Anti-terror strategy faces criticism as US remember 9/11
Foreign Desk Report
PARIS—The nations of the world joined Monday in solemn remembrance of
Sept. 11 — but for many, resentment of the United States flowed as
readily as tears.
Critics say Americans have squandered the goodwill that prompted
France's Le Monde newspaper to proclaim "We are all Americans" that
somber day after the attacks, and that the Iraq war and other U.S.
policies have made the world less safe in the five years since.
Heads bowed in moments of silence in tribute to the 3,000 killed in the
attacks on New York and Washington — while a top al-Qaida leader issued
new warnings in a videotape that appeared to be fresh. And dissident
voices brushed the portrait of a planet that has traded in civil
liberties and other democratic rights in its war on terror.
Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel — an advocate of closer ties with
Washington — had veiled criticism of the United States, saying: "The
ends cannot justify the means."
"In the fight against international terror ... respect for human rights,
tolerance and respect for other cultures must be the maxim of our
actions, along with decisiveness and international cooperation," she
said.
The international landscape has changed irreversibly since terrorists
hijacked four airliners in 2001, crashing two into New York's World
Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and another into a Pennsylvania
field.
Allies in the U.S.-led war on terrorism that the attacks unleashed
renewed their resolve Monday to fight fanaticism, while militants
blasted Washington's response as ineffective and pledged continued
resistance.
In a video broadcast Monday, al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri warned that
Persian Gulf countries and Israel would be al-Qaida's next targets and
he called on Muslims to step up their resistance against the United
States.
"You gave us every legitimacy and every opportunity to continue fighting
you," al-Zawahri said, addressing the U.S. in the video, which appeared
to be new. "You should worry about your presence in the (Persian) Gulf
and the second place you should worry about is Israel."
He also accused the governments of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia of
supporting Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Other video posted on the Internet, purportedly by al-Qaida, showed
previously unseen footage of a smiling bin Laden and other commanders in
a mountain camp apparently planning the Sept. 11 attacks.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark joined many when she said: "No,
we're not more secure since 9/11."
Clark said more should be done to reach out to moderate states and
leaders in the Islamic world to encourage understanding between
different peoples, and to help end the sense of alienation and exclusion
among some young Muslims that fuels extremism.
In Europe, whose own soil has been struck three times since Sept. 11 by
terrorist attacks, commemorations touched each nation.
Bells tolled in Rome's city hall square. In London, bouquets of white
roses and yellow carnations were piled in a memorial garden where the
names of 67 Britons killed in the New York attacks are inscribed — and
where a steel girder from the wreckage of the World Trade Center is
buried.
At a 38-nation Asia-Europe summit in Helsinki, Finland, leaders stood in
silence in a circle. The stock exchanges in Nordic and Baltic countries
were observing two minutes of silence to honor the victims of the
world's worst terror attacks.
"9/11 will be in our memory forever," said Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni
during a ceremony in the a downtown piazza designed by Michelangelo. "We
all remember where we were, what we were doing, what our first reaction
was.
France's President Jacques Chirac, in Helsinki, reiterated in a written
message to President Bush of his nation's "friendship" in the fight
against terrorism.
A week after the Sept. 11 attacks, Chirac flew over the World Trade
Center site — the first foreign leader to pay personal condolences. That
solidarity quickly dissipated into rancor in the buildup to the Iraq
war, when Chirac led opposition to Bush's plans.
Israel's Haaretz daily expressed disappointment and cynicism in an op-ed
piece that said: "This is Sept. 11 five years later: a political tool in
the hands of the Bush administration."
In Southeast Asia, U.S. and Philippine troops fighting Islamic
extremists in the jungles prayed for peace and safety, as other
remembrances took place in Japan, Australia, Finland, South Korea,
Thailand and Indonesia.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who won the country's first post-Taliban
election in 2004, expressed the appreciation of the Afghan people to the
U.S. for the "sacrifices of your sons and daughters" in rebuilding his
country. But on the streets in the capital, Kabul, many Afghans grumbled
that they had not seen much improvement.
Despite about 20,000 U.S. forces fighting al-Qaida and Taliban fighters
in Afghanistan, and about the same number of NATO troops, and billions
in aid, a resurgent Taliban resistance has shaken the country, while
corruption has stymied development.
In neighboring Pakistan, considered a major ally in the U.S.-led war on
terror, newspapers ran bleak-toned opinion columns and editorials
criticizing Western anti-terror policies and attitudes. |
