By Syed Hassan Kazim,
Sometimes a battle won is a war lost. Ten years ago, on 11th September 2001, in New York, United States, happened a world changing event when some people having some radical feelings and outlook hijacked a few planes and smashed it into Manhattan’s World Trade Centre (WTC) twin towers. Both the twin towers came down like a pack of cards and thus killing nearly 3000 innocent people which can never be justified. It was a bizarre and a brutal act of terror and the biggest attack on America after the Second World War.
Attacking countries didn’t make world free from terrorism
And then the sole “super power” unleashed a war of “errors” against “terror” and maybe it can be regarded as war of commissions and interests against the ones who were America’s erstwhile agents and friends. Al Qaeda under the leadership of its leader Osama Bin Laden was the main suspect and the American President George Walker Bush vowed to track down the Al Qaeda chief, in fact “smoke him out” and demolish the structure of his whole terror network. For that America attacked Afghanistan along with its allies to force the Talibani leadership there to hand over Osama Bin Laden (who was supposed to be hiding in the mountainous terrains of the country). Taliban denied handing over the Al Qaeda chief. And as a result Afghanistan, a country which has never been allowed to develop was attacked once more. After a decade long war on terror and subsequent attack on Iraq the world is still not free from the terrorism and the ideology and the mentality and the causes which breed terrorists. Maybe America is safe for the time being, but as a result of America’s adventures or misadventures scores and scores of people are still being killed on a daily basis in the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, daily suicide bombings and killings in Pakistan. The way the war on terror has been carried out has made the condition more messy. Maybe Al Qaeda has been obliterated but various other groups having similar ideology have propped up having more and more anger towards America, and its policies in their hearts and minds.
The torture of innocents in the name of war on terror has left a deep hatred and anger in the hearts and minds of the people of the countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. The trauma of Abu Gharaib prison in Iraq and the prisons of Afghanistan are still haunting them. This has made the relation of the Muslim world and the West worse. The Arab springs has fuelled the fire of anger towards the West and the Arabian autocrats who have been the main support base for the West in the whole Middle East.
US needs to engage with Arab people, not Monarchs
After so many misadventures since 9/11, it’s high time for the US and its allies to think that only attacking countries and killing innocents is not going to solve the problem of terrorism. They need to engage in dialogues with the Muslim world and do away with their bullying tactics. Engagement is a must otherwise the condition will get from bad to worse. The hollow promises of President Obama before being elected have brought his popularity in his own country to a drastic low. He needs to understand that, the continuous American military presence may be a good thing for the rulers of the Mid East, but now it has become a matter of humiliation for the people there. They cannot tolerate the Western occupation of their land for long. Their aspirations need to be respected rather than bullying and fooling them on the false pretext of spreading democracy.
And now it’s 10 years since that unfortunate and condemnable event in the New York, America needs to understand that it’s high time that it engages positively with the Arabian people rather than the monarchs, dictators and autocrats out there to bring down the hate and lack of faith towards America and its people. Only the lust of oil is not going to solve this problem of terrorism, honesty is a must.
State terror should also be curbed
It’s high time for America to make sure that it’s not only the terrorism of the non state actors which needs to be taken head on but also the terrorism of the states against the ones who are weak and asking for their legitimate rights. State must have no right to kill at its mercy on the pretext of fighting the so called war on terror. The high handedness of Israel against the hapless Palestinians must be curtailed for the betterment of the Arab world and also to stop the international terrorism to some level. Palestinians must be given their right to live in their own land rather than being hammered by the world powers and used for their own vested interests.
Terrorism must be fought at all levels without any bias and not selectively. It must be condemned no matter if it comes from a non state brutal actor like Al Qaeda and various of its offshoots and lashkars or it is the terrorism of the state.
(The writer is doing masters in Peace and Conflict from Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi).