What do other countries think of 911

We will never know whether Americans would have a more optimistic assessment if the withdrawal had been less abrupt and better organized. On the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks, Americans thought, by a margin of two to one, that these events had changed the United States for the better. On the 10th anniversary, the evaluation had turned negative, and on the 20th anniversary, even more so.

Table 2: Compared to the situation before September 11, , do you think the country today is safer or less safe from terrorism? William A. It was a jarring sight. It wasn't until many days later that it occurred to me that the heroes who brought down Flight 93 may have saved my life. It's likely that plane was headed right for us on Capitol Hill and I think of them often and thank them for their unbelievable courage and ultimate sacrifice.

Sonali Nigam, a student from India, had just arrived in the United States for the first time on September 9, , and was visiting relatives in D.

On the morning of September 11, my aunt and uncle planned to take me to visit the Washington Monument and the National Mall. A bit jet lagged, I was up early and by am we were ready to go. As we got our things together someone turned on the TV to catch a bit of news. We were stunned. I had grown up in New Delhi so terrorism was not an unknown. But this was a growing up moment that defined my coming to America. Steam rose from the grates into the sunlight. There were lines of people for the phones because no one could use a cell—the wireless was overwhelmed.

An elderly man and his wife sat on a park bench, he clutching his chest. They told us to move on when we tried to help. A man went by, crossing himself, then disappeared around a corner. The kids thought it was a grand way to spend the day. My other main memory of was that the Feds tried to cancel Halloween. Fear, you know. People in masks roaming around. I went out after dark and met one couple coming out of a restaurant, both of them wearing the smallest of Mardi Gras masks.

We exchanged knowing smiles, then went our ways. Reaching Lafayette Square, I saw, in the light of a street lamp in front of the White House, a group of costumed Rollerbladers gliding back and forth.

Later, as I walked up Connecticut Ave to the metro, I looked around and saw them gliding up the street, a snake of colorful reflective costumes and masks, through the green lights, then away. On September 11, , I was 7 years old, and my second-grade teacher called a class meeting to explain that two airplanes had hit the twin towers in New York City, about 25 miles from where we were in northern New Jersey.

I remember raising my hand and asking how there could be a plane crash on such a sunny day. The pilots just not seeing the towers, an honest mistake, was the only explanation I could fathom.

Many parents in my hometown of Ridgewood, including my dad, were among the thousands of people who commuted into New York each day. I am extremely lucky that, when my mom took me home from school that day, he was waiting there, unhurt.

A condensed transcript of that conversation follows. Emily Goldberg: How did you find out about the planes hitting the towers? Did you hear it or see it? Ken Goldberg: I was in at work well before anything happened. I remember noticing, before anything happened, that it was a really nice day. When it first was announced, people were talking about a small plane hitting one of the towers.

So that was the initial story, which seemed strange at the time because it was a perfectly nice day. The first plane, I found out about it on our newswire about the markets. After that, no one really knew anything and no one was overly focused on it. Then, when the second one hit, people knew it was an attack. When the second plane hit, people were running towards my office to say that they either saw it or felt it. Then everyone started walking down the stairs.

We were on the 19th floor. Emily: Was the building evacuated, or did people just realize at that point that they should get out? The elevators were shut off, and everyone walked out.

It was very quiet. When I got outside there were hundreds of people pouring out of my building. You saw a lot of smoke, and it seemed like it was really bad. It seemed like people were going to be in really bad shape up in the towers. We could see some people had broken windows, different things hanging out of building, and no one really knew what to do. People were just walking around, trying to find other people they worked with.

Eventually it just got more and more crowded, and I decided to head for the ferry to Hoboken where I could get on the train because I figured it was a good time to get out of there. Emily: Did you call Mom at that point? Did everyone even have cell phones then? Ken: I had a cell phone. I think I called Mom before I left the office, when the first plane hit. I think I called again when I was on the train, and told her the second one had been hit, and at this point it looked like terrorism.

It was very quiet on the train, very strange. Everyone got on, and we were waiting for it to leave to go to Hoboken. It was like like a normal commute home, but they were waiting for trains to fill up before they left, and I just remember it was really quiet. I think shortly after we left the station people started hearing news that one of the towers had collapsed. We had gotten far enough away at that point, though, that it was surreal. Emily: Was there a general sense of panic?

Ken: People were definitely worried, but it was very quiet. I think it was like being in shock. We were able to get away from all the worst stuff though. I think they ran a few more ferries after I left—until the buildings fell and then clouds came over, and visibility was gone so they started sending rescue boats from New Jersey to pick up more people. Some people had to walk up Manhattan, or over the Brooklyn Bridge. I was at Vesey Street and the towers were on the other side of the West Street, but it always seemed so close because they were so big.

It looked like it was right out your window. We used to go over there for lunch. I had meetings up in the towers, so I remember thinking about people that I knew who worked there when it happened. Luckily, anyone I had worked with closely there was able to get out, but you probably remember the families in Ridgewood. There were a few in your grade Emily: Yeah, I remember. There were two kids in my grade whose fathers died that day. One boy was in my class.

Ken: It all became more clear when I got home. I remember hearing fighter jets in the sky. It was like a war was starting or something. Mom and I were just watching the news reports over and over again, but I think hearing the fighter jets was really what hit me, because by then I felt kind of removed from it, I was back in the suburbs, but I could still hear them.

It became clear that this thing was terrible, how many people may have been killed, and no one knew what had happened with people they knew who worked downtown, or what was going to happen with business.

Emily: What happened in the weeks after? When did you go back to work, or even back into the city? We had space in the Bloomberg offices for a couple weeks, and then we relocated to Jersey City for a couple months before we got back.

I did go down there just to see what it looked like in that first week, and there was this terrible smell of burnt metal once you came out of the subway. It just seemed like, how could this happen? How could these buildings actually be down? I got responses from people who on that day were all over the world: in New York and nearby, in DC, elsewhere in the U. One reader had an office on the 14th floor of the World Trade Center, but he happened not to be in the office that day:. Our firm had a telephone system which allowed people to call your office number and have it immediately connected to any number you desired.

This allowed most of the staff to work remotely, whether from home or on the road. So, this particular day, none of the senior staff members were in the office, whether at home or traveling. September 11 was the first day of school for some schools in the area. Our office manager was taking her daughter to school that morning, so she was not in the office that morning either.

My older daughter was away at college, and my younger daughter was a senior in high school. When the news reports started circulating, the high school administration determined which students had parents who worked at the WTC, gathered them together, and gave them the news. But the U. A complex international terrorist operation aimed at launching a catastrophic attack cannot be mounted by just anyone in any place.

Such operations appear to require time, space, and ability to perform competent planning and staff work; a command structure able to make necessary decisions and possessing the authority and contacts to assemble needed people, money, and materials; opportunity and space to recruit, train, and select operatives with the needed skills and dedication, providing the time and structure required to socialize them into the terrorist cause, judge their trustworthiness, and hone their skills; a logistics network able to securely manage the travel of operatives, move money, and transport resources like explosives where they need to go; access, in the case of certain weapons, to the special materials needed for a nuclear, chemical, radiological, or biological attack; reliable communications between coordinators and operatives; and o opportunity to test the workability of the plan.

The organization cemented personal ties among veteran jihadists working together there for years. It had the operational space to gather and sift recruits, indoctrinating them in isolated, desert camps. It built up logistical networks, running through Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

Al Qaeda also exploited relatively lax internal security environments in Western countries, especially Germany. To find sanctuary, terrorist organizations have fled to some of the least governed, most lawless places in the world. The intelligence community has prepared a world map that highlights possible terrorist havens, using no secret intelligence-just indicating areas that combine rugged terrain, weak governance, room to hide or receive supplies, and low population density with a town or city near enough to allow necessary interaction with the outside world.

Large areas scattered around the world meet these criteria. Some of the same places come up again and again on their lists: western Pakistan and the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region southern or western Afghanistan the Arabian Peninsula, especially Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and the nearby Horn of Africa, including Somalia and extending southwest into Kenya Southeast Asia, from Thailand to the southern Philippines to Indonesia West Africa, including Nigeria and Mali European cities with expatriate Muslim communities, especially cities in central and eastern Europe where security forces and border controls are less effective In the twentieth century, strategists focused on the world's great industrial heartlands.

In the twenty-first, the focus is in the opposite direction, toward remote regions and failing states. The United States has had to find ways to extend its reach, straining the limits of its influence. Every policy decision we make needs to be seen through this lens. If, for example, Iraq becomes a failed state, it will go to the top of the list of places that are breeding grounds for attacks against Americans at home.

Similarly, if we are paying insufficient attention to Afghanistan, the rule of the Taliban or warlords and narcotraffickers may reemerge and its countryside could once again offer refuge to al Qaeda, or its successor. Recommendation:The U. For each, it should have a realistic strategy to keep possible terrorists insecure and on the run, using all elements of national power.

We should reach out, listen to, and work with other countries that can help. We offer three illustrations that are particularly applicable today, in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan Pakistan's endemic poverty, widespread corruption, and often ineffective government create opportunities for Islamist recruitment. Poor education is a particular concern. Millions of families, especially those with little money, send their children to religious schools, or madrassahs.

Many of these schools are the only opportunity available for an education, but some have been used as incubators for violent extremism. According to Karachi's police commander, there are madrassahs teaching more than , youngsters in his city alone. Pakistan possesses nuclear weapons and has come frighteningly close to war with nuclear-armed India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

A political battle among anti-American Islamic fundamentalists, the Pakistani military, and more moderate mainstream political forces has already spilled over into violence, and there have been repeated recent attempts to kill Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf.

In recent years, the United States has had three basic problems in its relationship with Pakistan: On terrorism, Pakistan helped nurture the Taliban. The Pakistani army and intelligence services, especially below the top ranks, have long been ambivalent about confronting Islamist extremists. Many in the government have sympathized with or provided support to the extremists. Musharraf agreed that Bin Ladin was bad. On proliferation, Musharraf has repeatedly said that Pakistan does not barter with its nuclear technology.

But proliferation concerns have been long-standing and very serious. Most recently, the Pakistani government has claimed not to have known that one of its nuclear weapons developers, a national figure, was leading the most dangerous nuclear smuggling ring ever disclosed. Finally, Pakistan has made little progress toward the return of democratic rule at the national level, although that turbulent process does continue to function at the provincial level and the Pakistani press remains relatively free.

Its government stood aside and allowed the U. In other ways, Pakistan actively assisted: its authorities arrested more than al Qaeda operatives and Taliban members, and Pakistani forces played a leading part in tracking down KSM, Abu Zubaydah, and other key al Qaeda figures.

When al Qaeda and its Pakistani allies repeatedly tried to assassinate Musharraf, almost succeeding, the battle came home.

The country's vast unpoliced regions make Pakistan attractive to extremists seeking refuge and recruits and also provide a base for operations against coalition forces in Afghanistan. He ordered the Pakistani army into the frontier provinces of northwest Pakistan along the Afghan border, where Bin Ladin and Ayman al Zawahiri have reportedly taken refuge.

The army is confronting groups of al Qaeda fighters and their local allies in very difficult terrain. On the other side of the frontier, U.

Yet in , it is clear that the Pakistani government is trying harder than ever before in the battle against Islamist terrorists.

In an extraordinary public essay asking how Muslims can "drag ourselves out of the pit we find ourselves in, to raise ourselves up," Musharraf has called for a strategy of "enlightened moderation.

The United States has been and should remain a key supporter of that process. The constant refrain of Pakistanis is that the United States long treated them as allies of convenience. As the United States makes fresh commitments now, it should make promises it is prepared to keep, for years to come. Recommendation: If Musharraf stands for enlightened moderation in a fight for his life and for the life of his country, the United States should be willing to make hard choices too, and make the difficult long-term commitment to the future of Pakistan.

Sustaining the current scale of aid to Pakistan, the United States should support Pakistan's government in its struggle against extremists with a comprehensive effort that extends from military aid to support for better education, so long as Pakistan's leaders remain willing to make difficult choices of their own.

In the fall of , the U. Notable progress has been made. A central government has been established in Kabul, with a democratic constitution, new currency, and a new army. Most Afghans enjoy greater freedom, women and girls are emerging from subjugation, and 3 million children have returned to school. For the first time in many years, Afghans have reason to hope. Taliban and al Qaeda fighters have regrouped in the south and southeast. Warlords control much of the country beyond Kabul, and the land is awash in weapons.

Economic development remains a distant hope. The narcotics trade-long a massive sector of the Afghan economy- is again booming. Even the most hardened aid workers refuse to operate in many regions, and some warn that Afghanistan is near the brink of chaos.

Elections are being prepared. It is revealing that in June , Taliban fighters resorted to slaughtering 16 Afghans on a bus, apparently for no reason other than their boldness in carrying an unprecedented Afghan weapon: a voter registration card. Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, is brave and committed. He is trying to build genuinely national institutions that can overcome the tradition of allocating powers among ethnic communities. Yet even if his efforts are successful and elections bring a democratic government to Afghanistan, the United States faces some difficult choices.

After paying relatively little attention to rebuilding Afghanistan during the military campaign, U. Greater consideration of the political dimension and congressional support for a substantial package of assistance signaled a longer-term commitment to Afghanistan's future.

One Afghan regional official plaintively told us the country finally has a good government. He begged the United States to keep its promise and not abandon Afghanistan again, as it had in the s. Another Afghan leader noted that if the United States leaves, "we will lose all that we have gained. There is continuing political controversy about whether military operations in Iraq have had any effect on the scale of America's commitment to the future of Afghanistan.

The United States has largely stayed out of the central government's struggles with dissident warlords and it has largely avoided confronting the related problem of narcotrafficking. Now the United States and the international community should make a long-term commitment to a secure and stable Afghanistan, in order to give the government a reasonable opportunity to improve the life of the Afghan people. Afghanistan must not again become a sanctuary for international crime and terrorism.

The United States and the international community should help the Afghan government extend its authority over the country, with a strategy and nation-by-nation commitments to achieve their objectives. This is an ambitious recommendation. It would mean a redoubled effort to secure the country, disarm militias, and curtail the age of warlord rule.

NATO in particular has made Afghanistan a test of the Alliance's ability to adapt to current security challenges of the future. NATO must pass this test. Currently, the United States and the international community envision enough support so that the central government can build a truly national army and extend essential infrastructure and minimum public services to major towns and regions.

The effort relies in part on foreign civil-military teams, arranged under various national flags. NATO member states are not following through; some of the other states around the world that have pledged assistance to Afghanistan are not fulfilling their pledges. The State Department presence is woefully understaffed, and the military mission is narrowly focused on al Qaeda and Taliban remnants in the south and southeast.

This should include discretionary funds for expenditures by military units that often encounter opportunities to help the local population. Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia has been a problematic ally in combating Islamic extremism. At the same time, Saudi Arabia's society was a place where al Qaeda raised money directly from individuals and through charities. It was the society that produced 15 of the 19 hijackers.

The Kingdom is one of the world's most religiously conservative societies, and its identity is closely bound to its religious links, especially its position as the guardian of Islam's two holiest sites. Charitable giving, or zakat , is one of the five pillars of Islam. It is broader and more pervasive than Western ideas of charity- functioning also as a form of income tax, educational assistance, foreign aid, and a source of political influence.

The Western notion of the separation of civic and religious duty does not exist in Islamic cultures. Funding charitable works is an integral function of the governments in the Islamic world. It is so ingrained in Islamic culture that in Saudi Arabia, for example, a department within the Saudi Ministry of Finance and National Economy collects zakat directly, much as the U.

Internal Revenue Service collects payroll withholding tax. Closely tied to zakat is the dedication of the government to propagating the Islamic faith, particularly the Wahhabi sect that flourishes in Saudi Arabia. Traditionally, throughout the Muslim world, there is no formal oversight mechanism for donations. As Saudi wealth increased, the amounts contributed by individuals and the state grew dramatically. Substantial sums went to finance Islamic charities of every kind.

This ministry uses zakat and government funds to spread Wahhabi beliefs throughout the world, including in mosques and schools. Often these schools provide the only education available; even in affluent countries, Saudi-funded Wahhabi schools are often the only Islamic schools.

Some Wahhabi-funded organizations have been exploited by extremists to further their goal of violent jihad against non-Muslims.

One such organization has been the al Haramain Islamic Foundation; the assets of some branch offices have been frozen by the U. At the same time, the government's ability to finance most state expenditures with energy revenues has delayed the need for a modern income tax system. As a result, there have been strong religious, cultural, and administrative barriers to monitoring charitable spending.

That appears to be changing, however, now that the goal of violent jihad also extends to overthrowing Sunni governments such as the House of Saud that are not living up to the ideals of the Islamist extremists. In , the Kingdom hosted U. American soldiers and airmen have given their lives to help protect Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government has difficulty acknowledging this.

American military bases remained there until , as part of an international commitment to contain Iraq. For many years, leaders on both sides preferred to keep their ties quiet and behind the scenes. As a result, neither the U. In each country, political figures find it difficult to publicly defend good relations with the other. Today, mutual recriminations flow. Many Americans see Saudi Arabia as an enemy, not as an embattled ally.

They perceive an autocratic government that oppresses women, dominated by a wealthy and indolent elite. Saudi contacts with American politicians are frequently invoked as accusations in partisan political arguments.

Americans are often appalled by the intolerance, anti-Semitism, and anti-American arguments taught in schools and preached in mosques. Saudis are angry too. Many educated Saudis who were sympathetic to America now perceive the United States as an unfriendly state. One Saudi reformer noted to us that the demonization of Saudi Arabia in the U. Tens of thousands of Saudis who once regularly traveled to and often had homes in the United States now go elsewhere.

Although Saudi Arabia's cooperation against terrorism improved to some extent after the September 11 attacks, significant problems remained. Many in the Kingdom initially reacted with disbelief and denial. In the following months, as the truth became clear, some leading Saudis quietly acknowledged the problem but still did not see their own regime as threatened, and thus often did not respond promptly to U.

Though Saddam Hussein was widely detested, many Saudis are sympathetic to the anti-U. Cooperation had already become significant, but after the bombings in Riyadh on May 12, , it improved much more. The Kingdom openly discussed the problem of radicalism, criticized the terrorists as religiously deviant, reduced official support for religious activity overseas, closed suspect charitable foundations, and publicized arrests-very public moves for a government that has preferred to keep internal problems quiet.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is now locked in mortal combat with al Qaeda. Saudi police are regularly being killed in shootouts with terrorists.

In June , the Saudi ambassador to the United States called publicly-in the Saudi press-for his government to wage a jihad of its own against the terrorists. Social and religious traditions complicate adjustment to modern economic activity and limit employment opportunities for young Saudis. Women find their education and employment sharply limited. President Clinton offered us a perceptive analysis of Saudi Arabia, contending that fundamentally friendly rulers have been constrained by their desire to preserve the status quo.

He, like others, made the case for pragmatic reform instead. He hopes the rulers will envision what they want their Kingdom to become in 10 or 20 years, and start a process in which their friends can help them change. He has embraced the Arab Human Development Report , which was highly critical of the Arab world's political, economic, and social failings and called for greater economic and political reform.

Such cooperation can exist for a time largely in secret, as it does now, but it cannot grow and thrive there. Nor, on either side, can friendship be unconditional.

Recommendation:The problems in the U. The United States and Saudi Arabia must determine if they can build a relationship that political leaders on both sides are prepared to publicly defend-a relationship about more than oil. It should include a shared commitment to political and economic reform, as Saudis make common cause with the outside world. It should include a shared interest in greater tolerance and cultural respect, translating into a commitment to fight the violent extremists who foment hatred.

Does the US need to fashion a broad, integrated plan to stop the next generation of terrorists? The US is putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan, but we are putting a great deal of effort into trying to stop terrorists. The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists' costs of millions. Our answer is that we need short-term action on a long-range strategy, one that invigorates our foreign policy with the attention that the President and Congress have given to the military and intelligence parts of the conflict against Islamist terrorism.

Engage the Struggle of Ideas The United States is heavily engaged in the Muslim world and will be for many years to come. This American engagement is resented. Polls in found that among America's friends, like Egypt-the recipient of more U.

In Saudi Arabia the number was 12 percent. And two-thirds of those surveyed in in countries from Indonesia to Turkey a NATO ally were very or somewhat fearful that the United States may attack them. By , polls showed that "the bottom has fallen out of support for America in most of the Muslim world. Negative views of the U. Since last summer, favorable ratings for the U. Local newspapers and the few influential satellite broadcasters-like al Jazeera-often reinforce the jihadist theme that portrays the United States as anti-Muslim.

It is among the large majority of Arabs and Muslims that we must encourage reform, freedom, democracy, and opportunity, even though our own promotion of these messages is limited in its effectiveness simply because we are its carriers. Muslims themselves will have to reflect upon such basic issues as the concept of jihad, the position of women, and the place of non-Muslim minorities.

The United States can promote moderation, but cannot ensure its ascendancy. Only Muslims can do this. The setting is difficult.

Forty percent of adult Arabs are illiterate, two-thirds of them women. One-third of the broader Middle East lives on less than two dollars a day. Less than 2 percent of the population has access to the Internet. The majority of older Arab youths have expressed a desire to emigrate to other countries, particularly those in Europe.

How can the United States and its friends help moderate Muslims combat the extremist ideas? Recommendation: The U. We should offer an example of moral leadership in the world, committed to treat people humanely, abide by the rule of law, and be generous and caring to our neighbors. Political leaders urged calm and promised aid. New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani , who rose to national prominence thanks to his leadership in the wake of the attacks, urged decisive action against terrorism and encouraged New Yorkers to try to return to their normal lives.

Meanwhile, President George W. Despite such anti-terrorist measures, many Americans continued to feel uneasy. According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine , nearly half of all Americans reported symptoms of stress and depression after the attacks. Many thousands of Americans lost loved ones on September Millions more watched the unrelenting news coverage of the attacks, looked at the wrenching photographs in the newspaper and listened to heartbreaking interviews with firefighters, survivors and relatives of victims feeling that, at least in some small way, the trauma of the day was theirs too.

Memorials, commemorative ceremonies and time have helped many to begin to heal, but for others the shock and horror of that day in September remains painfully fresh. Citizens of 78 countries died in New York, Washington, D. They held candlelight vigils. They donated money and goods to the Red Cross and other rescue and relief organizations.

Flowers piled up in front of American embassies. Meanwhile, statesmen and women rushed to condemn the attacks and to offer whatever aid they could to the United States. Even leaders of countries that did not tend to get along terribly well with the American government expressed their sorrow and dismay.

The Cuban foreign minister offered airspace and airports to American planes. Chinese and Iranian officials sent their condolences.