A gap eight floors deep, two million tons of rubble and victims whose numbers in America have been counted but are uncounted in other parts of the world, this is all that remains of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, after a full year has passed since the explosions of 11 September. One may say that it has been an intercalary year for everybody, in which this month has cast its shadow on the remaining days of the year, on America, on the world, and particularly us Arabs and Muslims. Much has changed in the balances of power in this strange year, and the shooting has not stopped in many places. A war has flared up, and the specter of another war has loomed. The Palestinians, who are still besieged inside their cities, villages and refugee camps, have paid the price of all these contradictions.

How has this year passed with its days? And what has happened in America which is no longer only one of the superpowers in the world, but rather has become the only superpower? And what has happened in the rest of the world which has been worn out by the great quantity of polarizations and threats? And what has happened in our Arab region, which development reports have shown recently that it is lying at the bottom of the developing countries, with no others below it except the sub-Saharan African countries?

Can we observe the features of this year which in some periods of it was like a continuous nightmare? That is, if we exclude from it those bright moments in which the achievements of science and progress illuminated some of the path to the future, and those moments in which the world regained its breath in front of television screens to follow the World Cup football matches, in which the struggle took place between 32 countries, fortunately without lethal firearms.

The Search for an Enemy

The United States never imagined - and I believe still does not - that it would be stung in its own home, as happened on 11 September. It has fought three major wars - two of them hot and one cold - without fighting on its own territories or its borders being scratched. But large parts of the world were transformed into battlefields on which American soldiers fought their just or unjust wars. Consequently, this blow which struck the greatest of its cities reached its depths and left it in a state of violent agitation, to a degree that impelled it to declare war on an unknown enemy whose precise location it does not know.

The collapse of the Soviet Union left America in a delicate situation. At least it denied it the existence of a clear and open enemy with whom it is trying to inflame a conflict, and to protect the free world from whom it is directing all its capabilities. The traditional empire of evil disappointed the Americans and left the world empty for them. Since the beginning of the 1990s, America began to adopt a policy of looking for enemies. In the framework of this quest, it discovered that there are four enemies against which it could direct its war. These are: terrorist groups, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the narcotics trade and organized crime. The most mysterious of these enemies and the most difficult to reach is the terrorist groups. They are diverse groups, their weapons are unknown, and their blows unexpected. Consequently the blow against the World Trade Center was the indication for the declaration of this war. President Bush became able to declare his war finally after replacing the empire of evil with the axis of evil.

Internally, Arab and Muslim minorities in America have lived through a horrifying year filled with threats, harassment and accusations. It seems that the fear which has covered everybody will extend to the civil liberties that American citizens enjoy. As Dr. Edward Said says, the Patriot Act , which was passed through the US Congress in the wake of the September blows, abolishes or restricts whole sectors of the US Constitution. On the basis of it, enforcement measures have been adopted against individuals which do not give them any right to obtain a proper defense or a fair trial. it allows the conduct of secret search and eavesdropping operations and detention for an unlimited period. It also allows the executive authorities to kidnap any prisoners, detain  them and decide their destiny in a unilateral manner.

This matter has aroused the alarm of civil rights defenders in America, who regard it as a dangerous retrogression. The fear of any future terrorist operation has begun to take its toll from laws on personal liberty, which were the motive force behind the progress of American society. American writer Bruce Ackerman commented on this that, if the next half century witnessed four or five attacks on the scale of what happened on 11 September, it would prove that this round of destruction would eliminate all civil liberties by the year 2050.

Externally, the anger of the United States reached its climax when it directed all its war machine towards the rugged mountains of Afghanistan to level them to the ground, in the belief that every mountain contained a cave, in every cave was a terrorist lying in wait, and every terrorist would not give up until he blew up another one of its towers. Motivated by factors of support and sympathy, Europe stood behind America and hastened to muster its forces and armaments to confront the remnants of irregular combatants from Taliban and Al-Qaida, after America had affirmed that they were the cause of what had happened to it. Perhaps in this America wanted not only revenge, but also to emphasize to itself and the world that it was its only uncontested leader, that such an attack and threat was unacceptable, and that it is the only superpower in the world.

This was not the first time that America assumed the leadership of the world. The first time was immediately in the wake of the Second World War, when Britain, the owner of a departing empire, asked it to take over the affairs of the Mediterranean region after discovering that it was not strong enough to protect it. There were fears of Turkey and Greece falling into the clutches of the Communist bloc. America found it was inevitable that it should have a fleet sailing permanently in Mediterranean waters. In 1948 the first vessels of the Sixth Fleet began arousing terror in everybody. It was not strange that the state of Israel was established the same period. But taking over the leadership of the world at that time was not complete. There was the eastern bloc which was hostile and difficult to penetrate.

The World in American Eyes

America assumed the leadership of the world - or what was left of it - for the second time after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the former Socialist countries from its orbit. This was not the end of history as Fukuyama expected. The world became divided, as America sees it, into three parts. The first part goes with it, on the same path, and believes in the same political and economic principles. It includes Europe, Canada, Japan, Israel and some countries in Asia. The second part is trying to join the American path, after holding back from it for a long time. Most of it is former eastern bloc states. The third part is those countries which America regards as  outside the flock, and which it is confused about how to change. Maybe this is the reason which made America take over the leadership of the world for the third time under the pretext of fighting terrorism. It has raised a simple and direct slogan for this war: Whoever is not with us is against us .

Kill the Dog

Europe, which quickly supported America after the force of the shock caused by the 11 September attack, has begun to review the situation and update its calculations of profits and losses from this subservience. Even in Britain, the greatest follower, the first indications of that have appeared. Some politicians and writers have begun to be anxious about following in America s footsteps without the latter bothering to associate its allies in its project. Indeed, the famous British singer George Michael has written a song entitled Kill the Dog . The video clip accompanying the song shows President Bush stroking the back of a dog which looks like British Prime Minister Blair. The meaning does not require any explanation. The singer is well known for his rebellious songs, and Blair is well known for his complete support for President Bush.

On the other hand, the accusation that Taliban and Al-Qaida were behind the attack on the New York twin towers is no longer a question that has been definitively proven, at least from the point of view of some Europeans. There is a French book that has acquired widespread fame, entitled The Terrifying Deception by Terry Missan, which affirms that these explosions were carried out by none other than the US Central Intelligence Agency, in order to give a justification for the new imperialist impulse which has begun to invade American thinking after the US became alone in the field. In the Arab world, the opinion prevails that Israeli intelligence (Mossad) may be behind the event, in order to stir up America s resentment against everything that is Arab and  Islamic.

It is the men of Al-Qaida alone who appear on the television screens with their scruffy beards, their ragged clothes, their debased political culture and their historical language out of a museum. They issue obscure statements in which they cast suspicion on themselves and repeat some hollow threats. Then they go back to hide in their holes.

America s intervention in Afghanistan also was not on the spur of the moment or purely for the sake of revenge or combating terrorism, in the view of some, including many European allies. They consider that the basic reason was America s continuous war in order to control the sources of energy. It waged its first war for many years on an arc extending southward from the Mediterranean Sea and upwards to the Balkan region to isolate former Yugoslavia and Russia from Europe. Now it is launching its second battle to close the second arc which extends southward from Afghanistan and upwards to the farthest borders of the Caspian Sea. Between the two arcs is concentrated the greatest sources of petroleum energy which humanity has known up to now.

Europe objects, and is calling for an independent opinion, but it is impotent to do anything. The American writer of Indian origin Fareed Zakaria was right when he criticized Europe scornfully, for trying to impose its opinion, while it does not possess the military strength to back up this opinion. He believes that Europe s old complex about war will make it lose its prestige, and that as long as it is content for America to impose its protection on it, it would be better for it to follow in its footsteps.

World economic conditions were also not at their best. With the intense fear of traveling, airline companies have begun to collapse, followed by many stock exchanges. Economic growth slowed down, and consequently oil prices collapsed. This may seem understandable because of its direct link with the events of 11 September, but what is not understood is the collapse of giant US companies which began before a year had passed since the September events, and still has not stopped. The collapse began with the energy company Enron, and was followed by Xerox. There are still other companies on the way, many of them new globalized companies which used to believe that they would save the new economic order.

The Arabs in the Worst Possible Situation

The worst thing in this year, and the worst thing in the situation in general, is the conditions of our Arab and Islamic world. We and America have entered on a phase of lack of trust and loss of understanding. The truest example of this is the attitude to the Palestinian question. This year began with Palestinian organizations being organizations striving for national liberation and suffering from the oppression of the Israeli occupation. Things ended up with organizations being included in all the American terrorist lists. This is primarily due to the skill of Israel which chose the right moment to present itself as a partner in combating terrorism, and to our inability to clear ourselves of the charge of sponsoring the terrorism industry. The blame for this goes to the Arab satellite television stations which competed with each other in broadcasting tapes of Al-Qaida men in Afghanistan as scoops , oblivious of how much they affected our image and our national causes. Things went to the point in one of these tapes of terrorism wearing the clothes of Palestinian resistance men who carry out martyrdom operations and repeating the same words. Confusion was thereby caused. Those operations which shook the world have been turned into mere suicide operations, carried out by people sick with the madness of hatred of life and others! Indeed, some Arab presidents and officials have come to apply that name to them. Operations of resistance to occupation have been transformed into terrorism against civilians. Some of our distinguished theologians have come out with interpretations that these are impermissible under Islamic law, as if seizure of land, killing of children and laying siege to unarmed Palestinians were something permitted by Islamic law.

The real problem is not in the tapes broadcast by Arab satellite channels which in their action only consider their own material interests and their political gains! But it lies in the impotence and of the Arab system and its inability to protect itself and fortify its societies from disintegration and collapse throughout these months. Before and after the 11 September blows, this system was suffering from Arab public opinion losing confidence in it and being aware that it was incapable of doing anything to save it from the daily humiliation inflicted on it by Israel. But until 11 September some regimes used  to believe that there was an opportunity to try to get their American friend to impose any solution possible on Israel. Then the Arab weakness became clear when Israel overran the whole of the Palestinian territories. The tragedy is that this occurred with the understanding and complete agreement of America, in spite of all the Arab attempts and peace polans. On the contrary, the visits made by all the Arab delegations to Washington all had a reverse effect: America became more intransigent and Israel became more violent. It seems that America is not in the least concerned with the support of the Arab regimes which are trying to improve their image, perhaps because it believes that with their weakness and negligence they contributed to the spread of terrorist organizations, or that they are regimes which cannot stand by relying on their own strengths.

The Critical Edge of Development

The American events of September 2001 have left 280 million Arabs in confusion about their situation. They feel impotent, marginalized and kept away from the sphere of political decision-making. They are dreaming of a change which never comes and waiting for the renaissance of an Arab age which they do not know when it will come. The recently-issued report on human development which was prepared by some Arab thinkers under the supervision of the United Nations Development Program and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development has revealed alarming facts about the level of backwardness of development in which the Arab world has come to live. The GNP of the Arab states has declined so that their total GNP has become less than that of one European country, Spain which, by the way, is not one of the wealthy European states. One in five Arabs lives on less than $2 per day. Two thirds of 65 million women are still illiterate. Even in terms of learning and culture, the Arab world translates about 330 books a year, which is one fifth of what Greece translates, bearing in mind the difference in the numbers of inhabitants! In the last thousand years the Arabs have translated less than what Spain translates in only one year. Only 0.5% know what the Internet is and how to access it. Spending on scientific research is no more than 0.4% of GNP, compared with 2.32% in Israel.

The report with its figures is alarming and frustrating. After political humiliation, are we declining also into economic humiliation, and cultural and scientific humiliation? The report accuses Israel of being primarily responsible for the slowness of Arab devlopment. It is a truthful accusation to some extent. But it ignores the fact that Arab society with its stagnation, its lack of liberty, its rejection of democracy and turning its back on the wind of change, is mainly responsible.

Did I not tell you it was an intercalary year? The month of September was prolonged in it to include all its days. When will this month end?