The United States of Anxiety: survey reveals a jittery nation overcome with self-doubt

It is two years this week since the terror attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

A repeat of those awful incidents has so far not materialised and George Bush is crowing that the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq have been removed from power. Have Americans regained their old optimism, therefore? Hardly.

That is the overall conclusion of a new survey released by Euro RSCG Worldwide, an international advertising group. The survey and a second poll published by The New York Times depict a country that remains unsure of its own future, jittery about the terrorists striking again and worried at the same time about its economy.

"It is not just that the anxiety remains, perhaps it is even greater now," said Marian Salzman yesterday, who is global chief strategist for RSCG and one of the world's most respected futurologists. "In some ways, Americans are waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Her findings are based on a pair of surveys, one conducted six months after the 11 September 2001 attacks and the second completed last month. The reports provide a picture of a nation that has hardly moved on since the aftermath of the original attacks. The shock, in other words, has barely receded.

Very little, it seems, is what it used to be before 9/11. Attitudes towards foreign countries have changed fundamentally. The latest report shows a hardening of negative feelings towards France and, to a slightly less extent, Saudi Arabia.

Yet, Americans seem to be engaged in a full-blown love affair with the British. Never mind that anti-Americanism is seen to run far higher in the UK than in France.

And while feelings of patriotism towards their own country seem to be stronger than ever in the United States, there is a waning sense of pride in the nation and its standing. The latest survey shows a decrease in positive attitudes amongst Americans about their country compared to just after 9/11. On the other hand, distrust towards all Muslim nations seems to have moderated since the days just after 9/11.

Ms Salzman suggests, somewhat cynically, that it has simply taken longer for the events of that terrible day to sink into the American psyche than might have been expected. In a related observation, she argues that most Americans are simply "terribly naïve", thus ensuring that the pace of understanding of what occurred has been surprisingly slow.

"We are cowboys, like our president, and our first reaction was go get the evil ones. Now, two years later, we are starting to ask, what caused it, how did it happen, how come we didn't know in advance. It has taken us two years to get serious about what all this means. That is fundamental shift."

Her conclusion that Americans are still waiting for the next terrorist outrage was borne out in a survey by The New York Times released yesterday showing that two thirds of New Yorkers, at least, are more concerned about another attack than they were on the first anniversary of 9/11.

That report suggested that while residents of New York may be talking and thinking less about that dark day than they were this time last year, they remain wary of what might happen. Nearly one third of those questioned said their lives had not returned to normal. Meanwhile, 60 per cent said the 9/11 attacks would have an enduring impact on the life of the city.

Flora Muca, a Brooklyn resident, said she basically functions fine, but the fear won't lift. "Honestly, I think it's going to happen again," she told The New York Times. "My idea is they wait until it slows down and everyone falls asleep." Her daughter, 14, has just started taking the subway alone to school, and that alarms her mother who bought her a mobile telephone. "Every time I pass a bridge, I still panic," she said. "A tunnel? That's worse."

Piled on top of all the security worries are the economic anxieties. "At the end of the day is it is the economic uncertainties that are most unsettling," Ms Salzman said. "Americans are asking, will my kids be employable, will I be able to live my life as well as I did five years ago?"

The report highlights enduring distrust of corporate America in the wake of the Enron, Tyco and WorldCom scandals.

"A core part of American mythology," the report says, "has always been that anything is possible ... But in the shadow of 9/11 and the corporate fraud scandals, people are realising that 'anything is possible', doesn't just mean good things. Any bad thing is possible, too."

The RSCG survey shows 55 per cent of the sample admiring Britain more than they did before 9/11. The UK scored especially well among American men. Women and young people were less in awe of Britannia. By contrast, 73 per cent said they admired France less, while 57 per cent expressed a diminished view of Saudi Arabia.

The sample covered 1,009 Americans, half men and half women, with a median age of 43.

The report is not all good news for the White House.

Asked if they agree with the statement, "I support President Bush's decision to attack Iraq as an 'axis of evil' nation", almost a quarter disagreed.

Meanwhile, there was a softening of support for the assertion, "I support the decision of President Bush to route out terrorists throughout the 'axis of evil'", compared to immediately after 9/11. And more than one third supported the notion that the US is using the events of 9/11 to do "whatever it wants around the world".

The New York Times concluded that two years after the terror attacks, there remains little confidence in the security measures meant to protect the city. Most New Yorkers feel the city is unprepared for a biological or chemical attack and remains vulnerable.

The lag in getting to grips with the implications of 9/11 also relates to Americans' ignorance about world affairs. "Your average American doesn't know that al-Qa'ida and Saddam Hussein are not the same. For us, there are just a hell of a lot of evil-doers out there," Ms Salzman said. There is evidence that Americans are watching, reading and listening to more news in the media. Much of it, however, maybe very partisan, rather than anything that could be described as objectively informative.

Asked, in the RSCG survey, to rate a range of perceived threats to American security, 84 per cent of those questioned cited WMD. This may explain why the White House was so emphatic about the risk of WMD in justifying the war on Iraq. Next down the list came the so-called "rogue nations", such as North Korea and Iran.

"The American way was always to save and plan and look into the future," Ms Salzman concludes. "Now they are having to live much more for the moment. It is hard for people, because they don't really know how to do that. It is a very manic time in the US."

'You don't know who your enemy is any more. This makes you more suspicious'

By Andrew Gumbel in Palmdale, California

The dusty desert town of Palmdale may be 3,000 miles from ground zero in New York. It may feel a world away even from Los Angeles, 60 miles to the south. But people here are still all-too aware of the impact of the 11 September attacks.

Stars-and-stripes flags still hang from lamp-posts and people's houses. This week, local churches will hold a day of prayer and a vigil for those who died in New York, Washington and rural Pennsylvania two years ago. Outside City Hall, a big public gathering on Thursday night will honour the firefighters and ambulance workers who saved lives, even at the cost of their own. On the menu: New York hot dogs.

"We definitely cannot afford to forget," says Isaac Barcelona, chief executive of the city chamber of commerce. "It does affect you in a way. You don't know who your enemy is any more ... Unfortunately, we have become more suspicious."

The anxiety is tempered, however, by Palmdale's remoteness in the Mojave desert, and also by the fact that things have gone remarkably well recently. Palmdale is a booming dormitory town, with links to greater Los Angeles.

While the rest of the country has suffered cutbacks and heavy job losses, Palmdale is building houses and shopping centres. The recent surge in military spending has also helped. Lockheed Martin, for example, is building a new Joint Strike Fighter in Palmdale.

"The economy is good here, and that makes people feel more confident," Barbara La Fata, a city employee who puts out the local Palmdale newsletter, said. "It has helped them get back to their regular routines."

Politically, Palmdale is a conservative, deeply religious community that continues to stand four-square behind President George Bush. But it is also remarkably diverse and has done a good job of quelling any anger at Arabs or Muslims.

"We are very blessed to be in this town. We Muslims barely experienced anything," said Kamal al-Khatib, of the American Islamic Institute and executive director of the first charter school in the US to offer Arabic language lessons. "There were some very small incidents, but we were able to defuse the situation very quickly."