Nearly four years after the September 11 terror attacks, the US-led anti-terror war is still at crossroads, with many fearing the world is becoming more dangerous.

That fear is shared by Michele Flournoy, senior adviser for the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Flournoy acknowledged her country has put great pressure on the al-Qaida and "there have also been improvements in the US homeland defense, particularly in the air travel domain."

But she also deplored at the fact that after a four-year war on terrorism, Al-Qaida and other terrorism organizations have strengthened their recruiting efforts and killed many people around the world.

"The extremist ideology of the terrorists is still alive and well," she said, adding that the US has failed to effectively address the root cause of the terrorism -- the underlying economic, social and political conditions responsible for creating extremism and terrorism.

In her opinion, the world has become more dangerous rather than safer since the September 11 attacks which killed over 3,000 people and destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

"I believe the world is more dangerous now because al-Qaida has changed into a more loosely-affiliated organization and is more difficult to deal with and its ideology continues to spread," said Flournoy.

Americans are also more and more negative about the Iraq war, which was declared a central front of the fight against terrorism by the Bush administration.

Nearly 1900 US soldiers have been killed and more than 14000 wounded in Iraq since the beginning of the war in March 2003.

The New York Times said in an editorial published on June 25 the Iraq war has nothing to do with the September 11 attacks and that the war has not made the world or the US safer from terrorism.

Another leading newspaper, the Washington Post, said in its analysis on August 17 that US President George W. Bush's campaign against what he once termed the "axis of evil" has suffered reverses, with Iraq's drafting of Constitution failing to meet the deadline.

Whether it can be put into referendum on time later this year is still unknown, said the newspaper.

Commenting on the so-called Bush Doctrine, with unilateralism and preemptive military strategy as its nucleus, Flournoy said, "Iraq has been a sobering experience and has reduced enthusiasm for the (preemptive) policy."

In order to achieve success on the war against terror, she said, the US should use foreign aid to encourage social, economic and political reforms in the Islamic world. Jobs and opportunities should be created so that people will have alternatives other than becoming an extremist.

The US should also enlist more help from the UN, the NATO and other countries to ensure success in Iraq and the war on terrorism, according to Flournoy.

(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2005)