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The killing of Osama bin Laden is a major symbolic victory for the Obama administration, but is it a game changer for the US strategy in the "Greater Middle East"?
After 10 years of pursuing al-Qaeda's leader, responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US has closed a chapter, but not the book, in its war on al-Qaeda and "international terrorism".
Since the attacks on New York and Washington, "al-Qaeda central" which was being run from the Pakistani Afghan border, has mutated into a global network of affiliates.
US "terrorism experts" have been split over the relevance of "al-Qaeda central" under the direct leadership of bin Laden and his lieutenants, in comparison to the global network of smaller cells and hardcore fighters who pledged allegiance to the leadership, or to put it bluntly, to the brand: "al-Qaeda".
Those who discount the importance of the 'disconnected and on-the-run' al-Qaeda leaders on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan underline the importance of the decentralisation of the group.
They refer to it as SPIN (segmented, polycentric, ideologically networked) group, where al-Qaeda fighters in various parts of the world have increasingly acted on their own without direct orders or logistical and financial support from "al-Qaeda central".
In that way, al-Qaeda was more of a global and post-modern creature or phenomenon than a religious one.
What now?
While it has continued to invoke Islam and Jihad to rally support and to incite against non-Muslims, in reality its organisation and outreach, whether through the web or the use of modern technology, has been at the heart of its appeal as a global network.
Be that as it may, the physical death of bin Laden will no doubt lead to a serious psychological and inspirational setback for al-Qaeda fighters and their causes.
But for the Muslim world, bin Laden has already been made irrelevant by the Arab Spring that underlined the meaning of peoples power through peaceful means.
It is also worth recalling that bin Laden's al-Qaeda and its affiliates have killed far more Arabs and Muslims than they did Westerners.
And it was only after they failed to garner real support in the Arab world that they ran back to Afghanistan and began to target the West.
After long hijacking Arab and Muslim causes through its bloody attacks on Western targets, al-Qaeda has been discredited since 9/11 and its organisational capacity diminished by Western counter terror measures.
Al-Qaeda's bin Laden has provided the Bush administration with the excuse to launch its disastrous and costly wars in the greater Middle East.
As expected, Washington's wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan continued to provide al-Qaeda with fresh recruits and support in the Muslim world and perpetuate a cycle of violence that ripped through the region for the last decade.
However, it has been the more implicit and less costly US and Western intelligence services that succeeded to a large degree in curtailing al-Qaeda activities, limiting the movement of its leaders that eventually led to his killing.
So what will this mean for the US war in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Certainly Washington has less reason or justification to wage a war in Afghanistan now that bin Laden is no more.
It might also find more readiness among certain Taliban leaders in the absence of the thorniest issue of al-Qaeda, to make a deal that insures a power sharing arrangement in favour of the Taliban in return for curbing the use of Afghanistan by al-Qaeda to export "terrorism".
Bin Laden will continue to be a distraction for the short term, and especially if some of al-Qaeda groups muster revenge attacks.
But in the long term, it is the historical transformations in the Arab and Muslim world that will eventually close the book on al-Qaeda.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115282016417366.html
 The Osama bin Laden I knew
The story, as told by bin Laden's neighbours
ASymbolic victory’ Qais Azimy, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Kabul, said Afghan officials described bin Laden’s killing as a “symbolic victory”, since he was no longer directly connected to the group’s field operations.
Mark Kimmit, a US military analyst, said bin Laden’s death “was not the end of terrorism, but an end of a chapter.” “Capturing or killing bin Laden has more iconic value. It will have symbolic value, because it has been a number of years since bin Laden has exercised day to day control over operations. We still have an al-Qaeda threat out there and that will be there for a number of years. “This organisation (al-Qaeda) is more than bin Laden, it may be symbolised by bin Laden, but it definitely is more than bin Laden,” he said. It is, however, a major accomplishment for Obama and his national security team. Obama’s predecessor, George Bush, had repeatedly vowed to bring to justice the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, but never did before leaving office in early 2009. He had been the subject of a search since he eluded US soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains in 2001. The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan. While in hiding, bin Laden had taunted the West and advocated his views in videotapes spirited from his hideaway. Besides September 11, Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks – including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen. If Osama, without a trial, could be condemned and killed, then why the killer states involved in the assassination of innocent Muslims in Indian Held Kashmir and Palestinians — India and Israel — are not declared terrorist states for killing innocents. Having the body may help convince any doubters that bin Laden is really dead. He was on dialysis, since 1990, The normal life expectancy of a dialysis patient is 3-5 years. He was reported to be dead many times previously as well........ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PAKISTAN- THE BIGGEST VICTIM OF TERRORISM BY AL-QAIDA, TALIBAN AND US DRONE ATTACKS LOST 35000 LIVES, 60 Billion US $ After Bin Laden
Killing the alibi | ||||||
Washington has less reason or justification to wage a war in Afghanistan now that bin Laden is no more. "تحليل : قتل الغيبة\nواشنطن أقل سبب أو مبرر لشن حرب في أفغانستان الآن أن بن لادن ليس أكثر من ذلك." |
The killing of Osama bin Laden is a major symbolic victory for the Obama administration, but is it a game changer for the US strategy in the "Greater Middle East"?
After 10 years of pursuing al-Qaeda's leader, responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US has closed a chapter, but not the book, in its war on al-Qaeda and "international terrorism".
Since the attacks on New York and Washington, "al-Qaeda central" which was being run from the Pakistani Afghan border, has mutated into a global network of affiliates.
US "terrorism experts" have been split over the relevance of "al-Qaeda central" under the direct leadership of bin Laden and his lieutenants, in comparison to the global network of smaller cells and hardcore fighters who pledged allegiance to the leadership, or to put it bluntly, to the brand: "al-Qaeda".
Those who discount the importance of the 'disconnected and on-the-run' al-Qaeda leaders on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan underline the importance of the decentralisation of the group.
They refer to it as SPIN (segmented, polycentric, ideologically networked) group, where al-Qaeda fighters in various parts of the world have increasingly acted on their own without direct orders or logistical and financial support from "al-Qaeda central".
In that way, al-Qaeda was more of a global and post-modern creature or phenomenon than a religious one.
What now?
While it has continued to invoke Islam and Jihad to rally support and to incite against non-Muslims, in reality its organisation and outreach, whether through the web or the use of modern technology, has been at the heart of its appeal as a global network.
Be that as it may, the physical death of bin Laden will no doubt lead to a serious psychological and inspirational setback for al-Qaeda fighters and their causes.
But for the Muslim world, bin Laden has already been made irrelevant by the Arab Spring that underlined the meaning of peoples power through peaceful means.
It is also worth recalling that bin Laden's al-Qaeda and its affiliates have killed far more Arabs and Muslims than they did Westerners.
And it was only after they failed to garner real support in the Arab world that they ran back to Afghanistan and began to target the West.
After long hijacking Arab and Muslim causes through its bloody attacks on Western targets, al-Qaeda has been discredited since 9/11 and its organisational capacity diminished by Western counter terror measures.
Al-Qaeda's bin Laden has provided the Bush administration with the excuse to launch its disastrous and costly wars in the greater Middle East.
As expected, Washington's wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan continued to provide al-Qaeda with fresh recruits and support in the Muslim world and perpetuate a cycle of violence that ripped through the region for the last decade.
However, it has been the more implicit and less costly US and Western intelligence services that succeeded to a large degree in curtailing al-Qaeda activities, limiting the movement of its leaders that eventually led to his killing.
So what will this mean for the US war in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Certainly Washington has less reason or justification to wage a war in Afghanistan now that bin Laden is no more.
It might also find more readiness among certain Taliban leaders in the absence of the thorniest issue of al-Qaeda, to make a deal that insures a power sharing arrangement in favour of the Taliban in return for curbing the use of Afghanistan by al-Qaeda to export "terrorism".
Bin Laden will continue to be a distraction for the short term, and especially if some of al-Qaeda groups muster revenge attacks.
But in the long term, it is the historical transformations in the Arab and Muslim world that will eventually close the book on al-Qaeda.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115282016417366.html
" Read full story/analysis: Osama bin Laden - Place in History: For several years people have speculated that Osama Bin Laden was dead, whether from a chronic kidney ailment, or blown to pieces in his Tora Bora redoubt in late 2001 as the US responded to 9/11. … Fatwa on Terrorism is a 600-page (Urdu version), 512-page (English version) Islamic decree by influential scholar Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri which demonstrates from the Quran and Sunnah that terrorism and suicide bombings are so unjust … This most comprehensive and authentic Fatwa [Edict] with detailed references can be downloaded in English – click here now PAKISTAN- THE BIGGEST VICTIM OF TERRORISM BY AL-QAIDA, TALIBAN AND US DRONE ATTACKS. LOST 35000 LIVES, 60 Billion US $ … The mythology surrounding America’s public enemy number one took yet another bizarre turn this week as Washington announced that after ten years of searching they have finally located and killed their illusive adversary, Osama bin Laden … I remember an incident that happened when I was having tea with bin Ladenand Dr . Zawahiri after the interview. Bin Laden reminded me that … by Hamid Mir thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx. … THE death of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a fortified compound in the scenic city of Abbottabad has perhaps raised more uncomfortable questions.. Al Qaeda in the Arab world. IF Osama bin Laden The idea that Al Qaeda poses a serious challenge to the Arab regimes is dead — and was dead long before Bin Laden`s demise. The main wellsprings of change in the Middle East are happily not fed by his poisonous legacy. … In Unholy Wars, Esposito systematically addresses the political antecedents to the 9/11 attacks on the US by Al-Qaeda, the international terrorist organization masterminded by Usama Binladen. Esposito examines the recent history of US … … using the invasion of Kuwait as an excuse to intensify our military presence in that area and to station troops in Saudi Arabia, which then became one of the major offenses for Osama bin Laden and other Saudi Arabian nationalists. Reality of “Mardin fatwa …The focus of the meeting was the “Mardin fatwa” of Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328). Al Qaeda and its affiliated networks have repeatedly invoked the decree to justify mass murder in the name of Islam. … In 2004, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld commissioned a task force to study what causesTerrorism, and it concluded that “Muslims do not 'hate our freedom,' but rather, they hate our policies”: specifically,“American direct ... Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror from John Pilger on Vimeo. Tweet. FOR MORE ON ISLAM, CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM VISIT: http://faithforum.wordpress.com http:islamphobia.wordpress.com ... Wake up America, You are being Cheated - by your own leaders!!! Facts of War on Terror -- open your eyes ....... Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror from John Pilger on Vimeo. FOR MORE ON ISLAM, CHRISTIANITY AND . ... by Howard Zinn Chapter 3, A Peaceful Nation?, pp.50-56. Seven Stories Press 2002. See also: 1. Wake up America, You are being Cheated - by your own leaders!!! 2. http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2002/US-Peaceful-Nation.htm ... Wake up America, You are being Cheated - by your own leaders!!! Facts of War on Terror -- open your eyes ....... Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror from John Pilger on Vimeo. FOR MORE ON ISLAM, CHRISTIANITY AND ... Wake up America, You are being Cheated - by your own leaders!!! Facts of War on Terror -- open your eyes ....... Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror from John Pilger on Vimeo. ... Wake up America, You are being Cheated - by your own leaders!!! Facts of War on Terror -- open your eyes ....... Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror from John Pilger on Vimeo. Posted by Abbujak at 11:21 PM . ... The modern geography of the Middle East was carved out by British and French colonialists whose sole interest was in sharing the spoils of war between themselves and in maintaining their supremacy over the region in the early part of the 20th ... Arab League - "to safeguard the independence and sovereignty [of Arab states]" - or the six-state Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) - as a political, economic and security union in response to the Islamic revolution in Iran. ... More importantly, this recent democracy movement, which started in Tunisia, rocked Egypt, and is now influencing protests in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Iran, and is likely to spread to other parts of the Middle East and the Muslim world, . The Middle East earthquake of the past five weeks has been the most tumultuous, shattering, mind-numbing experience in the history of the region since the fall of the Ottoman empire. ....I`ve been hunting for the most memorable quotations from the Arab revolution. We`ve had “Come back, Mr President, we were only kidding” from an anti-Mubarak demonstrator. And we`ve had Saif el-Islam el-Gaddafi`s Goebbels-style speech: “Forget oil, forget gas – there will be civil war. ... Comparing Iranian Shi'a Revolution with Sunni Islam is a folly. Mainstream Sunni Islam does not follow the doctrine of Imamate [combined religious, spiritual and political leadership, some what similar to the Popes of old] which is ... To solve the 'terrorist' problem, therefore, the US would have to bring democracy to the Middle East. This demagoguery only reveals the bankruptcy of America's political class. It is a shame when the President of the United States and his .... They have failed to derail the Iranianrevolution. Can they now stand up against another surge of people power in the Arab world, in Afghanistan and Pakistan — and beyond? By M Shahid Alam. The writer is professor of economics at ... Will it go the way of Tunisia, full blown revolution, or will brutal repression quell the revolt as happened in Iran? Only time will tell. You can follow the live stream of what is happening in Egypt at AlJazeera's Live Stream. ... “People in the Middle East, like people everywhere, are seeking a chance to contribute and have a role in decisions that will shape their lives…The Egyptian government needs to understand that violence will not make these grievances go away” ... ... Law in Stanford University in California, and a group of experts to carry out an assessment in response to the question by Swiss Information on the impact of the Egyptian popularrevolution on US foreign policy in the Middle East. ... This argument is also helpful to Israel, which regardless of its egregious human rights violations against Palestinians, continues to enjoy the reputation as the sole democracy in the Middle East. As a so-called democratic nation, Israel with its ... And Imam Khomeini established separation of powers, a parliaments, elections and public accountability along with the institution of Vilayat-e-faqi after the Islamic revolution of Iran. Indeed there is nothing in Islam and in ... 20 Dec 2010 Unfortunately, this secular concept of nationalism failed in view of the political changes in theMiddle East which reshaped it through religious extremism. Another example is that of the Chinese intellectuals who responded to the challenges in the ... Later on, some intellectuals were fascinated by Marxism and the Russian Revolution in 1917. These different solutions were experimented with and finally socialist ideology succeeded in changing the history of China. ... While we in the West have been conditioned to associate Islam with the Middle East, a whopping61.9 percent of all Muslims — aka a supermajority — don't live in the Middle East at all; most Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region. ... The Islamic Golden Age caused arevolution in virtually every field of human thought, during which they freaking invented algebra — and advanced everything from geography and exploration to the arts, architecture, philosophy, ... More >> |