Although there have been no big attacks since the 11/9 incident, the US has been confronted with security risks. Over the past few days, the Bush Administration has mobilised forces to tighten security after Michael Hayden, director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned on September 7 that Al-Qaeda is planning new attacks on US targets.

Not only the US itself, but many other countries are also facing these risks. A survey recently conducted by US Magazine Foreign Policy showed that more than 18,900 people from different countries have been killed by terrorist attacks during the past six years. Most recently, Al Qaedar claimed responsibility for the two bomb attacks in Algeria on September 6 and 8, killing at least 60 people. The bombings are hard evidence of new terrorist attacks that Al-Qaeda ringleader Osama Bin Laden vowed to launch in his September 7 videotape release, though he did not mention specific targets. US President George W. Bush, who rarely gives comments on Al-Qaeda’s videotapes, said Bin Laden’s appearance was a reminder of al-Qaeda’s long-term objectives in Iraq and of the "dangerous world in which we live."

Over the past six years, the Bush Administration has applied many counter-terrorist measures to maintain security for the country and its citizens. Besides increasing the national defence budget by nearly 10 percent, Congress approved a law providing billions of US dollars for its states to tighten security. The FBI has also doubled the number of intelligence analysts to more than 2,000, while transport security has been enhanced. However, these efforts have not made the US safer. The Foreign Policy Magazine poll showed that 84 percent of American respondents do not believe that their country is winning the war on terror while 80 percent say there would be new and big attacks targeting either the US or its allies in the coming decade.

According to analysts, the underlying cause is the US’s foreign policy. The US’s view about using military strength as it was displayed in Afghanistan and Iraq under the label of the war on terror, turned some Muslims with extremist ideas into criminals committing terrorist acts. Consequently, US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq did not diminish, but increased the risk of terrorist attacks globally.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Parliament even said that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq paved the way for terrorist elements to establish ideal training bases in these two countries. It is not by chance that President Bush recently described the Iraq war as the war between the US and the Al-Qaeda network, and said that a victory of the war is crucial to the US to prevent Al-Qaeda’s terrorist acts.

But how will the US achieve that goal and get rid of terrorist risks while it is getting bogged down in Iraq due to a mistake in its foreign policy? Former CIA leaders frankly admitted that the US is facing a defeat in Iraq as well as in the war on terror. They said the only ally that Al-Qaeda made use of to launch terrorist attacks was the US foreign policy in Iraq and other Muslim countries.