Unhappy anniversary
Americans take stock on the second anniversary of the 11 September attacks. Anayat Durrani, in New York, reports
Two years since the 11 September attacks and life in the United States is anything but "normal". Americans have now become accustomed to their servicemen fighting on foreign soil in the name of combating terrorism, to the barometric rise and fall of the national threat level, and to a steady stream of malign videotaped messages from Al- Qa'eda.
In keeping with this relative abnormality, the second anniversary was a day of both mourning and warning. Regarding the latter, the US State Department issued another "worldwide alert", noting "increasing indications that Al-Qa'eda is preparing to strike US interests abroad". The alert said Al-Qa'eda may attempt "new attacks that will be more devastating than the 11 September attacks, possibly involving non-conventional weapons such as chemical or biological agents."
The alert came after Al-Qa'eda issued audio and video tapes lauding the 11 September attacks and calling for more strikes. A videotape aired on the Arabic satellite television channel Al-Jazeera showed Osama Bin Laden and his chief deputy Ayman El-Zawahri casually walking in a grassy mountainous gully believed to be in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. On audio tapes, a speaker identified as Bin Laden praises the "great damage to the enemy" exacted on 11 September. A voice said to be El-Zawahri's calls on Iraqis to "bury" US troops. Two days later, a videotaped will was released showing one of the 11 September hijackers asking Arabs to fight against Americans. Said Alghamdi, one of the four hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, is shown reading his will and making threats against America. He also declared his willingness to die in a suicide attack.
Amidst fears of more attacks, Americans nationwide took part in 11 September ceremonies, commemorative services and candlelight vigils. When the clock struck 8:46 am, Americans from city to city paused in silence, painfully recounting the moment the first tower was struck. Over 3,000 people died when terrorist-hijacked planes plowed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a rural Pennsylvania field. Memorial services were held at Ground Zero and Arlington Cemetery on a date designated as "Patriot Day" by a joint congressional resolution in December 2001.
Networks nationwide aired footage of 11 September, reminding Americans of the atrocities that took place that fateful day. Many Americans took part in local events to commemorate the anniversary, while others chose quiet reflection while going about their daily lives.
"I get really disturbed by the images, knowing that people were killed and that I had watched while it happened. It makes me so sad to know that people lost their loved ones, neighbours and friends," Amanda Johnson of Chico, California said. "It hardly seems that two years have already gone by since that terrible day."
Sadness for the victims of 11 September was prevalent on the anniversary. Less common but certainly present was dissatisfaction with the US policies in Afghanistan and Iraq that emerged in response to the perceived post-11 September threat of terrorism. Americans like Charlotte Kates of Newark, New Jersey, used the anniversary as an opportunity to voice her dissatisfaction with the Bush administration.
"We have, in the past two years, seen bitter repression and intensified occupation and oppression," Kates said. "The people of the US have nothing in common with the interests of this government -- yet it is our money that sustains the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people and Palestinian land; it is our money that sustains the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan."
President Bush commemorated what he called a "sad and terrible day" and used the anniversary to remind Americans why they remain at war overseas. Bush stopped at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre to visit troops wounded in the Iraq war. His comments stressed that America's fight abroad is against terrorism, citing the current campaign in Iraq. "We're fighting this war on a lot of fronts, the major front of which is now in Iraq," the president said. "The only way to deal with [terrorists] is to find them and bring them to justice, and that's what the US -- and a lot of other countries working with the US -- will continue to do."
During a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld honoured those killed and injured during the attack on the Pentagon. He asked Americans to remember those soldiers killed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Let us recommit ourselves to their cause and to our mission: the triumph of freedom over tyranny," he said. "Let this day always be a reminder to our nation and to the world why we fight in freedom's cause and why we must fight and win this global war on terror."
Critics charge the Bush administration of exploiting 11 September to make war against Iraq. The US failure to uncover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, along with the steady rise in casualties among American troops since the fall of Baghdad has led to increasing unease among the American public regarding that war and the ongoing occupation. Bush officials have sought to counter scepticism by framing the invasion and occupation of Iraq as an extension of the campaign against global terrorism.
In spite of these efforts, Bush's once-high approval ratings have dropped sharply, nearly to the lowest level of his presidency. A CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll released Friday shows Bush's job approval rating has dropped to 52 per cent, from 71 per cent after the fall of Baghdad in mid-April.
The declining approval of Bush has emboldened some Democratic presidential hopefuls. Candidate Dick Gephardt of Missouri last week called Bush's handling of post-war Iraq an "abomination". While the 2004 presidential elections remain distant, some voters have already cast their ballot against the current president.
"George Bush's policies are not representative of the people of the US. He is a war criminal, a tyrant and an occupier," Kates said. "I have confidence that the overwhelming majority of the people of the US will be looking for a real alternative to Bush, as are the people of the world."
