The LA Times reports:
"Five years after Sept. 11, is the United States winning the war against Al Qaeda? President Bush says yes, but most experts — including many inside the U.S. government — say no.
An all-out effort by the United States and its allies has succeeded in making life difficult for Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri, and has probably disrupted any plans they had for further terrorism on the scale of the attacks in 2001, the experts say."
Not really a satisfactory situation - read the complete LA Times piece here - when even George Bush concedes that Al Qaeda far from dead.
In Australia, commentator Hugh Mackay, writing, here, in the SMH, opines:
"In these past five years, we have become a more suspicious, less trusting and more frightened society. Many of us now regard asylum seekers as potential terrorists; we support tougher anti-terrorism laws even when they impinge on fundamental human rights; we have hardened our hearts against Muslims and convinced ourselves that Islam is an evil religion that breeds more radical extremists than Christianity.
The shock waves from September 11 continue to rattle us. Governments invoke ever more draconian powers, regularly topping up the insecurities of their citizens, and so we yield to ever more fatalistic impulses: "Let's just get on with our lives." Better that, perhaps, than thinking, every time we board a plane or take a lift to the top of a tall building, "Is my number up?"
"Five years after Sept. 11, is the United States winning the war against Al Qaeda? President Bush says yes, but most experts — including many inside the U.S. government — say no.
An all-out effort by the United States and its allies has succeeded in making life difficult for Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri, and has probably disrupted any plans they had for further terrorism on the scale of the attacks in 2001, the experts say."
Not really a satisfactory situation - read the complete LA Times piece here - when even George Bush concedes that Al Qaeda far from dead.
In Australia, commentator Hugh Mackay, writing, here, in the SMH, opines:
"In these past five years, we have become a more suspicious, less trusting and more frightened society. Many of us now regard asylum seekers as potential terrorists; we support tougher anti-terrorism laws even when they impinge on fundamental human rights; we have hardened our hearts against Muslims and convinced ourselves that Islam is an evil religion that breeds more radical extremists than Christianity.
The shock waves from September 11 continue to rattle us. Governments invoke ever more draconian powers, regularly topping up the insecurities of their citizens, and so we yield to ever more fatalistic impulses: "Let's just get on with our lives." Better that, perhaps, than thinking, every time we board a plane or take a lift to the top of a tall building, "Is my number up?"
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