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The
Palestinian suffering ranks on top of the causes of fury in the
Islamic world
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LONDON,
October 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Having apparently
failed to stop what it calls terrorist attacks, the West, led by the
U.S. should move to address the grievances which made too many in the
Muslim world rally to Osama bin-Laden's flag, reported a British daily
Tuesday, October 15.
Every
counter-terrorist struggle in the world, from Algiers to Belfast, had
taught the same lesson; in the end, there can be no military victory
over an enemy which enjoys even a limited degree of popular support,
according to The Guardian.
Instead,
there has to be political action. Not an attempt to compromise with the
(alleged) killers - Bin-Laden is hardly demanding roundtable talks - but
to win over the constituency that offers them tacit backing, to drain
the sea in which they swim, the paper said.
The
same opinion has repeatedly been declared by Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak, who called, time and again, for convening an international
conference on terrorism to address the causes of the international
phenomenon.
After
touching upon the nature of Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization, the Guardian
article concluded that no military victory was in sight for any party.
"The
whole terrifying point about al-Qaeda was that it was not located in one
territory to be targeted, neatly confined to one set of borders. Instead
it spread to as many as 50 countries, with up to 100,000 members ready
for action. Bombing a few camps would hardly reach this enemy at all.
"Since
al-Qaeda's methods were not those of a conventional army, the response
would have to be equally unconventional. The military analyst Martin van
Creveld warned a decade earlier of "asymmetric war" and now
the world understood what he meant. He urged armies to put aside their
ships and rockets, and take on the enemy on its own terrain. The
soldiers of al-Qaeda did not march in columns on battlefields but wore
jeans, rented apartments and posed as students in Hamburg, Brixton and
Florida. To win, our soldiers would have to learn a new language of
combat.
"No
one is even sure if the Bali attack was an al-Qaeda operation or, for
that matter, whether such thing as an "al-Qaeda operation"
even exists. The Indonesian government says it was, noting the expertise
required to trigger a series of simultaneous explosions - a know how
al-Qaeda could possess. Others are doubtful, insisting that Bin Laden's
men tend to prefer military, political or culturally iconic targets. It
is the homegrown Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah which hits nightclubs and
similar symbols of "Western decadence".
"Even
if it was the Jemaah group, there might still be an al-Qaeda link. It
could be subtle, with al-Qaeda acting as an inspiration rather than as
direct command. This is one more reason why al-Qaeda represents such a
formidable foe: it is not an organization in the western sense at all.
It may just be an animating idea, spreading fast throughout the Islamic
world.
"If
al-Qaeda was truly to be defeated, killing or arresting its activists
would not do the trick: lopping off a head today would only make another
grow tomorrow," according to the paper.
Then,
the paper offered another, deeper solution to the scary phenomenon.
"That
meant, among other things, a new alternative energy strategy, aimed
eventually at weaning the west off oil. No longer would the U.S. and
others need to manipulate the Middle East just to safeguard their petrol
supply. They could let the peoples of the Arab world choose their own
governments for once.
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Some
1.7 Iraqi children died due to the 12-year-old embargo, yet
Bush wants to occupy Iraq
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"The
U.S. would move its troops out of Saudi Arabia, healing one of the sores
Bin-Laden most likes to inflame; the presence of "infidels" on
holy Muslim soil. And Washington would devote serious political muscle
to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Genuine movement in that area
would instantly rob the Islamic hard liners of one of their greatest
recruiting pitches.
“Who
knows what impact all that might have had? We certainly don't, because
it has hardly been tried. Nor has the military component of the war on
terror fared much better,” the paper added.
The
article then mentioned some of the signs of failure in the so-called war
on terror. "Bin-Laden was allowed to vanish, along with the Taliban
leader Mullah Omar, who escaped the wrath of the mightiest army in the
world on board a clapped-out motorbike. The jump-suited captives at Camp
X-Ray appear too low-level to have much useful to say. Nor do the U.S.
intelligence agencies inspire much confidence; they remain at war with
each other while their political masters tend to hear only what they
want to hear".
Lashing
out at U.S. President George W. Bush for his plans to occupy Iraq, the
Guardian said, " A
prolonged U.S. occupation of Iraq will be the greatest provocation
yet".
On
Tuesday, October 15, Malaysian
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad echoed the same logic, saying that
there were causes for terrorism, and the West can do something about
them.
