Not safe enough

Is America safer, six years on? The former chairman and vice-chairman of the 9/11 commission take on the question

Two years ago, we and our colleagues issued a report card assessing the US government’s progress on the bipartisan recommendations in the 9/11 commission report. We concluded that the nation was not safe enough. Our judgment remains the same today: We still lack a sense of urgency in the face of grave danger.

Progress at home — in our ability to detect, prevent and respond to terrorist attacks — has been difficult, incomplete and slow, but it has been real. Outside our borders, however, the threat of failure looms. The enduring threat is not Osama bin Laden but young Muslims with no jobs and no hope, who are angry with their own governments and increasingly see the US as an enemy of Islam.

Four years ago, then-Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld famously asked his advisers: “Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?”

The answer is no.

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In July 2004, the 9/11 commission recommended putting foreign policy at the centre of our counterterrorism efforts. Instead, we have lost ground.

Our report warned that it was imperative to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries. But inside Pakistan Al-Qaeda has regenerated. The chief threat to Afghanistan’s young democracy comes from across the Pakistani border, from the resurgent Taliban. Pakistan should take the lead in closing Taliban camps and rooting out Al-Qaeda. But the US must act if Pakistan will not.

We are also failing in the struggle of ideas. We have not been persuasive in enlisting the energy and sympathy of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims against the extremist threat. No word is more poisonous to the reputation of the US than Guantanamo. Fundamental justice requires a fair legal process before the US government detains people for significant periods of time, and the president and Congress have not provided one. Guantanamo Bay should be closed now.

Moreover, no question inflames public opinion in the Muslim world more than the Arab-Israeli dispute. We must take away the extremists’ most potent grievance: the charge that the US does not care about the Palestinians. A vigorous diplomatic effort, with the visible, active support of the president, would bolster America’s prestige and influence — and offer the best prospect for Israel’s long-term security.

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And finally, no conflict drains more time, attention, blood, treasure and support from our counterterrorism efforts than the war in Iraq. It has become a powerful recruiting and training tool for Al-Qaeda. And our response to the threat of nuclear terrorism has been lip service and little action.

At home, the situation is less dire, but progress has been limited.

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