Commentary: 15 years after 9/11 attack, US needs to rectify anti-terror policy

Though 15 years have elapsed since the 9/11 terrorist attack on the United States in 2001, which has been the deadliest in the history of the United States, sadness and harm brought by terrorism to the superpower have never faded away.

With new alarm sounding rampancy of the common enemy of the mankind, more people of insight have begun to reflect on why counter-terrorism leads to more terrors and pointed out it is the United States that needs to rectify its anti-terror policy, or even its diplomatic policies.

First of all, war has never been a way out to root out terrorism. On the contrary, it may lead to the creation of breeding grounds for terrorism.

After the 9/11 terrorist attack, the U.S. administration, holding high the banner of counter-terrorism and under the pretext of putting an end to the capacity of countries it thought to be sponsors of terrorism to produce weapons of mass destructions, invaded Iraq in 2003 and overthrew the Saddam Hussein regime, leaving behind violence, insurgency and sectarian strife, which fomented terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (IS).

Similarly, the same scenario has took place in Libya, Syria and other regions, where U.S.-led military actions intervened in domestic affairs under the cover of democracy, which is virtually intended to realize its selfish interests.

Secondly, the U.S.-led "war on terror" actually led to more terrorism, and its European allies had to bear the brunt of its missteps.

The stalemate in the Middle East and North Africa has not only resulted in the worst refugee and humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II, but has also brought frequent and deadly terrorist attacks to the once peaceful European soil.

From Germany to France, and from Belgium to Britain, all have suffered terrorist nightmare with France becoming a major target, and with hundreds of deaths in terrorist attacks in the past two years.

Thirdly, the international community needs to jointly address the symptoms and root causes of terrorism.

With the emergence of a new trend of terrorism featuring globalization, localization, fragmentation and Internet use, countries around the world need to update and deepen their anti-terror cooperation, while the United States needs to abandon its Cold War mentality and the double-standard anti-terror policy, and pursue multilateral cooperation.

A comprehensive strategy that can be adopted is to fight terrorism at the source by eliminating its roots in conflict or poverty, enhancing social integration and promoting inter-civilization dialogue.

And fourthly, counter-terrorism meets the interests of all countries including China and the U.S. So far, China-U.S. anti-terror cooperation has yielded positive results with the establishment of high-level dialogue and cooperation mechanisms. It is expected that the bilateral anti-terror cooperation will be enhanced after the United States once again designated the East Turkistan Islamic Movement a terrorist group as a result of the recent meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

Source : XINHUA