Irish Daily Mirror Comment: Unite to end terror threat.

TWENTY months after September 11, 2001, the slaughter goes on.

In the aftermath of the atrocity in New York and Washington, the world united in a war against terrorism.

It wasn't just in sympathy with the people of America but because we knew the killers could strike anywhere.

Sadly, some of that united support vanished as the White House embarked on a mission of its own.

Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were supposed to make the world safer. To end the threat of terrorism.

The suicide bombers of Riyadh showed how wrong that was. Al-Qaeda is still around, still plotting, still killing.

Those, like the Mirror, who warned against attacking Iraq without good reason worried that the result would be to inflame the fanatics.

We cannot pretend the bombings in Saudi Arabia might not be the start of a new and concerted campaign of bloodshed. And that it may come to Europe, as the FBI has warned.

Saddam Hussein was a vile, bloody tyrant but it would be the cruellest irony if his removal led to an upsurge of killing.

There is only one war that matters and that is the war on terrorism, as the horror in Riyadh proved.

Every effort should be concentrated on identifying the terrorists, tracking them down and neutralising them.

The fear is the White House is too easily sidetracked by adventures that play well to American TV audiences.

The reality is the carnage that was created by the monsters of al-Qaeda.

Only by all nations uniting do we stand a chance of defeating them.