PRESIDENT BARACK Obama has sought to rally Americans behind the war in Afghanistan on the eighth anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the United States as polls show faltering public support for the conflict.
“Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this barbaric act and plot against us still,” Mr Obama said yesterday at a sombre ceremony attended by about 500 people under rain-filled skies at the Pentagon. “In pursuit of al-Qaeda and its extremist allies we will never falter,” he said, before laying a wreath at a memorial for the 184 people killed at the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001.
Mr Obama has distanced himself from many of the anti-terror policies of former president George Bush, but his remarks recalled Mr Bush’s speech to Congress in the immediate aftermath of the attacks: “We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail.” Yesterday was also the first time the anniversary was observed as a national day of service, following an order signed this year by Mr Obama.
But as Americans mark this year’s anniversary, there is growing disquiet over the eight-year-old war in Afghanistan, which the United States invaded in response to the September 11th attacks to root out al-Qaeda and topple their Taliban backers.
Opinion polls show waning public support for the war that former president George W Bush launched as part of his global “war on terror” that came to define his presidency.
The White House is in an internal debate over whether to send additional troops to try to quell the escalating violence, as the top US military commander in Afghanistan is expected to ask for thousands more. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday, however, that no decision on troop levels was expected for “many, many weeks”.
Mr Obama, who ordered the dispatch of 21,000 more US troops earlier this year as part of a new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy targeting al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies, has been trying to stiffen American support for a war that has been going badly for the United States and its Nato allies.
In a speech to military veterans last month, Obama called it a “war of necessity” and said those behind the 9/11 attacks were plotting to kill more Americans.
The chief plotter of the attacks, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has never been found, and US officials believe he is hiding in Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
With a record 44 US soldiers dying in Afghanistan in July and last month’s Afghan presidential election dogged by allegations of widespread fraud, Mr Obama faces an uphill battle in persuading fellow Democrats in Congress of the need to commit more resources to the war.
The Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, said yesterday the United States should focus on boosting Afghan troop levels before considering sending more troops.
Levin said he thought US Afghanistan commander General Stanley McChrystal would propose raising the goal for an expanded Afghan army to 240,000 by the year 2013, from the current goal of 140,000.
Polls, meanwhile, show Americans have become less concerned about terrorism, and in a Gallup Poll conducted in June, only 1 per cent of respondents mentioned it as the most important problem facing the US.
There is also soul-searching about the harsh interrogation techniques that the Bush administration sanctioned in the questioning of terrorism suspects after 9/11.
A recent Gallup poll showed Americans evenly split on an inquiry ordered by US attorney general Eric Holder into CIA interrogation abuses. – (Reuters; Additional reporting: AP)