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9/11: Why the US is Losing the War on Terror

As the world commemorates, or at least remembers 9/11 6 years ago today, it is hard not to recall the images of those planes flying into the World Trade Centre in New York.

The shock experienced by everyone, especially the Americans, heralded the "war on terror" as it became dubbed. The English have quietly dropped the term now.

In this piece "Why We're Losing the War on Terror" in The Nation, two respected law professors raise the question whether the US has won, or is even winning the so-called war on terror:

"President George W. Bush is fond of reminding us that no terrorist attacks have occurred on domestic soil since 9/11. But has the Administration's "war on terror" actually made us safer? According to the July 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, Al Qaeda has fully reconstituted itself in Pakistan's northern border region. Terrorist attacks worldwide have grown dramatically in frequency and lethality since 2001. New terrorist groups, from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia to the small groups of young men who bombed subways and buses in London and Madrid, have multiplied since 9/11. Meanwhile, despite the Bush Administration's boasts, the total number of people it has convicted of engaging in a terrorist act since 9/11 is one (Richard Reid, the shoe bomber)."

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