Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you: the same applies to terrorists.
ABBOTTABAD, PAKISTAN — It should be shocking to no one that the US evokes different emotions in different people. It is, after all, the world’s leading economic and military power and was, until the current president took office, the country many looked to for moral leadership. My, my how that has changed (and I for one hope it goes back to the status quo ante after this year’s elections).
When it comes to national (and international) security the same different views hold. In the wake of 9/11 many supported the US in its counter terrorism campaign. Who couldn’t after almost 3,000 innocents died when 19 religious terrorists thought it was ok to fly planes into buildings?
Justice was served to some extent when US Navy Seals located and killed Al Qaeda terrorist leader and 9/11 mastermind Usama bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011.
On the other hand, others saw the US as a ‘state sponsor’ of terrorism on its own. Actions by agencies such as the CIA certainly skirted that definition as regimes ‘unhelpful’ to US foreign policy found themselves out of power. This in turn counterproductively led to actual terrorism down the road. Iran is a great example. Without the CIA-assisted coup that tossed out the Mossadeq government in 1953 and ushered back in the Shah we may not have had the Shia extremist Iranian Revolution in 1979 (but, ‘alternative history’ is really hard to get right!).
In the end, no matter what you think of the US – as a Canadian I have a complicated relationship with our neighbour to the south – I hope at least that you recognise that it had the right to pursue those who orchestrated 9/11. No country could allow such a crime to go unpunished.
The US, in its search for justice, made many, many errors – the use of the term ‘war on terrorism’, invading Afghanistan, invading Iraq – but it also did in the end achieve some closure for 9/11. On this day in 2011 US Navy Seals (special forces types) raided a Pakistani compound where Al Qaeda (AQ) leader Usama bin Laden had been living and killed him, along with others staying with him. His body was then dumped at sea, in an alleged Muslim burial.
On this day in 2011 US Navy Seals (special forces types) raided a Pakistani compound where Al Qaeda (AQ) leader Usama bin Laden had been living and killed him, along with others staying with him.
Some may protest that he should have been taken alive (complication: he was shooting at the Seals when he was killed) and put on trial. Maybe, but a trial would have afforded the #1 terrorist a propaganda coup and would likely have re-traumatised the families of those who died in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Nope, as I always say a dead terrorist is a good terrorist.
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The subsequent celebrations in the US were absolutely understandable (and appropriate?) but premature. The death of bin Laden did not lead to the death of AQ, let alone terrorism. Almost a decade later terrorist groups who inhabit the Sunni Islamist extremist sphere are thriving, as are violent extremists who follow other ideologies.
Still, UBL, as he was known, is dead. The world is a slightly better place as a result. Kudos to the brave members of the Navy Seal team that day in Abbottabad.
