US' haunting shadow of terrorism

Time elapses quickly and it has been three years since the September 11 terrorist attack. During these three years stirring anti-terrorist wars waged by the US have never stopped whilst the general public of the US have never been able to walk out of the shadow of the September 11. As a matter of fact the shadow cast on many US people's mind seems to be growing darker.

In the three years the Bush administration opened two major battlefields with regard to anti-terrorism: one is in Afghanistan and the other is in Iraq. With the war in Afghanistan the US people were hoping to eradicate the chief culprit of the September 11 bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Disappointingly bin Laden and the chief leaders of al-Qaeda are not only still at large but also making challenges and sending "ultimatums" to the US, which frequently force the US government to raise alert level and strain the nerve of the general public. Some people describe this as a "haunting ghost" that could not be driven away. Whenever there is a dubious "terrorist attack intelligence" the government has to shout "the wolf is coming". Otherwise the blame in case of a real attack is too serious to bear. For the US people every time the alert level is raised their psychological well-being and life quality are compromised.

At the beginning of August as alert level was raised in cities such as Washington and New York the number of armed police was increased on the streets, who placed barricades and check points everywhere, which resulted in traffic jams and complaints everywhere. In the capital Washington residents kept complaining whilst the mayor and local officials worried about the economy. Tourism has always been an important revenue source for the municipal government of Washington, which lacks industries. Since the "September 11", however, fencings and blocks have been placed everywhere from Capitol Hill, White House and Washington Monument to every important government departments. Some of them are in several tiers and wires and walls are even erected on meadows. The atmosphere is filled with terror and tension. Tourists describe the whole Washington as a huge stretch of building site and the old beautiful scenes could not been seen anymore. Moreover, the raised alert level leads to inconvenience in movement and checkups everywhere. Tourists leave in disappointment.

The Bush administration waged a preemptive war on the Saddam regime on the reason that it possessed weapons of mass destruction and was connected with terrorists. However, after the "overthrow of Saddam" the US has been unable to find weapons of mass destruction nor direct relations between Saddam and the "September 11". Now the US troops have lost over a thousand lives and 6.690 have been wounded. About $4.7 billion are spent each month and the cost is growing. More and more people begin to feel deceived by this. Many criticize the Bush administration for making use of the "September 11" tragedy and putting up a big show that seems to have nothing to do with the "September 11".

President Bush has repeatedly argued that through the war in Iraq the US and the world have become safer. The personal experience of the general public, however, is that they feel increasingly uneasy. Many believe this "baseless" "unjust" war, together with the prisoner abuse scandal that shocks the world, has sown more hatred among the Muslim world toward Americans. Especially when this anti-American mood is used by al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations it increased terrorist activities and threat on the US troops and Americans. The Bush administration explained that this is the aftermath of fighting a quick war in Iraq whilst many people believe this to be the aftermath of taking preemptive measures. While the Republic National Convention was held in New York hundreds of thousand people took to the streets. Some of them carried fake coffins covered with the US national flags, which was a specific demonstration of dissatisfaction among the general public.

For now the general public in the US have at least three worries: first the situation of continuous attack and serious threat on the US troops would continue indefinitely. Although the US has handed sovereignty over to the Iraqis it doesn't mean the appeasement of Iraqis' anti-American mood and armed revolts. As a matter of fact as long as the US troops remain there for another day the revolt would last one more day and the casualty of the US troops would not stop. Some US military experts claimed that the guerrilla war in Iraq could last ten years.

Second, economic loss would grow even bigger. Last month President Bush approved an additional expenditure of $25 billion for the US troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan in the next fiscal year. This sure is a disaster following another as frost is added on top of snow, since this would inevitably add to the fiscal deficit. The fiscal deficit of the US government would reach $422 billion this year. Deficit growth would first affect the social welfare and social security for the masses and their economic income in the next place. Some say the military industry and oil industry made big fortune through the war in Iraq, but for most civilian companies, particularly the small and medium-sized ones, their revenues declined and unemployment in the US is rising.

Third, hidden problems of domestic security would be aggravated. There have been rumors in the US that terrorists would employ Moslems from other than the Arab countries to conduct spying or attack on the US. What is most worrying is that no one knows the tricks the terrorists are going to play in their attack, which makes it impossible to defend effectively. Even President Bush admitted recently, "Anti-terrorist war has no definite timeframe and is impossible to secure a final win", to say nothing of the worries the general public may entertain.

This is a translation by People's Daily Online of an article carried on the 7th page of People's Daily on September 10.