you see things you didnât see before: heavily-armed police at public events, like concerts.â
| That's because wild-eyed homicidal maniacs attacked us two years ago and killed a few thousand of us. Forgot, did you, Robert? |
Such disturbing novelties help explain why 75% of US citizens think the world is more dangerous than it was a decade ago. That is sharply up from 53% surveyed by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre a few days before the attacks on 11 September, 2001.
| Comes as a surprise, huh? (Where do they get these people?) |
Similarly, the proportion who believe the US is more likely to face a biological, nuclear or chemical attack jumped from 51% to 64%.
| Since they Bad Guys are assiduously pursuing those types of weapons, they might be justified... |
Today, around 40% of Americans say they often worry terrorists may attack their country with nuclear weapons â a relatively novel concern.
| In response to a relatively novel threat. Y'see, we're civilized enough not to use WMDs against people unless they use them against us first. The terrorists aren't... |
âThe threat of terrorism is now part of the fabric of American life,â notes the Pew survey, titled Two Years Later, the Fear Lingers. Released the week before the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it reveals three quarters of Americans fear occasional acts of terrorism are now "unavoidable".
| That's because we're at war with terrorism, both as a concept and as an organized activity. When you're at war, you strike your enemy and your enemy tries to strike you. Sometimes he succeeds. Even the public recognizes that, when they're not watching the teevee... |
After the World Trade Center collapsed in a swirling mountain of ash, sympathy for the United States swelled around the planet. As an editorial in Franceâs Le Monde newspaper famously declared: âWe are all Americans nowâ. But Bushâs challenging call of âYouâre either with us or against usâ has received mixed reviews. According to another Pew study â Views of a Changing World â the US has become markedly less popular in most countries surveyed.
| Allow me to clutch my teddy very tight at this point and holler "Oh, no!"... There. Got it out of my system. Let's get on with killing turbans and ignore the Frenchies and their hangers-on... |
Polling 16,000 people in 20 countries this summer and more than 38,000 people in 44 counties the year before, the study finds the war against Iraq has further widened divisions between the US and its European allies. A majority in five of seven NATO countries surveyed now wants greater independence in diplomatic and security matters: from 57% of Germans to 76% of French citizens. Only in Britain and Italy did the US enjoy anything like the popularity it had before.
| We noticed that. Both sides are still dealing with the repercussions. Guess the world's changed, like it or not. And now we know who's against us. We're even discovering why they're against us, in a lot of cases... |
Some observers dismiss what they see as superficial sentiments or crude cultural defensiveness. âThereâs a lot of anti-Americanism in Europe, a lot of jealousy,â says Dr Vernon Bogdanor, an international relations specialist at the University of Oxford in Britain. The cause, Bogdanor suggests, may be a sense that Europeans lack influence over US actions.
| If it had been 3000 dead Frenchies, they'd probably feel different. If it had been the Brandenburg Gate instead of the World Trade Center, they'd probably feel different. |
But Bushâs domestic critics have taken notice. Howard Dean, a Democratic presidential candidate and former Vermont governor, has blamed the president for transforming the âtidal wave of support and goodwill that engulfed us after the tragedy of 9/11â into âdistrust, scepticism, and hostilityâ.
| It's nice to have good will. A pile of dead turbans is better... |
For many in the Muslim world, public support for the US has been replaced by fear and loathing.
| My mind must be going. I can't remember that public support, no matter how hard I try... |
Anti-US sentiment used to be more restricted to the Middle East, but US popularity over the past year has plummeted among Muslims worldwide, from Nigeria (71% to 38%) to Indonesia (61% to 15%), the survey finds. Even in Kuwait, whose people were grateful to US forces for expelling Iraqi troops in 1991, more than half now fear the US could turn against them one day.
| It's easy to avoid. Don't attack us. Don't harbor those who attack us. Don't finance those who attack us. What's so difficult about that concept? If you don't do that, we don't care if you make faces and jump up and down, though we might think about it next time you need help... |
Dr Emad Shaheen, a political scientist at the American University in Cairo, lists three key factors that have encouraged disliking of the US in much of the Muslim world. These are the direct US attacks against Afghanistan and Iraq, support for Israel as it suppresses the Palestinian uprising, and the perception that the Bush administration is pursuing an ideological struggle against Islam. âThe War on Terror is seen as really a War on Islam,â says Shaheen. âPeople see US actions against Muslim organisations, other actors, even educational bodies, and there is a feeling of an onslaught against Islam,â he says.
| Actually, it's a war on Islamism, which is a slightly different creature. There aren't any Sufi terrorist organizations I'm aware of. There aren't any Ismaili terrorist organizations I'm aware of. There are Shia terrorist organizations, and there are a rapidly proliferating number of Salafist terror machines. Guess who the enemy is? |
âThey see the demeaning and dehumanising treatment of Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, they see US-made F-16s hitting the Palestinians â and how the war in Iraq was prosecuted.â
| They ignore the dehumanizing treatment of Afghan citizens by the Talibs and the strutting al-Qaeda bully boys lording it over the natives. The U.S.-made F-16s retaliate against the people who kill five-year-olds in their beds. And we prosecuted the war with Iraq with special efforts not to kill any more people than we absolutely had to. But we'll never get credit for that... |
The result is a damaging blow to stated US policy goals. âMore attacks against the US can be expected,â says Shaheen, referring both to resistance activity in Iraq and operations from international groups such al-Qaida.
| That's because the war's not over yet, and it won't be for many years... |
It does not sound like a safer world.
| It's not. But it's not safer for Islamists, either. |
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