Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the world is not safer and the war on terrorism appears to be getting harder to win, no matter what U.S. President George W. Bush says. The proliferation of terrorist attacks is a fact of life no one can disregard. It is time for the international community to use more brains to break the cycle of terrorist violence.
President Bush's record so far is mixed at best. Calling the Sept. 11 atrocities a "challenge to civil society," he declared war on terror and toppled Afghanistan's militant Taliban regime, which gave shelter to al-Qaeda. He engaged in "regime change" in Iraq, claiming that Baghdad was hiding weapons of mass destruction and providing support to al-Qaeda.
But the euphoria over the swift military victories soon evaporated, particularly in Iraq, where the security situation quickly deteriorated. Although the occupation authority transferred power to an interim government in June, U.S. troops have frequently been attacked by hostile forces, including both loyalists of former leader Saddam Hussein and foreign elements linked to al-Qaeda. The U.S. death toll since the start of fighting in March last year has exceeded 1,000.