US less afraid of attacks

2005-06-30 15:14

Washington - President George W Bush sought support this week for the war in Iraq by invoking the September 11 attacks several times on national television, but a sceptical United States public seems less afraid of another terrorist attack on US soil.

A Gallup poll last week showed that only 35% of Americans believe that an attack could occur soon, compared to 39% in January and 85% in October 2001, a month after the attacks.

And another Gallup poll this week found that, for the first time, one in two Americans do not believe the war in Iraq is part of Washington's global war on terror.

Bush mentioned "September 11" five times late on Tuesday in a speech that sought to rally Americans behind the Iraq war amid polls showing that a majority of the US public disapproves of his handling of the conflict.

"The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September 11," Bush said.

"Clearly a political decision has been taken in the White House that the only way that they can regain momentum is by going back to the sort of primal source of their support, September 11," said David Rothkopf, a terrorism expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"I think it is just unvarnished demagoguery," he said.

Democrats assailed the president for linking September 11 with the war in Iraq.

"Facing an historic opportunity for leadership, George Bush turned to the darkness of divisiveness, attempting to garner support for his failed policies by pandering to fear, rather than inspiring us with a plan for hope," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

In an editorial, The New York Times said "we had hoped he would resist the temptation to raise the bloody flag of 9/11 over and over again to justify a war in a country that had nothing whatsoever to do with the terrorist attacks."

"The president, who is going to be in office for another three and a half years, cannot continue to obsess about self-justification and the need to colour Iraq with the memory of 9/11. The nation does not want it and cannot afford it," the Times said.

The Washington Post, however, deemed that the connection was "not spurious, even if Saddam Hussein was not a collaborator of al-Qaeda."

The high alert level of US authorities was evident in May when the White House and Congress were evacuated when a small airplane accidentally flew in Washington's no-fly zone.

The Homeland Security Department raised in August the terror alert level around financial institutions in Washington and New York. Democrats accused the administration of playing to Americans' fears to help Bush's re-election bid.

The alert level was lowered on November 10, a few days after Bush beat Democratic Senator John Kerry in the presidential campaign.

- AFP