As German commentators reflect on the events and aftermath of 9/11 five years later, there is a strangely forceful consensus: the US was right to force the Taliban from power and it was right to strengthen security, even at the cost of some personal liberties.

But there is also broad agreement that Washington's anti-terror policy is deeply flawed in Iraq and in its willingness to sacrifice fundamental rights of its own citizens as well as largely ignore international law. Germans and most Europeans are angry about Guantanamo, about secret CIA prisons, and the president's continued use of incendiary rhetoric such as referring to the terrorists as "Islamic fascists." Before Bush launched the war against Iraq, Germany raised its voice in opposition and said the US would ignite a wildfire with no plan for putting out the flames. The tone of Monday's editorials in German newspapers feel sadly vindicated by the events of the past five years.

The war on terror cannot be fought with military means alone, say German commentators. It must be fought on a broader basis and must primarily be a contest to spark the imagination in the Islamic world by demonstrating the benefits of freedom in modern western society.

Running the Taliban out of town was necessary, says the liberal Süddeutsche Zeitung. But the Bush administration is failing in the central battle. "It has lost the hearts and minds of the people," it says. "Although a victim of terrorism, (the US) is perceived as a perpetrator because it bends and ignores the law; it launched a war and lied because it gave up the things for which it is worth fighting."

The clash of civilizations is also a theme for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which describes how America's largely military response to combating terrorism after 9/11 encouraged the decentralization of global terrorist structures. The bombing in Madrid in 2004 and in London in 2005 demonstrated that "terrorists inspired by Islam are not only arriving from the Middle East but rather live in our countries or even grew up here," says the conservative Frankfurt daily. Terror has taken on a new form, one dominated by independent cells and made up of home-grown terrorists." The fight against terrorism will continue to require a wide array of military, intelligence and police resources, says the Frankfurter Allgemeine, but the US strategy dominated by military action to bring democracy to the Middle East is creating new problems.

"Where were you on September 11, 2001," asks the business daily Handelsblatt, a question, it says, people around the world will ask themselves on Monday. Unlike past tragedies, 9/11 is a global event and its consequences "touch everyone's private life." Just like US citizens, Europeans are making sacrifices in the war on terror. They have given up some civil liberties for the sake of security. The Handelsblatt says that "many of these measures make sense and save lives." But, hitting on the theme that nearly every German paper is sounding on today, it says the US continues to make serious mistakes in the war on terror and the consequences of this failed policy are felt by America's friends around the world. "Today's anniversary is therefore an occasion to honor the many people who became victims of terror five years ago. But it's also a reason to reflect on the path we've taken. Not to assign guilt and cash in old debts but rather to consider how creative we really are in confronting the Islamic threat. So that we don't one day have to really get used to terrorism in our daily lives."