US must quit Afghanistan, Iraq
May 03, 2011
OSAMA bin Laden is dead. That was what I heard as I snored. It was my wife delivering the news just before midnight late Sunday night. She had stayed up to read a book, while I went to sleep.
Opiyo Oloya
OSAMA bin Laden is dead. That was what I heard as I snored. It was my wife delivering the news just before midnight late Sunday night. She had stayed up to read a book, while I went to sleep.
My first reaction was why she was telling me the news when sleep was just becoming so sweet. However, once finally awake, I asked what had happened.
Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs in a compound in the suburbs of Islamabad, she said. As the news sank in, I must admit the feeling that swept over me was not elation. Instead there was a feeling of a letdown.
Sensing my mood, my wife asked whether I was disappointed. I admitted that I was disappointed because the world would never know what really motivated the leader of al-Qaeda who grew up in a wealthy Saudi family to become such a hateful terrorist.
I would have wanted to see bin Laden stand trial for his crimes, and then hang for them, I told her. But now that I have had the time to think about it, bin Laden had a fitting end. For one, he could not be captured alive even if he had offered no resistance.
Bringing the mastermind of 9/11 attacks on America alive to justice would have been a logistical nightmare. Where would you jail him? How would he be tried, and would such a trial not open the survivors to more mockery? Secondly, Bin Laden’s violent end was also fitting for another reason. It focuses attention on how far off the mark the war on terror has become.
From the moment the heinous crime was perpetrated in America, the real criminals who needed to be brought to justice were Osama bin Laden and his henchmen. It was also okay to target the leadership of the Afghan Taliban who provided bin Laden with a base from which to wreak havoc on the world. Instead, the war on terror became a sprawling enterprise for profit-making for many. Americans not only fought a pointless war in Iraq, they also became bogged down in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan.
Indeed, over the past nine years since 9/11, the objectives of the war have become fuzzy, with Americans shooting at targets they were no longer sure about, while continually arguing that it is fighting a war against terror. Some of the Afghani and Iraqi babies who were barely out of the womb when the war started are now almost old enough to become child inducted soldiers in the never-ending war.
In as much as America kept the focus on Bin Laden, hunting him with painstaking patience like a hunter stalks the very rare unicorn, its war on terror simply lost steam. Long before Bin Laden breathed his last in the mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the America’s war in Afghanistan was spinning its wheels, going no where fast. The soldiers continue to fight as hard as they ever had, but at no time do they really know who the enemy is, or even what the target is. The enemy could not be al-Qaeda since this was always a small highly mobile bunch who took to their heels as soon as the first bombs fell in Afghanistan. Nor could the target be the Taliban who have been routed.
What Americans are fighting in Afghanistan and to some extent in Iraq is not al-Qaeda, but simply nationalists who are inspired by their suspicion and hatred for foreign occupiers coming to strut around on their soil as if they own the neighbourhood.
Afghani children now being taught to fight against the Americans tomorrow are not being trained to go and bomb New York or to hate Americans in America. They are being taught to hate every foreigner who come to Afghanistan bearing M16 and AK-47 rifles. The hatred is not aimed at America, or Canadians, or Britons, but rather at the foreign occupiers, whoever they are.
The death of Bin Laden in other words is worth it if it allows the NATO alliance led by America to re-evaluate its presence in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The soul-searching should lead the alliance to distinguish between terrorists like Bin Laden and nationalists who simply hate foreign occupation.
What this should mean is that the Americans and their allies should declare victory now and get out of Afghanistan and Iraq immediately. It is the next best thing instead of waiting for the ultimate defeat which will surely come for the simple reason that the alliance is fighting a foggy notion of terrorism, while the nationalists in Afghanistan and Iraq are clear about their fights for motherland.
When the war is over, these nationalists will not board planes to return to their homelands because they are on their own soil. In the end, my initial disappointment at not seeing Osama bin Laden brought alive to face justice will further be deepened if his demise does not cause serious debate about ending the two never-ending wars. The longer these two wars drag on, pulling the rest of the world into further abyss, the clearer it becomes that, even in death, Osama bin Laden is the ultimate winner.
Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca
OSAMA bin Laden is dead. That was what I heard as I snored. It was my wife delivering the news just before midnight late Sunday night. She had stayed up to read a book, while I went to sleep.
My first reaction was why she was telling me the news when sleep was just becoming so sweet. However, once finally awake, I asked what had happened.
Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs in a compound in the suburbs of Islamabad, she said. As the news sank in, I must admit the feeling that swept over me was not elation. Instead there was a feeling of a letdown.
Sensing my mood, my wife asked whether I was disappointed. I admitted that I was disappointed because the world would never know what really motivated the leader of al-Qaeda who grew up in a wealthy Saudi family to become such a hateful terrorist.
I would have wanted to see bin Laden stand trial for his crimes, and then hang for them, I told her. But now that I have had the time to think about it, bin Laden had a fitting end. For one, he could not be captured alive even if he had offered no resistance.
Bringing the mastermind of 9/11 attacks on America alive to justice would have been a logistical nightmare. Where would you jail him? How would he be tried, and would such a trial not open the survivors to more mockery? Secondly, Bin Laden’s violent end was also fitting for another reason. It focuses attention on how far off the mark the war on terror has become.
From the moment the heinous crime was perpetrated in America, the real criminals who needed to be brought to justice were Osama bin Laden and his henchmen. It was also okay to target the leadership of the Afghan Taliban who provided bin Laden with a base from which to wreak havoc on the world. Instead, the war on terror became a sprawling enterprise for profit-making for many. Americans not only fought a pointless war in Iraq, they also became bogged down in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan.
Indeed, over the past nine years since 9/11, the objectives of the war have become fuzzy, with Americans shooting at targets they were no longer sure about, while continually arguing that it is fighting a war against terror. Some of the Afghani and Iraqi babies who were barely out of the womb when the war started are now almost old enough to become child inducted soldiers in the never-ending war.
In as much as America kept the focus on Bin Laden, hunting him with painstaking patience like a hunter stalks the very rare unicorn, its war on terror simply lost steam. Long before Bin Laden breathed his last in the mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the America’s war in Afghanistan was spinning its wheels, going no where fast. The soldiers continue to fight as hard as they ever had, but at no time do they really know who the enemy is, or even what the target is. The enemy could not be al-Qaeda since this was always a small highly mobile bunch who took to their heels as soon as the first bombs fell in Afghanistan. Nor could the target be the Taliban who have been routed.
What Americans are fighting in Afghanistan and to some extent in Iraq is not al-Qaeda, but simply nationalists who are inspired by their suspicion and hatred for foreign occupiers coming to strut around on their soil as if they own the neighbourhood.
Afghani children now being taught to fight against the Americans tomorrow are not being trained to go and bomb New York or to hate Americans in America. They are being taught to hate every foreigner who come to Afghanistan bearing M16 and AK-47 rifles. The hatred is not aimed at America, or Canadians, or Britons, but rather at the foreign occupiers, whoever they are.
The death of Bin Laden in other words is worth it if it allows the NATO alliance led by America to re-evaluate its presence in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The soul-searching should lead the alliance to distinguish between terrorists like Bin Laden and nationalists who simply hate foreign occupation.
What this should mean is that the Americans and their allies should declare victory now and get out of Afghanistan and Iraq immediately. It is the next best thing instead of waiting for the ultimate defeat which will surely come for the simple reason that the alliance is fighting a foggy notion of terrorism, while the nationalists in Afghanistan and Iraq are clear about their fights for motherland.
When the war is over, these nationalists will not board planes to return to their homelands because they are on their own soil. In the end, my initial disappointment at not seeing Osama bin Laden brought alive to face justice will further be deepened if his demise does not cause serious debate about ending the two never-ending wars. The longer these two wars drag on, pulling the rest of the world into further abyss, the clearer it becomes that, even in death, Osama bin Laden is the ultimate winner.
Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca