Wrong War Was On
May 14, 2003
THE BLOODY hand of terrorism has struck yet again, with 30 people killed and dozens others injured in suicide bomb attacks.
THE BLOODY hand of terrorism has struck yet again, with 30 people killed and dozens others injured in suicide bomb attacks.
The three suicide attacks that rocked the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Monday night hit residential areas housing westerners. Preliminary reports indicated that seven Americans were among the dead, who also included Saudis, Swiss, Filipinos, Lebanese and Jordanians.
The al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden is suspected to be behind the attacks that, in all probability, were targeted at the Americans. But these Americans were innocent people, as were the other slaughtered and maimed victims.
Therein lies the diabolic nature of terrorism — the innocent bystander suffers, and even the target is, in most cases, a soft one. Being so unconventional, terrorist tactics can be difficult to contain, which is why concerted effort is needed.
Ironically, US President George Bush in declaring, two weeks ago, the end of the US-Iraq war, also pronounced extensive success over the terror network. He said the al-Qaeda network had been largely destroyed. He obviously was wrong.
Part of the problem is that, in targeting the (otherwise despicable) Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, the US took its focus off the real terrorist threat. It was always a big deception telling the world that war on Iraq was war on terrorism. Even now, weeks after Saddam was toppled, the Americans have failed to turn up any conclusive evidence linking the Iraq regime to international terror.
Saddam or no Saddam, terrorism is still in our midst. One effective way of fighting terror is galvanizing international support. The US undermined a lot of international sympathy with its self-aggrandizing war
on Iraq, ultimately winning what now appears to be the wrong war. We should
all now focus on the real war, the fight against terrorism. Ends
The three suicide attacks that rocked the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Monday night hit residential areas housing westerners. Preliminary reports indicated that seven Americans were among the dead, who also included Saudis, Swiss, Filipinos, Lebanese and Jordanians.
The al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden is suspected to be behind the attacks that, in all probability, were targeted at the Americans. But these Americans were innocent people, as were the other slaughtered and maimed victims.
Therein lies the diabolic nature of terrorism — the innocent bystander suffers, and even the target is, in most cases, a soft one. Being so unconventional, terrorist tactics can be difficult to contain, which is why concerted effort is needed.
Ironically, US President George Bush in declaring, two weeks ago, the end of the US-Iraq war, also pronounced extensive success over the terror network. He said the al-Qaeda network had been largely destroyed. He obviously was wrong.
Part of the problem is that, in targeting the (otherwise despicable) Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, the US took its focus off the real terrorist threat. It was always a big deception telling the world that war on Iraq was war on terrorism. Even now, weeks after Saddam was toppled, the Americans have failed to turn up any conclusive evidence linking the Iraq regime to international terror.
Saddam or no Saddam, terrorism is still in our midst. One effective way of fighting terror is galvanizing international support. The US undermined a lot of international sympathy with its self-aggrandizing war
on Iraq, ultimately winning what now appears to be the wrong war. We should
all now focus on the real war, the fight against terrorism. Ends