Posted on 09/11/2006 8:00:48 AM PDT by ARealMothersSonForever
PARIS - The nations of the world joined Monday in solemn remembrance of Sept. 11 — but for many, resentment of the United States flowed as readily as tears.
Critics say Americans have squandered the goodwill that prompted France's Le Monde newspaper to proclaim "We are all Americans" that somber day after the attacks, and that the Iraq war and other U.S. policies have made the world less safe in the five years since.
Heads bowed in moments of silence in tribute to the 3,000 killed in the attacks on New York and Washington — while a top al-Qaida leader issued new warnings in a videotape that appeared to be fresh. And dissident voices brushed the portrait of a planet that has traded in civil liberties and other democratic rights in its war on terror.
Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel — an advocate of closer ties with Washington — had veiled criticism of the United States, saying: "The ends cannot justify the means."
"In the fight against international terror ... respect for human rights, tolerance and respect for other cultures must be the maxim of our actions, along with decisiveness and international cooperation," she said.
The international landscape has changed irreversibly since terrorists hijacked four airliners in 2001, crashing two into New York's World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and another into a Pennsylvania field.
Allies in the U.S.-led war on terrorism that the attacks unleashed renewed their resolve Monday to fight fanaticism, while militants blasted Washington's response as ineffective and pledged continued resistance.
In a video broadcast Monday, al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri warned that Persian Gulf countries and Israel would be al-Qaida's next targets and he called on Muslims to step up their resistance against the United States.
"You gave us every legitimacy and every opportunity to continue fighting you," al-Zawahri said, addressing the U.S. in the video, which appeared to be new. "You should worry about your presence in the (Persian) Gulf and the second place you should worry about is Israel."
He also accused the governments of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia of supporting Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Other video posted on the Internet, purportedly by al-Qaida, showed previously unseen footage of a smiling bin Laden and other commanders in a mountain camp apparently planning the Sept. 11 attacks.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark joined many when she said: "No, we're not more secure since 9/11."
Clark said more should be done to reach out to moderate states and leaders in the Islamic world to encourage understanding between different peoples, and to help end the sense of alienation and exclusion among some young Muslims that fuels extremism.
In Europe, whose own soil has been struck three times since Sept. 11 by terrorist attacks, commemorations touched each nation.
Bells tolled in Rome's city hall square. In London, bouquets of white roses and yellow carnations were piled in a memorial garden where the names of 67 Britons killed in the New York attacks are inscribed — and where a steel girder from the wreckage of the World Trade Center is buried.
At a 38-nation Asia-Europe summit in Helsinki, Finland, leaders stood in silence in a circle. The stock exchanges in Nordic and Baltic countries were observing two minutes of silence to honor the victims of the world's worst terror attacks.
"9/11 will be in our memory forever," said Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni during a ceremony in the a downtown piazza designed by Michelangelo. "We all remember where we were, what we were doing, what our first reaction was.
France's President Jacques Chirac, in Helsinki, reiterated in a written message to President Bush of his nation's "friendship" in the fight against terrorism.
A week after the Sept. 11 attacks, Chirac flew over the World Trade Center site — the first foreign leader to pay personal condolences. That solidarity quickly dissipated into rancor in the buildup to the Iraq war, when Chirac led opposition to Bush's plans.
Israel's Haaretz daily expressed disappointment and cynicism in an op-ed piece that said: "This is Sept. 11 five years later: a political tool in the hands of the Bush administration."
In Southeast Asia, U.S. and Philippine troops fighting Islamic extremists in the jungles prayed for peace and safety, as other remembrances took place in Japan, Australia, Finland, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who won the country's first post-Taliban election in 2004, expressed the appreciation of the Afghan people to the U.S. for the "sacrifices of your sons and daughters" in rebuilding his country. But on the streets in the capital, Kabul, many Afghans grumbled that they had not seen much improvement.
Despite about 20,000 U.S. forces fighting al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, and about the same number of NATO troops, and billions in aid, a resurgent Taliban resistance has shaken the country, while corruption has stymied development.
In neighboring Pakistan, considered a major ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, newspapers ran bleak-toned opinion columns and editorials criticizing Western anti-terror policies and attitudes
The end cannot justify the means??
I agree with the statement, but what is the end and what is the means???
END: Peace in the world and an end to terrorism.
MEANS: Killing terrorists.
Now, what about Islamofascists?
END: Convert everyone in the world to Islam
MEANS: Killing anyone (women, children, etc) by any means possible, in as large of numbers as possible.
So, who was this guy talking about again????
LOL, almost the exact same wording, you beat me by 2 seconds.
I'll say . . . me too. I think folks should add "played for a sucker by AP" to their tag-lines.
"Good will" my butt...
French buy into 9/11 conspiracy
June 26, 2002 Posted: 8:26 PM EDT (0026 GMT)
PARIS, France (CNN) -- Throughout the spring, and into this summer, a leading bestseller in France has not been some great work of French literature but a $17-dollar paperback called the "Horrifying Fraud."
The book casts doubt on the official version of the events of September 11, substituting an elaborate conspiracy concocted by America's military-industrial complex in order to increase U.S. military budgets.
It has sold more than 200,000 copies here -- a huge success in French terms --attracting interest from readers like Eduard Chabanon and Naoufal Lahlou who are sceptical about much of what they are learn from the news.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/06/26/france.book/
Five years later and the search continues for the moderates. "We know they are out there somewhere. They must be."
The 'good will' expressed by Le Monde was all done in about a month. It was never going to last. Mourning over temporary good will is absurd. Crocodile tears.
The French made TWO best-sellers out of some crackpot's conspiracy theory that there was no plane that crashed into the Pentagon.
You know what, I don't give a sh!t what the rest of the world thinks.
I'm all for telling the rest of the world that has a problem with us to go stick it the next time they need are help.
FTW! I euronate on the EU and their useful infidels..
FTW! I euronate on the EU and their useful infidels..
Oh, I get it.
The following is the insane, idiotic, ignorant summary message of the world's critics of the U.S. and the world media:
"The civilized world's war against Islamic terrorism and Islamic fascism would be over now and the world would be all peaceful and light if only the U.S. had not invaded Iraq."
If they (the world) are all not careful, they will create (in the American people) a push for an America of pre-WWI and pre-WWII vintage that will just let them have their tyrannies over each other while we make our security arrangements to serve only ourselves.
How about a poll of what Americans think of other Countries?
France: Hate them with firey passion. Wish the country was taken over by Disney.
Germany: Start pulling out all troops, redeploy to Poland Romania and other "New Europe" Counties. Cut off any remaining aid.
may I make a minor change to that quote?
"...especially the Democrat Party."
Guess what, World? America doesn't care what you think. The media cares, plus the nutjob lefties. You can all keep each other company in hell some day.
"I am angry today. I want to board the first flight to any muslem country and vent my anger. I am tired of the way our government is dancing around punishing radical Islam. I am frustrated that America is being seen as a bully - when it is America that comes to the aid of every toilet bowl country on the planet and ultimately, more often than not, gets spit on by our hosts."
Me too man. Tears and anger at the same time. The bad guys are still out there too making it all the worse. Total vengeance has not been metered out yet...
HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Soon they will be able to say, "we are all Muslims."
God save Europe.
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