If we were to briefly take stock of the year since that sad Tuesday of 11 September 2001, we would conclude: they won. Yes, the Taliban won, because they occupied the minds of the United States, with a generalized fear, provoking a collective paranoia towards new assaults. More than demolishing the Twin Towers, symbols of globalized economic power, they destroyed two other towers, symbols of the United States' utopia: democracy and legality. With the fall of the towers, the terrorists materially humiliated the U.S. in its invulnerability. With the destruction of the other two towers, they morally humiliated the political culture of the U.S., both internally and for every one of us who stubbornly believes in democracy and human rights. The frequently mentioned democracy and legality of the U.S. were shown to be fragile. They don't endure crisis well. And it was in regard to a "higher morality" and in the name of liberties and human rights, against the "barbarism" of the terrorists, that a disproportionate technological war was generated against a people already ruined by years of uninterrupted conflicts. Due to the censorship of information, today we know little about this war. Even so, the report of Professor Marc Harold of the University of New Hampshire did manage to get published: up to the day of December 10th, 2001, hardly a month after the beginning of the war, already 3,667 Afghan civilians had been killed, a quantity greater than those victims of the two towers. The deaths of these innocent people are not mourned, as if they weren't of the same human family, as if their lives did not have an equally sacred value. The most serious concern, however, was that in the name of combating terrorists the government principles of rights and democracy, foundations of the legitimate pride of the U.S., were sacrificed. This is the recent complaint of Jimmy Carter. What was once evident is no more. A suspect can be detained for an indeterminate amount of time without anyone having been notified, which is equivalent to a kidnaping. A terrorist can be judged secretly, by military tribunals, in any part of the world, in a cave in Afghanistan or on a ship in the Pacific, without having the right to an attorney. The accused can be sentenced to die if two or three officials- judges find him or her guilty, without any appeal. The principles of equality under the law or of presumed innocence of the accused do not apply. The President Bush who approved all this has become a Talibush, while the Attorney General, the reactionary John Ashcroft, introduced a variant of the Islamic Scharia (religious law) transforming himself into a Mullah. With the little knowledge that he has, Bush imposed the world politics of relentless revenge, legitimizing a preventive attack and the admission of the use of "all weapons." Here he is innovative. Until now, the required restriction when discussing biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons was that they were only for deterrence. We do not know who is more demented: those who crashed planes into the Twin Towers or those who proposed using "all arms." Such an act would imply a monstrous civilian genocide, a terrorism worse than that of the terrorists, besides contradicting the values in the name of those that promote the war against terrorism. Neither those of the Taliban nor those of the Talibush have to determine the destiny of humanity. If we lacked other means, we would always have those of Gandhi, inspired by the itinerant preacher Jesus of Nazareth: prayer, fasting, and penitence. * Leonardo Boff, Theologian.