From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 9/11/2006 1:33 PM
Five years after 9/11, how does the world see the U.S.?
Publication time: Today at 23:15 Djokhar time
"Five years have come and gone and we still stand together as one. We come back to this place to remember the heart-breaking anniversary an each person who died here, those known and unknown to us, whose absence is always with us" - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg siad.

The U.S. President George W. Bush, who was accompanied by First lady Laura Bush, as they observed the silence outside a fire station in New York's Lower East Side, to honour the 343 firefighters who were killed.

A ceremony held at the site of the World Trade Center was attended by numerous sad families clutching photos of their loved ones and reading the names of those who died.

"We love and miss you so much" said one, "my love for you is eternal," added another, holding back tears.

"To my fiancé, my love and my best friend, my guardian angel, I miss you," added another.

Worldwide media was loaded with editorials and opinion articles all criticising the U.S. response to September 11.

On the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks on New York and Washington, Bush critics accuse his administration of bungling its "war on terror" and squandering global goodwill by invading Iraq, stated an AFP article.

World press appeared united in condemning the attacks yet noting that many still don't know what exactly happened on that sad day five years ago. But they all disputed the American President's previous claim that the world has become safer. They say that the world has become "more dangerous place."

Much of the criticism focused on the U.S. policies and the administration of President Bush, as well as his unwise decision to invade Iraq, as part of his alleged campaign to root out terrorism.

An editorial on The New York Times acknowledged that the U.S. has lost the feeling of unity and purpose which gripped the nation following the brutal attacks.

"When we measure the possibilities created by 9/11 against what we have actually accomplished, it is clear that we have found one way after another to compound the tragedy," said the paper's editorial.

Also UK's The  Independent recalled the goodwill of five years ago when worldwide media published "images of a world briefly united in sympathy for an America reeling and grieving from the attack on the Twin Towers and the deaths of almost 3,000 New Yorkers."

"How moving but dated they seem today," the paper said.

The Financial Times also joined the criticism, saying;

"The way the Bush administration has trampled on the international rule of law and Geneva Conventions, while abrogating civil liberties and expanding executive power at home, has done huge damage not only to America's reputation but, more broadly, to the attractive power of Western values."

"The Bush administration has succeeded in destroying the huge pool of compassion and solidarity which gripped the world after September 11," said Left-leaning French newspaper Liberation, stressing that the American President's so-called "war on terror" had been disastrous.

Germany's Handelsblatt said the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq had been erroneously started in the name of 9/11 attacks.

And Spain's El Pais accused President Bush of using the tragic event to impose a neo-conservative foreign policy.

"The result, five years after, is a more dangerous world," said El Pais. "But the worst is that the methods of the terrorists contaminated the spirit of the democracies which fight them."

In the Arab press, the criticism focused on the condemnation of the illegal invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Jordan's Al Ghad ran an article saying that the Bush administration " used a vengeful mentality in dealing with the 9/11 crime and has turned the entire world into a battleground".

Also Saudi Arabia's Al-Jazira said that the U.S. policy had turned Iraq into an incubator for terrorism. "U.S. policy has failed and has turned the war on terror into a clash of civilisations," said the paper.

UAE's Al-Khaleej said;

"Bush's policies have not brought security to Americans and have instead brought chaos to the entire world."

The way the U.S. responded to 9/11 attacks has indeed changed the world more than did the attack itself, said The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, noting that;

"It's fair to say that September 11 changed the United States. But what really changed the world was the erroneous U.S. response to September 11, especially the war in Iraq," it said.

Pakistan's The News daily published an editorial entitled "Five Years of Nothing".

"Looking back it would be hard to say whether the years have been spent in something meaningful or constructive," it said,

"Many would agree the world is a more dangerous place and the United States is nowhere close to winning the war on terror."

Source: AlJazeera
http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2006/09/11/5549.shtml