Two Years After the Tragedy, Questions Still Unanswered

Now we can speak about the consequences of the terrorist attacks only
The tragedy that occurred in New York on September 11, 2001 will still cause much dispute in the future. There are different versions explaining why the tragedy occurred at all: some say the act of terrorism was organized by al-Qaida and others suppose it was the ultra-right wing in the White House and the Pentagon that organized the collapse of the WTC buildings. However that may be but we will be able to learn the whole truth about the 9/11 tragedy not soon. This is more important that we can speak about the consequences of the tragedy already now.  Sure, it's too early to sum up the results as the 9/11 terrorist act determined the relations of the USA with the whole of the world which will last for a very long period.

The present-day administration of the US has obviously used the terrorist attacks for its ideological purposes. The objective of the White House was voiced almost immediately: it was declared that it was necessary to put an end to terrorism all over the world. Nobody objected as the idea was clear. As a result, the USA set up a coalition that supported an armed intrusion in Afghanistan. In fact, the Taliban regime was so odious by itself that nobody could be expected to object to overthrowing of the regime. At that, Talibs made no secret of their relations with America's number one enemy, Osama bin Laden.  

The same slogan calling for fighting against terrorism was used to justify the armed intrusion in Iraq. But this time the Bush Administration faced serious problems. In a word, as concerns Iraq the casus belli turned out to be far-fetched. It's clear that Saddam Hussein wasn't that kind of a leader who enjoyed the universal love and respect. However that may be, Iraq was a sovereign country which at the same time wasn't an obvious threat to the neighboring countries. If we take into consideration the fact that there are many rulers in the world who are not better than Saddam, we see that the Iraqi war has put Washington in such a position that the whole of the world now suspects that America waged the war with a view to lay the hands on the Iraqi oil.

It's important also to mention the innovations introduced in the US which was said to make fighting against terrorism easier. The Homeland Defense Department, fingerprinting of foreigners, raids against illegal Asian emigrants and the censorship in the American mass media are excused with the fact that the USA is fighting against terrorism. It is said that all instruments are good at war.

It's no doubt that the war against terrorism is hard; it's quite clear the problem cannot be solved within an hour - years or even decades are necessary to settle the problem. However, the methods the US administration employs for solution of the problem are rather dubious.

To tell the truth, the White House methods in fact create even more problems, but not solve those already existing ones. Iraq may serve a vivid example here.

It's a pity that hundreds of people fell victims of the 9/11 tragedy under the debris of the WTC. But this is a tragedy at the same time that many Iraqis and Afghanis were killed by American bombs. So, this is not clear why the people killed during the terrorist attacks in New York are to be treated as heroes while citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq killed during the military operations are ranked among "accompanying war losses".

Thus it seems that the war against terrorism is for the USA just a background to justify the aspiration to the world-wide hegemony. But in fact that would be nice if the suggestions turned out to be a mistake. Unfortunately, everything that we see now proves that the situation is quite different now.