September 11th as a response to the USA external policy

· C) What has changed 

· C.1)The death of the founding myth.

On September 10^th , the USA were the most powerful nation on Earth. Never one could have thought that one would have dared to attack the USA, and certainly not on their Homeland. Bin Laden and his international terrorist network did it. September 11^th , put an end to the belief that USA were unassailable but above all we realized that even the powerful army could be unefficient. It is all the same very important to stress on the fact that the attacks were « viscious », the Americans were surprised, and when they realized what was going on, it was too late.

More than the collapse of the WTC, September 11th, is the collapse of the USA's image in the World. As expected Bush declared he will hunt down terrorists in a long , unrelenting war. However, what is surprising is the shift of the USA's method. Bush will not run the retaliation alone. He has gathered a global coalition around him. This behaviour is really a U-turn in USA's Policy. In fact they have always been reluctant to cooperate with the international community. Pride is over, now time is to retaliation. Bush and his people has no time any longer for ideology.

q C.2) Global security

The old pendulum swings between isolationism and engagement seem over now, for ever. President Bush is emblematic of the change . Until September 11^th , his Administration had been wary of global alliances. He finds himself leading the biggest one since the Cold War.

The globalization will endure. But to thrive, it must gain a new dimension : a new global sytem is needed in which all countries have to share information and adopt similar standards of random inspections. A Worldwide agreement to install controls, checks, while permiting the free flow of trade. This could be done through a new organization, but better still would be to use an existing one like the World Trade Organization . Government will commit themselves to these new security procedures as part of joining the W.T.O. What followed, war, anthrax in the mail, made overwhelming the sense that the World is now forever changed.

How safe are the U.S.A now ?

Bin laden has changed American public life, in many cases for the better.

The most important question isn't what Bush knew before September 11^th , it is what the Administration and Congress have done to fix a broken system.

Now the greatest challenge in fighting terrorism is not to prevent terrorists from repeating their latest attack but to anticipate where and how they will strike next.

The victims who perished on 9-11^th did not die in vain. Politics, at least for now, has been transformed : less synical, more mature, less judgemental, more trusting, more patriotic , more international in outlook, less ideological, more realistic. American want to fix a broken system before another strike comes. Bush is working to bolster U.S.A's defenses. A new political era begins in America on September 11^th :

Along with intensified law enforcement, Bush's plan would roll Secret Service and the Cost Guard looking along with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and dozens of others into a single new Department of Homeland Security. Bush named Tom Ridge (the former Pensylvania Governor) to direct a new cabinet level office of Homeland Security. His task is not only to anticipate and prevent terrorist attacks but also to cope with them when they happen. That is to say, preparing the country for future terrorist threats. This office would have an in house intelligence analysis group.

Since September 11^th , the number of F.B.I personnel working in couter-terrorism has grown from 1,000 to 4,000. Besides, since September 11^th , no criticism of the C.I.A has been more damming than the fact that the Agency's legion of highly trained spooks were less successful at infiltrating Al-Qaeda. They had to learn to spy again. In fact, the U.S.A spend more than 90% of its $38 billion to annual intelligence budget on spying gadgetry rather than on gathering human intelligence. Many C.I.A officials lost interest in doing dirty human espionage which meant recruiting dangerous characters who can act as spies and infiltrate terror networks such as Al-Qaeda's.

Washington is more careful now. The American people never abandonned their belief that the Federal goverment has certain basic duties beyond defending the borders. Since about 9-11^th , the attitude was changing. George W. Bush himself had proposed a vast expansion of Federal power over :

- Airports security.

Bush conceded that the airlines themselves could no longer handle the job without strict Goverment oversight. Thanks to the new airport- security bill passed in Congress last November, airline security has been taken out of the hands of the FAA and given to the newly created Federal Transportated Security Administration (TSA). In the past six months, billion have gone toward reinforcing cockpit doors, tightening the airline baggage-screening process and hiring 28.000 new Federal employees at airports to replace the private security firm that let Al-Qaeda through on September11^th . There is improvements in passagers profiling. They have started to scan passager lists for other suspicious characteristics.

- Borders.

The first line of defense against terrorism are the country's borders and shores. The Bounder-Security Act, Bush signed aims to modernize the country's system of tracking those who want to enter the country. The Administration plans to hire 800 more customs agents to police the borders. The Administration's $38 billion Homeland-Security budget proposes a $380 million system to track the entry and exit of noncitizens and gives $282 million to the Coast- guard for protecting ports and costal areas.

- Bioterrorism

Budget for Federal research on terror of all kinds, are skyrocketing. Last year's Anthrax attacks sent Public-health officials to strengthen the U.S's bioterrorism defenses. The country's nearly 7.000 local Health Departments train hospitals and doctors in how to spot and treat the symptoms of bioterrorism. The Homeland-Security budget is aimed at keeping casualties down. Almost all of the $ 9.5billion allocated to combat bioterrorism, for instance, goes toward training and equiping local public-health authorities to treat victims in the event of an attack.

There is a genuine debate inside the Government about whether Bin Laden is still alive. The White House believes he has survived the war. Why is he so hard to pin down ?

The last time the World heard from Bin Laden, there was reason to believe his end was near. American war planes pounded the caves of Eastern Afghanistan, and special troops positioned themselves for the big grab. Six months after hailing Bin Laden's imminent capture or death, Pentagon officials now admit that the Al-Qaeda leader « has gone missing » . Missing could mean dead, but only a small minority in the Pentagon, C.I.A and F.B.I believe that Bin Laden's silence suggest he was dead. The White House believes he is still alive :

-« I think we have lost him » says a USA counterterrorism official.

Bringing Bin Laden to justice has been a nonegotiable U.S war aim since September 17^th , when President Bush declared that he wanted the Al-Qaeda leader dead or alive. But with the trial growing cold, White House have lately offered a new definition of victory. It is a failure of the Pentagon and C.I.A to plink their top target. Massachussets senator John Kerry is among those who argue that the Administration's fear of casualties and reliance on Afghan proxies allowed Bin Laden to slip away.

For all his elusiveness, Bin Laden probably has not strayed far from the region. The C.I.A believed Bin Laden fled Afghanistan and is holed up in tribal areas of Northwest Pakistan, a region that is impossible to monitor. The best chance of eliminating him may lie in cultivating agents who can infiltrate his inner circle and bump him off.

Defeating terrorists as ruthlessly commited as Bin Laden will require not just military firepower but also patience, guile and a good deal of luck.

The U.S.A had made it clear to the interim Afghan government that if Bin Laden is apprehende, he must be turned over to American authorities. But how he will be brought to justice is a question the White House has still not decided.

In Peshawar (Pakistan's frontier town) they chanted « we love Bin Laden » and burned American flags and effigies of George W. Bush.

But a World away, the new unilateralist finds himself organizing an international coalition. According to him no single country can eradicate terrorism on his own. French President, Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who visited Bush at the White House, said their armed forces would participate in retaliation so long as it is « appropriate and effective ».