Five years on, the 9/11 attacks on the United States retain their enormously destructive power and potent symbolism of vulnerability. President Bush insists that since then the US has been made safer at home by a huge effort to bolster security, executive power and intelligence.
But in many countries throughout the world attitudes towards the US have hardened into suspicion and fear, compared to the surge of solidarity which immediately followed the attacks. The war in Iraq, Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib have come to represent a unilateral assertion of American power which is increasingly resented and opposed.
This is a very mixed picture, and far from a positive one. The "war on terror" proclaimed by the Bush administration since the 9/11 attacks has divided US allies. Many believe that the efforts involved are more dangerous than the problems they are directed against. A striking example of this sensibility is the finding in the Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll that people over 50 in this State say the way the US and its allies are conducting the war against terrorism is of most concern to them - ahead of issues such as crime and personal security, day-to-day living expenses, the threat of such terrorism and the state of the health services.
Such a state of affairs should worry the US government much more than it actually appears to do. The international goodwill built up over many years, and reinforced in the months following the 9/11 attacks, has been systematically eroded. The Middle East region, far from having been democratised following the invasion of Iraq, now looks more dangerous than ever after the recent war in Lebanon and the looming conflict between the US and Iran. The one hopeful sign has been the willingness of European states to become involved militarily and politically as a counter-balance to unilateral US power. Pursuing a political strategy of effective multilateralism in which the Israeli-Palestinian issue can be resolved holds out more promise of rolling back terrorism than does a confrontation with Iran.
At home, greater security for US citizens has also come at a steep price. Congress passed a highly permissive law authorising the use of military force by the president shortly after 9/11, which has been used to develop executive power. Only recently has it been questioned legally, politically and in the media, coinciding with a growing disenchantment among US voters about the direction of the war in Iraq and wider foreign policy. These issues are at the centre of this year's congressional elections, the results of which will tell a tale about them.