US anti-terror war has been going on for nearly three years since the "September 11, 2001" attack. What's the result of this war in the past three years? President George W. Bush insists on saying: The United States has become more secure and the world has become more peaceful. But the evaluation of world opinion is just the opposite, holding that terrorist activities, instead of decreased, has increased over the past three years. Facts also show there is no sign of any weakening in terrorist activities, instead, there is the trend of intensification. Even Bush himself inadvertently told the truth not long ago, he admitted that it was hard to win the counter-terror war in his generation, and victory is yet to be won in the next generation. Although later Bush modified his previous remark under the attack of the Democratic Party and the questioning by the public, unfortunately, what he had said was the fact. People cannot help asking: Why the United States has failed to achieve tangible result in its three-year anti-terror war which cost it US$100 billion and incurred a loss of the lives of over 1,000 soldiers? The reasons for this are complicated, but it is an undeniable fact that the counter-terror war has embarked on to wrong paths at some crossings.

Firstly, the United States wrongly launched the war against Iraq. The investigation has clearly indicated: The Saddam Hussein regime did not have direct ties with the Qaeda network, and so it had nothing to do with the "September 11" attack; pre-war Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, still less the type of weapons to be "deployed within 45 minutes". This conclusion has been written into US Congress' "September 11" investigation report. However, the Iraq war has led to the following bad results: First, it led to the breakup of Europe-IS counter-terror front. Second, it diverted and shifted the attention of anti-terror forces and the world's fight against terror. Third, objectively it opened in Iraq a new source of terrorism; experts have pointed out that the Iraq war waged by the United States exactly fit in with the wishes of bin Laden-- on the one hand, the war was used by bin Laden to recruit men and buy up horses, and expand the ranks and influence of the Qaeda network; on the other hand, it helped bin Laden to arouse anti-US sentiment among the Islamic world. Just as the British "Janes Intelligence Review" recently pointed out: Network in sympathy with Qaeda continues to expand, this is one of the reasons explaining why US-led counter-terror war has now seemed to fall into predicament. Fourth, the security situation in Iraq will for a long term attract and consume US financial forces and troops: Currently, the United States spends in Iraq a daily US$177 million, its total expenditure has amounted to nearly US$150 billion; US troops killed in Iraq have exceeded 1,000 people. Recently, Bush had to admit: US troops' quick occupation of Iraq is a "disastrous victory".

Secondly, relying on people's sympathy with the "September 11" event, the United States has more or less manipulated the right to define "terrorism" and "terror activities", at the same time, out of selfish consideration of its own interest, Washington adopt double standards. For instance, on the question of Chechnya illegal armed activities, the United States once took a tacit permission and connivance attitude, and from time to time it reproached the Russian government's anti-terror activities, thus objectively inflating the arrogance of the stubborn national separatists in their terror activities. In the meantime, the American double standards also gave green light to Israel's "fixed-point elimination" policy, as a result, the "violence for violence" conflicts between Arabians and Israel became increasingly fierce.

Equally lamentable is that the counter-terror action kindled by the "September 11" attack was first manipulated by neo-conservatives, taking advantage of this opportunity they launched the long-premeditated Iraq war, in an attempt to establish a US modern "empire". At present, the "September 11" incident is again manipulated by politicians of the two US political parties, using it as a magic wand to scramble for the throne in the White House. Following the direction of the poll, US security departments often issue warnings, upgrade precaution, create a tense atmosphere, so as to establish for their candidates the image of a strong wartime president. But shouting too much about "the wolf has come", it naturally gives people a fatigue sense and a paralytic sense, which is unfavorable to enhancing people's anti-terror consciousness.

What is puzzling is that senior US officials, on the one hand, loudly shout their opposition to the "civilization conflict" theory, but on the other hand, they tell the world people: the source of the Middle East terrorist activities and anti-US sentiment does not lie in US biased Middle East policy, but in the radical Islamic forces' opposition to US democracy and concept of value, and their hatred toward Western free lifestyle. Such an attitude is also unfavorable to people's understanding of the real root cause of the emergence of terrorism.

It is on the basis of this understanding that US way to eliminate terrorism has been simplified: First, they advocate solution of terror by armed forces; second, they impose US-style democracy on the Middle East region, they vigorously push the "assimilation of systems and concepts of value". However, facts have shown that the war-like method and the way of solving problem only temporarily and not permanently cannot fundamentally settle the problem regarding to terrorism, on the contrary, the anti-terror war will possibly be dragged on for a longer time. This really deserves the US government's deep thought on the occasion of the third anniversary of the "September 11" incident.

This commentary published on page 3 of People's Daily September 9, 2004 is translated by People's Daily Online