9/11 - The Jerusalem Post's Perspective

At a joint press conference in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Saturday night, Prime Minister Tony Blair said:

"I think we face a global threat based on this global terrorism. I think it threatens not just the stability of this region but of the wider world. I think there is a link between 9/11, what happened on 7 July last year in London, what happened in Madrid, what happens in the terrorism right round this region, what is happening today in Iraq and Afghanistan where we are trying to help democratic governments, elected by their people, be free and liberated from terrorism."

What is remarkable is not what Blair said, but that he had to say it, five years after the the most devastating terrorist attack in history. Further, he is grievously isolated among his own public and party for defending such a view, while he and President George Bush are among the only world leaders even attempting to convince free nations that they must take concerted action to defend themselves.

The fact that so acrimonious a debate still rages in the West over whether we are at war, who it is being fought against, and how to fight it is itself perhaps the most telling marker of where we stand on the anniversary of this terrible event.

In our editorial of September 13, 2001, this newspaper wrote:

"The free world must recognize that it is in a war of self-defense whose goal is victory. The concept of a war against terrorism is meaningless without the goal of removing terrorist regimes. The exact combination of diplomatic, economic, and military tools to be deployed toward this goal is a legitimate matter of debate. But a war against terrorism that avoids the issue of regime change in countries such as Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan cannot be won, because it has not even really been joined."