In post-9/11 world, U.S. still picking up the pieces

by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Nine years after the Sept. 11 attacks, memories of the day that would shape much of the next decade are still very much alive.

But just how much of an imprint has 9/11 left on the U.S. psyche? Does the issue continue to impact U.S.-Arab world relations? Will the threat of terror continue to guide U.S. foreign policy? Are there other foreign policy issues of equal or greater importance?

STILL FRESH IN AMERICANS' MINDS

While terrorism is not as emotional an issue now as it was in the first months and years after the attacks on New York and Washington, it is still a major concern among Americans, said Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.

The U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as U.S. efforts to thwart attacks, have kept the issue of militancy squarely in the public eye, he said.

Recent controversy surrounding a Muslim organization's plan to build a community center just blocks away from ground zero illustrates Americans' sensitivity regarding the issue. While no one is contesting the group's legal right to build there, many Americans feel that undertaking the project would be insensitive. Many Muslims, in turn, feel the issue amounts to anti-Muslim discrimination.

A CONTINUING THREAT

Terrorism has been a major focus of Washington for nearly a decade, and that is likely to continue for years to come, although the United States will also have other foreign policy concerns, experts said.

"The central lesson immediately was that the two oceans that have for so long protected the United States from foreign attack were no longer a barrier," said Kyle Spector, policy advisor for national security at Third Way.

"Individuals with enough money and ideology could attack if they wanted," he said.

That would change over the course of the decade, however, as U.S. and international pressure have put severe restrictions on Al Qaida's ability to raise cash and placed limitations on its ease of movement.

Still, terrorists have discovered other methods of recruitment - some individuals living in the United States have become radicalized via extremist Web sites and have planned or attempted attacks within U.S. borders.

But many experts said extremists' ability to launch large scale attacks such as the ones on the World Trade Center has significantly diminished and what the United States is more likely to see are smaller scale attacks.

Last year's shootings in Fort Hood, Texas, when a U.S. Army psychiatrist allegedly went on a shooting rampage and killed 13 U.S. soldiers in November, serve as a prime example. The shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan, allegedly has ties to Al Qaida's Yemeni branch.

Such operations are easier to plan and execute than the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington and can be used effectively to spread propaganda, analysts said.

A pistol or simple attack on a shopping mall would be a PR win for many terror groups. Not only would it strike fear into the hearts of Americans, it would also demonstrate an organization's ability to strike the heart of the United States, some analysts said.

It would also help their recruiting efforts, as many impressionable individuals in both the Muslim and Western world could find such violence appealing, some experts said.

IMPROVING U.S.-MUSLIM RELATIONS

While the United States was never popular in the Middle East, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq outraged much of the Muslim world. While former U.S. President George W. Bush was careful to emphasize that the "war on terror" was not with Islam, many Muslims saw it as such.

President Barack Obama has made an effort to reach out to the peoples of Muslim nations, but it has had little impact, according to some data.

Arab approval of Obama has dropped dramatically since last year, despite what many had mistakenly viewed as his popularity in the region, according to "The View from the Middle East: The 2010 Public Opinion Poll," released last month by the University of Maryland and Zogby Internationa

The study found a significant shift in Arabs' perception of Obama, whose disapproval ratings in the region jumped from 23 percent last year to 62 percent this year.

While Arabs approved of the president's early opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq, as well as his plans to close Guantanamo, they judge him according to the issues with which they are most concerned, rather than his personality, said Shibley Telhami, professor at the University of Maryland and the study's principal investigator.

While the president was well-received during last year's Middle East visit, in which he called for a new beginning between the United States and Muslims, U.S. media misinterpreted Arab sentiment and thought Arabs embraced Obama. In reality, they were neutral toward him, Telhami said.

DO ISRAEL, PALESTINE HOLD THE KEY?

The poll also found that disappointment over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resonates deepest in the Arab world and influences Arabs' evaluation of Obama and the United States. The issue is the central prism through which Arabs view the United States, Telhami said.

U.S. President Barack Obama recognizes that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is an important U.S. national security issue, and this month kicked off the next round of peace talks between the two sides in Washington. Leon T. Hadar, research fellow in foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, said a resolution of the Israel-Palestine issue would create an environment that would reduce support for anti-Israeli and anti-American radicalism.

But much of the political instability in the Arab and Muslim worlds is driven by long-term structural problems that have to do with the tensions between Islam and modernity as well as the opposition to non-democratic regimes, he said.

The United States is limited in its ability to influence those trends, but what it needs to do is to reassess its policies in the Middle East -- especially military intervention in Iraq and elsewhere -- which tends to strengthen anti-American attitudes and increase the likelihood of anti-American terrorism, he said.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

While terrorism is still a danger, it is no strategic threat to the existence of the United States, unlike the former Soviet Union, said Nathan Hughes, director of military analysis at global intelligence company Stratfor.

Since 9/11, Washington has relegated other foreign policy issues - ones that are the major drivers of geopolitics - to the backburner, some analysts said.

As military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, however, Washington will focus on how to deal with a number of quickly rising global powers, Hughes said.

The United States has been for years focused on non-state actors, but ultimately the key components of U.S. foreign policy will focus on large state actors and how they either support or do not support those non-state groups, he said.

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