Though the Leader Was Overthrown, the "War on Terror" Continues

The U.S. armed forces killed international terrorist organization al-Qaida’s leader, Osama bin Laden, at his hideout in Pakistan. That the person who plotted the simultaneous terrorist attacks on America on 9/11, and who was at the center of the international network of Islamic extremists, has been overthrown is a significant result of America’s 10-year War on Terror.

Nevertheless, this does not guarantee the disappearance of the threat of terrorism. It is essential that the international community aims toward exterminating terror and continues to work together.

Al-Qaida is not an organization that put bin Laden at the top of the pyramid. Extremists in various places who agree with bin Laden’s tenets are connected through loose networks and will repeat terrorist attacks. And since there is the large possibility from now on that terrorism will continue, there is a strong fear that extremists everywhere will fix bin Laden as a “holy war victim” in the battle against the West and that they are plotting retribution terrorism.

The spread of the Internet has changed terrorism’s appearance. On the Internet, radical claims overflow, and those who endorse these claims can cross over national borders and attract others with the same claims. The inclination for this radical portion of Muslims living in the West leaning heavily toward terrorism also stands out.

In these circumstances, with the population increase in Islamic countries and the problem of unemployed youth, there is also the trend of society in the West strongly rejecting Islam after the terrorist attacks in America. After recognizing that this variety of primary factors cannot be resolved through military force, the international community also, from now on, must promote comprehensive initiatives dealing with terrorism prevention.

America, the country targeted by the concurrent terrorist attacks, militarily intervened in Afghanistan and overthrew the al-Qaida supporting Taliban government. They also toppled Iraq’s Hussein administration. On the one hand, by intervening with military force in the Middle East and Islamic world, the result of this bog has been an invitation to the decline of America’s international clout, as well as the pressure of financial affairs due to the great sum of war expenditures.

Since July, the U.S. troops stationed in Japan began withdrawing. This turning point of bin Laden’s death will also become the impetus for a second look at the War on Terror.

Armed intervention had produced a serious fissure between the U.S. and the Islamic world. Immediately following the 2009 inauguration, President Obama addressed Cairo, calling for reconciliation with the Islamic public, but the results have been limited. The president should also embrace the promotion of peace in the Middle East and should tackle with greater vigor the reconstruction of the relationship with the Islamic world.

With the Tunisia coup as a start, the Middle East anti-government demonstrations are spreading. The demonstration participants seek the expansion of political rights and the eradication of corruption, and have drawn a line separating themselves from the anti- parliamentary and anti-democracy Islamic radical parties’ tenets. However, it might be that political disorder, if prolonged, would give extremists the interval needed for the expansion of influence. I want each nation’s leader to listen carefully to demands for democracy and suppress chaos at an early stage.