This is my Opinion and i like to know your thoughts on the matter?



It is now five years since the "9/11" incident and people have reached
their own opinions about the US anti-terrorist strategy. The US
President George W. Bush believes that the Iraq war has made the world a
safer and better place. However, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid does
not agree. "The American people clearly know that in the five years
following the '9/11' incident, we are not as safe as we should and
expect to be", said Reid. Why do people believe this? The US has
conducted its war on terrorism both at home and abroad.

Looking at the US, it can be seen that the US government has certainly
been effective in its fight against terrorism during the past five
years. After the "9/11" incident, the President gave many orders to
strengthen domestic security. Orders were made to establish the US
Northern Command in order to defend national security and to set up the
Department of Homeland Security to oversee the anti-terrorism strategy.
There were also demands to: establish a National Intelligence Bureau to
co-ordinate 15 intelligence agencies; enhance the monitoring on people
and goods entering the country at airports and ports; launch stricter
management of immigrants and foreigners across the border and conduct an
unprecedented wiretapping of telephone calls. As a result, President
Bush proudly claimed that over the past five years there have been no
more terrorist attacks similar to the "9/11" incident. This is one of
the main reasons why nearly 50% of Americans were satisfied with the
Bush Administration's anti-terror performance over the past year even
though the dissatisfaction rate of his general performance was as low as
30%.

However, the US anti-terror efforts overseas have proved disappointing.
Taking a broader perspective, terrorist activities have not changed
significantly since five years ago. With the anti-terrorism campaign
continuing, even more terrorist activities have actually occurred and
the situation is not improving. From the Toronto explosion to the plane
scheme in London, most of the terrorist activities were targeted at the
United States and its allies in the Iraq war. There has also been the
resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the escalation of the
conflict between religious sects in Iraq. President Bush has turned Iraq
into the centre of the US anti-terrorism conflict. The major polls in
recent months have indicated that 62% of Americans disapproved of Bush's
decision on the Iraq issue; 69% think the Iraq war has complicated US
diplomatic activities; 63% think that the Iraq war was not worthwhile;
56% claim that the Iraq war was a mistake and as much as 68% think that
the US invasion of Iraq will lead to more terrorist attacks in the
United States, putting the country's security at risk.

The public and the media are questioning why the US anti-terrorism
campaign has only resulted in more terrorist activities. It seems that
there is something wrong with strategy.

Firstly, the US neo-conservatives have "hijacked" the great cause of
anti-terrorism. They greatly believed in anti-terrorism and launched a
war that was falsely justified. This has decentralized and diverted the
attention of anti-terrorism and its track, but also created a hotbed of
training ground of terrorist activities.

After the evidence for mass destructive weapon was denied, the United
States resorted to a banner of "democratic panacea" and was determined
to establish a model of democracy for the entire Middle East region.
However, the reality is that this only encouraged the regime and relied
on more than 130,000 American soldiers being close to the brink of a
civil war. Since July, more than 100 people were killed every day in a
religious vendetta. Just as some scholars have pointed out, democracy
can not survive amongst military forces.

The United States not only attempted to expand the scale of the war on
terrorism, but also tried to make the issue one of ideology and
religion, whether intentionally or not. Not long ago, President Bush
took over the extremely conservative slogans and defined the
anti-terrorism war as a "confrontation between free and democratic
Western forces and anti-freedom-and-democracy fascism forces in the
Middle East.". In his speech delivered at the American Legion National
Convention on August 31st, Bush divided the terrorists into three
categories: "Some are radicalized followers of the Sunni tradition, who
swear allegiance to terrorist organizations like al Qaeda. Others are
radicalized followers of the Shia tradition, who join groups like
Hezbollah and take guidance from state sponsors like Syria and Iran.
Still others are 'homegrown' terrorists - fanatics who live quietly in
free societies they dream to destroy." US Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld even said that this was another round of a new ideological war
against the Islamic Fascism following the war against Nazism and Fascism
and the Cold War against Communism. Rumsfeld did not wonder far from the
theory of "Clash of Civilization" and therefore received protests from
Islamic organizations. CAIR (The Council on American-Islamic Relations)
National Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed criticized President Bush for
linking "Islamism" with "fascism". "It will foster the hostility to
Islam and Muslims in the United States", said Ahmed. It should be
pointed that there is a risk of such stereotypes that result in the
anti-terrorism war having repercussions on religion.

In summarizing the lessons learnt from the "9/11" Incident, President
Bush and Vice President Cheney announced a new anti-terrorism strategy.
Firstly, the United States is absolutely determined to prevent attacks
before they occur and is therefore watchful of terrorists abroad, known
as "pre-emptive" politics. Secondly, any person or government that
supports, protects, or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of
the innocent, and will be held to account as a US enemy, although this
actually fosters even more enemies. Thirdly, the US is determined to
defeat the ideology of the enemies by supporting the forces of freedom.
This is a distortion of the nature of terrorism. Fourthly, the United
States is working to halt the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, keeping those weapons out of the hands of the killers;
however this requires the United States to first abandon its double
standards. One of the flaws of the new anti-terrorism strategy is that
the United States has not reviewed its partial and double-standard
policy in the Middle East.This is in fact the major source of the
increasing anti-US sentiment and terrorist activities in the Middle
East. Without directly addressing and eliminating this root cause, the
United States will never be successful in the fight against terrorism.

I voted for Harry Reid for senator a very long time ago back home. I do
agree with his comment. Thank god for the patriot act. America is at
WAR. As an american I dont give a piss if they read my emails, tap my
phone or watch my mail via the US Postal Service. I dont mind waiting an
extra hour to board any flight "to fly the friendly skys". My safety as
an american and my childs safety and my FRIENDS AND FAMILYS safety along
with fellow AMERICANS is all that matters.
Terrorism didnt just start with our fighting in Iraq. Its been going on
for decades and now thanks to the Patriot Act we as americans are safer.
That is my opinion.

I haven’t read your whole post but I was in total disagreement with
Bush’s general reaction to 9/11 and in particular with his unrelated
invasion of Iraq. He’s decision to declare a global war on terror has
only resulted in giving extremists a reason to become ‘terrorists’ so
that they can gain official recognition as a ‘worthy enemy’.

Also, his proclamation to the world, “You’re either with us or against
us!”, has caused many people who would have liked to have been our
diplomatic allies to turn away from us therefore placing them on the
list of people who are ‘against us’.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind whatsoever that George W. Bush’s
reaction to 9/11 has made the world a much more dangerous place. If
people think that the actions over the past 6 or 7 years have in any way
decreased any threat of terror they are sadly mistaken. During those
years the young boys in foreign countries have been growing up to become
very embittered men. Embittered toward the USA. And this trend is a
continuing process. George Bush has basically fertilized a garden in
Iraq that has been growing terrorists. And the embittered attitude
toward the USA is also growing in other countries as well. Some of
those countries were actually sympathetic toward the USA prior to that,
and now they have been proclaimed to be ‘enemies’ by Bush’s
proclamation, “You’re either with us or against us!.” That’s just not
a very productive thing for a leader of a country to say to the rest of
the world. Especially when it is stated with absolutely no offer to be
the slightest bit diplomatic about it.

So no, the world is definitely not a safer place. It’s increasingly
becoming more hostile toward the USA. Whoever becomes the next
president in 2008 is going to have a lot of work cut out for them trying
to undo the political damage that has been done by Bush.

That’s my view and um stick’in to it.

Most people do not remember what GWB said after 911. He said that he
would pit our enemies against each other. That is what is happening in
Iraq. They are going to kill each other and they they are going to go
to war with Iran. Once this happens our troops will come home. The
terroist will be too busy with Islam divided that they will go nuts and
kill each other for hudreds of years.

That's ridiculous devil, they cant even protect themselves how are the
going to attack Iran?
All GW did was save terrorist the plane fare to come here to kill
Americans, They now do it in a lawless land on a daily basis and are
getting free training in American military tactics. There has already
been more Americans killed in Iraq than at the World Trade center and
the numbers are going up daily. and don't say at least we are fighting
back because less than 1/2 of 1 % of all Americans are. And all this in
a country that was already in check with a devastated military that was
no threat to any of its neighbors. In the meantime our military is
stretched to the limits and losing and ineffective in Afghanistan. Where
the real enemy was. GW is an idiot that sends our boys to die when he
avoided Vietnam with his daddy's money..
He should have and could have done a much better job and probably either
killed or captured Osama had he created a rapid reaction force of Green
Berets and Rangers, used our satellite technologies and attacked the
Al-Qaeda training camps as they found them. Without announcing it to the
world and alerting Osama so he could go in to hiding before we even got
there.

well.....

i love the fact that we're not fighting terrorist in say the streets of
kansas city. i do not mind fighting terrorist throughout the world...
did we create more of them, i dont think so, theyve been indoctrinated
their entire lives so , whether or not you believe we created them is
irrelavant to the fact that their there.

the fact that we have to dumb ourselves down in america to make others
in the world feel like they actually give back to the worlds society is
baffeling to me, i say be ourselves, all the way, if they cant keep up
then screw them, im tired of having to coddle others so that they may
feel important to themselves, done

doc

and if you dont like it, so freaking what.

And don't say hindsight is 20/20 because I have said that from 9/12. I
couldn't understand why they relied so heavily on other forces in
Afghanistan until he started the threats to Iraq, then I understood. he
had planned on invading Iraq from the get-go.. Its not rocket science,
you know, its tactical common sense. Like when lilwilly was threatening
me the other day. I just loaded all my guns, he still hasn't shown but I
was ready just like Osama only I didn't hide..

Wow, for a second I thought was going to play Devil's Advocate and
disagree with you Fanta

Let's look at this logically shall we?

What are the outcomes of continuing with the war? Total elimination of
terrorism? Do you really, honestly, think that this is a war that will
EVER end? What metric are you using for this? How will this effect our
diplomatic relations with other countries? How will it effect our
country's morale and economic standing?

Now, what are the outcomes of removing ourselves from Iraq? Yes,
obviously there WILL be continued terrorism throughout the world, but
that is what programs like Red Cell, government bodies like the CIA,
FBI, and of course, Green Beret's and Navy Seals; are designed to take
care of.

To many nations across the globe, the US appears to be the world bully.

I don'nt know y you ppl can'nt understand over 3000 of our childrn have
died becuse of of bush mistake of invading irak and has done nothing to
do with 9/11 . it was over oil and we are no safer today then we were
before 9/11. is it worth our childerns lives to protect ppl that dont
want us there. is that relly that hard to understand.

Fanta,

That is it. They cannot protect themselves. The same thing is going to
happen to Iran. Both Iraq and Iran will be lawless waste lands with
only special areas of interest controled.

Fanta, you have a lot to learn. Osama is just a face to put on the war.
The war is with Islam; it just isn't politicaly correct to say it.

Islam wants to destroy america. If you did some research you would know
that 80% of the muslims in the US have the dream of changine the US into
an Isalmic state. It is a sin for a muslim to live in a place not under
contol by the mosque; the muslims in the US are devoted to changing
America to benefit Islam. Not all muslims here want to blow us up but
they will not say it is wrong to kill us.

In in America to we let people in who hate us and want to kill us.

Ditto to Armydocs post...I salute you sir.

Pucks, not the worlds bully...unfortunately, we are trying to be the
worlds police.

Who freakin cares if they are killing each other? They have been killing
each other for centuries..

Now, they are killing Americans, Brits, and Canadians!
Why? because we are there, and we shouldn't be.

Iran posed no threat to the democratic world, and Islam poses no threat
to us either..

The only real threat is Bush and Haliburton..

As long as they are allowed to operate, there will never be a chance of
world peace..

And if there is a Religous war then it comes from the Zionist policy of
the British to create Israel from Palestine...

Heres something to think about.

Islamic sects have been killing each other for longer than you been
alive.

I have noticed a trend.

If you can't stick the US with the blame stick Isreal. What a bunch of
idiots.

All this fighting in Iraq was going to happen if we are there or not.
Terrorist groups have been looking for a country to take over for a long
time (about 40 years). Iraq with its devestated military due to the
first gulf war would have been a perfect place to attempt that. Thank
god we are there. With a solid base of operations they would be
wreaking havoc here and in other (relatively combat free) western
countries. Like canada, GB.

Its not about islam its about control. Since when has a true
practictioner of Islam cared what we do as long as we leave them to
practice their faith in peace. Terrorists are not true Moslums. They
are fanactics at the base ranks and opportunists at the higher ranks.

bout like saying the White Power movement are christians. Fanatics are
fanatics whatever relegion they hide within.

World bully....or....World Police....Same kind of thing is it not? When
it comes right down to it the USA is viewed as agressors, controlling
and a nation of threat to many across the globe.

Glad i reside in Canada. We are viewed as a peace keeping nation. That
may change with our combat role in Afganistan however.

pucks we are glad you reside in canada also

You couldnt pay me enough to live in the USA

horseracer it has everything to do with terrorism and where do you get
off saying it has to do with oil? Do you have any facts to back up your
remarks? If Afghanistan was a big oil producer I guess you'd say it was
all about the oil too huh? Yeah of course you would. Sheeeesh