CHICAGO, Oct 8: Dire warnings that the United States could be targeted for retaliation, alongside reassurances to carry on life as usual amid the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan have left many Americans on edge and feeling insecure.
While many welcomed the bombing campaign a world away ordered by President George W. Bush as a way to strike back at those blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, they also shared Bush’s concern expressed on Monday that “America is not immune from attack.”
“I think there will be more. I don’t think this is the end,” Dennis Howard, a US Army veteran in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said.
Joanne Pauls, a housewife in Loveland, Ohio, said that while she felt relatively safe in the outskirts of Cincinnati, “you never know for sure.” Some psychologists reported increased visits from new and old patients in recent weeks seeking solace and treatment for depression and insomnia symptomatic of stress.
“Old issues are stirred up, old fears, insecurities and anxieties,” said Dr. Ina Houck, a Chicago therapist. “The stress from the outside is stirring up things on the inside. We’re seeing people who were already finished with therapy who have come back.”
Dr. Eva Redei, a researcher on stress at Northwestern University in Chicago, said many Americans are “preoccupied ... there’s a feeling that the other shoe will drop.”
“It’s one thing to say that we should go on with our lives as the best way to show the terrorists haven’t achieved their goal, but it’s extremely difficult,” Redei said.
FEELING OF PANIC: “There is a feeling of panic,” Redei said, comparing Americans’ fears to those of Europeans at the start World War Two as Hitler’s armies swept across the continent.
Fears were exacerbated by US government leaders urging Americans to be vigilant against future attacks and Sunday’s televised threat against all Americans from Osama bin Laden.
“There’s a clear-cut contradiction. We know there will be retaliation, so obviously we can’t ignore it, we can’t go on as normal,” Redei said.—Reuters
