The Wake

Would the world be a better place if Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri were no longer in it? Yes. However, terrorism will not die with the deaths of bin Laden or al-Zawahiri, as the U.S. government initially led the American people to believe following the attacks of Sept. 11th. The U.S. government made the two terrorists figureheads of world evil in the eyes of Americans. Both men are evil and so is the Al Qaeda organization they represent, but they do not embody terrorism alone.

World terrorism is like a worldwide guerilla war—there is no real end and no known enemy. Yet America conveniently pointed their missiles at the Middle East after the Sept. 11th attacks, even though terrorist cells existed elsewhere. As a result, the U.S. government identified terrorism only as Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Moreover, the government campaigned that with their demise the United States would win the war on terror. Unfortunately for the United States’ government, it has been nearly five years since that declaration and Osama bin Laden is still eluding the most powerful nation in world history.

In the past five years, the United States has expanded the war on terror to include the Iraq War and pending wars in Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. The Bush government has appointed America’s sons and daughters to be the safeguard of the world, which more often than not has appeared to be more like a vanguard of American democracy and Christianity to be spread throughout the struggling Third World. The idea of terrorism has opened many doors for the new wave American manifest destiny. Yet America has not figured out how to get through these newly opened entrances. Instead, the Bush administration has been knocking at these doors for the past half-decade. At the same time, the American public is growing increasingly disillusioned and wants an end to the wars that Bush said he would win.

As a result of public opinion, President Bush and his cabinet are desperate to give the American people a victory or a conclusion in one of the U.S.’s current wars. The most recent attempt to do this occurred in early January in the form of an American air strike on a Pakistani village, where it was reported that Ayman al-Zawahiri was hiding. The air strike resulted in the deaths of 18 innocent civilians—al-Zawahiri was never even in the village. This is not the first time Bush has taken innocent life in order to kill a terrorist or a corrupt leader. Bush will never have to answer for the innocent lives he has destroyed. Yet he expects that bin Laden and Saddam Hussein should pay for their atrocities with their own lives. As Bob Dylan once said, “for you don’t count the dead, when God’s on your side.” America has the military and financial might to act without fear of repercussion from any other world powers. Consequently America only fears the terrorists, who also do not answer to any other country because they are not affiliated with any country.

It has been more than four years since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. Since then, even more attacks have occurred throughout the world. These attacks have taken place in England, Spain and Russia. In addition, the Middle East is submerged in daily suicide bombings and other terrorist activities. It would seem the United States’ government is losing their war on worldwide terrorism. In the past five years, the U.S.’s attempts to kill terrorists have not succeeded in stopping terrorism—it has arguably only made matters worse.

The American government needs to change the way it deals with their “un-locatable” and unidentifiable enemies because the U.S. is losing support from other world powers and from its own American public. Bush killed 18 innocent Pakistanis in the hopes of saving an unknown number of American lives or, which is more likely and even worse, to sway American public opinion back in the Republicans’ favor. President Bush is taking actions as America’s ambassador that reflects poorly on the very people that elected him president.

Outside of the United States and Western Europe the world is suffering and struggling to survive. Since the American government is unwilling to spend money to improve itself (poor education systems, unaffordable health care, etc.), the U.S. should allocate the billions of dollars that have been spent on the Iraq War to improving the quality of life in the Middle East and Latin America. The United States would no longer be the destroyer of these regions, but rather the savior. No terrorist organization could even plot against the United States without the fear of retaliation from every country in the world—countries like Afghanistan and Iran would have no reason to harbor anti-American terrorists. This could happen if America was truly trying to spread actual democracy.

Tom McNamara is a Voices columnist and welcomes comments at .