Five years after the terrorist 9/11 attacks, Bush's expanded "war on terror" has divided Americans and left them wondering whether their country was indeed safer, Khaled Dawoud reports from Washington White House officials constantly reiterated in the lead-up to the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorists attacks that United States President George W Bush will not seek to exploit the sad memories of that day to achieve political gains. 9/11 has defined Bush's presidency. He has claimed the unfortunate event as the main justification to launch his "war on terror" with all its blunders -- tens of thousands of victims, mainly Arabs and Muslims. As in previous times when his popularity has sharply deteriorated, President Bush's senior advisors at the White House thought a brilliant solution would be to orchestrate a series of speeches in which he would "explain" to the American people the stakes involved, why they must unite behind his strategy based on launching pre-emptive wars. Recalling a much debated, if not absurd argument, Bush repeated that his "war on terror" was similar to wars the United States fought and won against Nazi Germany during World War II, and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War that ended with its fall. Yet, the problem was that strategy has never worked, and Bush's popularity ratings continued to range between 33 to 40 per cent since the beginning of this year, mainly because facts on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine and elsewhere have presented a sharp contrast to Bush's fantasies and the rosy picture he paints in his speeches. In all recent opinion polls, more and more Americans have been expressing doubts that Bush was doing the right things, that he had a proper strategy to win the war in Iraq, and 52 per cent said he was not trustworthy. Many Americans indeed support the president's view that "terrorism" poses a serious threat to their country, but a clear majority now disputes his key claim that the war in Iraq has been a necessary act to counter that threat. Recent revelations on secret programmes to tap domestic communications, bank accounts and even library records, as well as the president's admission on the existence secret prisons run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where torture has reportedly been widespread, have also left many Americans wondering whether Bush's administration had gone too far in giving itself unprecedented powers under the pretext of fighting terror. However, White House officials did not give up and decided to try again. Ten days before the fifth anniversary of 9/11, they announced Bush would deliver a series of five speeches to remind Americans of the threats facing their nation and to assure them that he has a strategy to win the war on terror. Yet, the speeches were not aimed only at the memory of the attacks in which nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York and Washington. Bush's Republican Party will be facing a tough mid-term Congressional elections on 7 November, and most analysts predict that the Democratic Party will likely score some upsets that might end the long- held Republican majority in the House and Senate. Dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq due to the increasing US losses, a daily death rate of around 100 Iraqis over the past three months, and the obvious near sectarian war there has been cited as one main reason why Democrats seem to have the upper hand in the upcoming elections, particularly in the House of Representatives. Aware of that negative public mood, several Republican candidates have even avoided making joint appearances with the president and have reportedly turned down his offer to campaign on their behalf. Yet, President Bush remained defiant, and in a speech he delivered at prime time on Monday at the conclusion of two long days of ceremonies and memorials, he stuck to his guns and repeated the same arguments aimed at rallying Americans behind his strategy and wars. Bush said, "today we are safer, but we are not yet safe." He also stressed that his "war on terror is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and the calling of our generation." However, Bush failed to mention what many observers noted: that the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past five years, more than 3,000, has now matched the number of victims killed in New York and Washington on 11 September, 2001, and that fighting wars abroad comes at a heavy price. Bush, as usual, inflated the danger posed by extremist groups like Al-Qaeda on the future of the Middle East region and the US. "If we do not defeat those enemies now, we will leave our children to face a Middle East overrun by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons." Bush warned that the current confrontation in Iraq mounted to "World War Three". White House officials said they intentionally quoted Osama bin Laden and associates to remind Americans of their evil intentions, and how they were determined to turn Iraq into another Afghanistan. Commentators in major US newspapers blasted such logic, pointing out that the former Iraqi regime had nothing to do with the 11 September attacks. In his speech on Monday, Bush sought to offer a conciliatory tone, admitting that "mistakes have been made in Iraq" and flatly stated that its former regime had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks five years ago. Yet, he insisted that "the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battles in the streets of Baghdad." Opponents of the Iraq war and the Democratic Party have been sharply critical of the Bush administration's strategy of dubbing them as "Defeatocrats". And while Bush has promised Americans that he will use the memory of the 9/11 attacks to appeal for unity and to overcome differences, his speech on Monday reflects the cornerstone of his strategy over the past years: you're either with us or with terror, leaving the country deeply divided.
