Editorial - The Island
The United States of America has destroyed a dreadful monster it mistakenly created nearly three decades ago to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama has declared that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on Sunday. America erupted in jubilation. Americans' relief is such that their celebrations are likely to last for days, if not weeks. The US military and intelligence agencies are to be complimented for accomplishing their ambitious mission, albeit belatedly. President Obama deserves the credit for having led America’s war on terror with the single-minded resolve to win, impervious to blandishments and without trying to live up to Nobel Peace Prize expectations. However, the fact remains that America's war is far from over.
morePresident Obama is a smarter politician than he looks. He made the announcement of Osama's death himself without letting a military commander do it. He must be aware that some of the US generals––to quote President Truman––suffer from 'Potomac Fever' [desire to be appointed or elected to high posts in Washington] or 'brass infection'. He can now rest assured that he will get a second term easily. (Has he learnt from our man?) Osama's death is Obama's gain!
The US has demonstrated that in dealing with terrorists who threaten its interests it believes in nothing but the use of sheer force. Its hunt for bin Laden has left Afghanistan ‘bombed into the Stone Age’. Thousands of civilians perished in the US-led attacks in that country while bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan. He was cornered in a city about an hour's drive from Islamabad! The US was groping in the dark in Afghanistan at the expense of civilians.
It will be interesting to see how the human rights activists, both here and abroad, will react to the killing of the Al Qaeda leader. President Obama says bin Laden was shot dead in a firefight. And in the same breath, he says no Americans were harmed! How come one of the most ruthless terrorist leaders in the world died in a gun battle that left his attackers unharmed? Did bin Laden offer to surrender? Why wasn't he given a chance to give himself up? Did he commit suicide? Did he come out waving a white flag only to be shot at close range? Was he captured and tortured before being killed? How many others were killed in the attack? Why weren't the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Sweden given an opportunity to visit the area where bin Laden was trapped prior to the raid? Why didn't Secretary of State Hillary Clinton intervene to suspend the attack calling for a negotiated settlement? Are the celebrations in the US tainted with triumphalism and hurtful to the Muslims because the cause of the unprecedented jubilation is the killing of a Muslim? Will the self-appointed human rights watchdogs demand that the draconian anti-terror laws the US adopted in the wake of the 9/11 attacks be scrapped forthwith? Will they now call for the dismantling of high security zones in Afghanistan and an immediate troop pull-out from that country as Al Qaeda leader and most of his trusted lieutenants are pushing up the daisies?
President Obama has rightly cautioned Americans against being lulled into a false sense of complacency. "We must and we will remain vigilant at home and abroad," he has said. Bin Laden's death does not mean the end of Al Qaeda, which has tentacles spread across the globe. Retaliatory strikes are likely to come from the least expected quarters. That is the way with terrorism, which is like a cancer; a nation that removes the scourge of terrorism has to look out for 'secondary' terror. The US should realise that other nations, too, have a right to 'remain vigilant at home and abroad' after killing dangerous terrorist leaders.
Now that bin Laden and other senior Al Qaeda leaders are no more, will the US permit the formation of a ‘transnational government’ by Al Qaeda/Taliban on its soil? Will the British government allow Al Qaeda sympathisers to occupy Parliament Square demanding that President Obama be arraigned on charges of war crimes?
The price the US has had to pay for creating and mollycoddling terrorists to further its interests is huge. It is hoped that at least now America will abandon its duplicitous policy on terrorism and stop persecuting smaller nations battling their terrorists.
