Through four decades of the Cold War, Americans had been able to feel reasonably united in their determination to fight evil. And everyone, even children, knew the name of the evildoers: "the commies."

Within two years after the Wall fell, the Soviet Union had simply disappeared. In the U.S., nobody really knew how to fight evil now, or even who the evildoers were. The world's sole remaining superpower was "running out of demons," as Colin Powell complained.

Amid the great anguish of September 11, 2001, it was hard to sense the paradoxical but very real feeling of relief that flooded across the country.

After a decade adrift with no foes to oppose, Americans could sink back into a comfortingly black-and-white world, neatly divided into the good guys and the bad guys, the innocent and the guilty.

Today the very word "terrorist" conjures up anxiety-ridden images worthy of the Cold War era -- images of an unpredictable world always threatening to spin out of control. As then, so now, sinister evil is said to lurk everywhere -- even right next door -- always ready to spring upon unsuspecting victims.   more »

Let us not forget that Bush now heads towards the 2006 midterm elections a stronger man, intellectually emboldened by his summertime absorption of Camus and Shakespeare.

In its blithe philistinism, the White House not only told us that one of the Shakespeares was Hamlet - where the boy prince is haunted by the ghost of his father - but that the Camus novel was 'Étranger, which just happens to be about how an alienated European colonialist hunts down and kills an Arab and then awaits execution for his crime.

If the Bush White House tried to be a parody of itself, it could do no better than this; you laugh or you cry.

The newly "eclectic" Bush - his own word, though he said it with some difficulty in that NBC interview - doubtless now knows that Camus insisted he was no existentialist but, in reality, an absurdist.

He would thus have understood the phenomenon of America's 43rd president only too well, alas. But when the American electorate go to the polls on 7 November will they, too, finally have gained that same understanding?   more »

A number of Web sites affiliated with Al Qaeda did commemorate the day — no doubt because they knew Americans would.

Osama bin Laden and his associates have generally referred to the Sept. 11 attacks as “the attacks on Manhattan,” “the invasion of Manhattan” or the “attacks of Jumada,” the lunar month in which they occurred. But this year, a number of jihadi sites have referred instead to Sept. 11.

Some messages yesterday were clearly meant for Western consumption, reminding the United States that Al Qaeda is still active and bent on future attacks, and even posting images overlaid with threats in English.

What follow are excerpts, translated from the Arabic, from texts posted on jihadi Web sites about the anniversary.   more »

U.S. military leaders in Iraq have offered a $20 million public-relations contract to improve the image of the Iraq war.

It will be the job of some lucky PR firm to monitor U.S. and Middle Eastern news organizations and produce marketing products from those sources that demonstrate the good being done in Iraq.

It is reassuring to know that our military leaders are so concerned about newspaper readers and television viewers. Why else would they spend millions of dollars to protect Americans from news reports that might be upsetting?

War is simple with the blinders on. After all, Americans do not really need to know what our government is doing in the Middle East.   more »

Five years after the World Trade Centre fell, a highly lucrative industry has been born in America - homeland security. There has been a goldrush as companies scoop up government contracts and peddle products that they say are designed to make America safe.

The figures are stunning. Seven years ago there were nine companies with federal homeland security contracts. By 2003 it was 3,512. Now there are 33,890.

The money is huge. Since 2000, $130bn (£70bn) of contracts have been dished out. By 2015 annual federal spending on the industry could be $170bn.   more »

11 SEPTEMBER

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Paul Krugman: Promises Not Kept - Bin Laden Alive and at Large

All the President's Wars- Afghanistan, Iraq and 'Terror' - Are Lost