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 Angus Stickler
Two years on from the terrorist attacks of 9/11, cracks are beginning to appear in America's almost unanimous support for the Bush administration's 'war on terror'.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the President could rely on almost a domestic consensus for his worldwide campaign against terrorism. But two years on, the voice of dissent is growing.
Kelly Campbell is one of those who lost a loved one in the attacks and helped set up the pressure group 'September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows'.
"I've been really upset by the way the Bush Administration has used my brother-in-law's death and used the fear that has come from September 11th to manipulate the American public", she told Angus. She and other members of the group are far from convinced that the way the 2-year-old war has been waged is making the world a safer place. She's particularly concerned by the focus on Iraq.
"The case has never been made why going to war in Iraq would prevent another September 11th, would help catch the people behind September 11th, or anything like that", she said. "But if you listen to the Bush Administration, they're continually making this link."
Even some hawks are voicing growing disquiet about the messages emanating from the White House.
"If you look at Bush's speech earlier this week, he's clearly making Iraq the centre of this war on terrorism now and claimed it was the central battlefield in the war on terrorism", said Rachel Bronson, Director of Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. "Selling this as a war on terror doesn't float well anywhere else but in the United States".
This from someone who supports the military action in Iraq.
"I think he's (Bush) trying to make it simple for people to understand, but I don't think that it's a logic that people when pushed in the States are comfortable with and I know that abroad they're certainly not comfortable with it."
But President Bush seems to be winning the minds, if not the hearts of the American people. A recent survey found that 70% felt that Iraq was involved in the attack on the World Trade Centre.
As New York marks the second anniversary of September 11, it seems that some of that strong sense of unity that bonded people together in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack has gone.
But whether 'hawk' or 'dove', there is one point on which all agree. This was a senseless act of violence, a tragic loss of life, from which few have escaped untouched.
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