America Dances On the Bones of Al-Qaida

In the United States, they applaud the news of the next killing of a terrorist — the second bin Laden. Obama’s ratings rise again.

Today, Western media outlets are trying to understand the global reverberations caused by the death of the main ideologue of al-Qaida. Anwar al-Awlaki — journalists have already christened him the second bin Laden — was killed in a U.S. Air Force strike in northern Yemen.*

The news of his liquidation was met with divergent but uniformly strong emotions: pride from Barack Obama and the Americans, and open anger from the followers of al-Awlaki.

The death of Anwar al-Awlaki turned out to be, surprisingly, no less resonant than the liquidation of Osama bin Laden, although it would seem that they are very different cases. They chased after Osama for years, seeing in him not simply a terrorist leader, but a symbol of terrorism. Al-Awlaki’s name was also on the CIA’s target list for swift elimination, but he ended up on that list only two years ago, and he was not a symbol of any kind.

Although the name of al-Awlaki did not ring throughout the world, he was a key figure, becoming al-Qaida’s chief ideologue in recent years. In this position, he operated behind enemy lines — on the Internet, that is, essentially in the homes of anyone and everyone. Not surprisingly, all the forces freed up after the elimination of bin Laden were thrown at the elimination of al-Awlaki. America met the U.S. Air Force drone strike against al-Awlaki’s convoy and his associates with applause.

Barack Obama, the U.S. president, said, “I want to say a few words about some important news: earlier this morning, Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, was killed in Yemen. The death of Awlaki is a major blow to al-Qaida’s most active operational affiliate. Awlaki was the leader of external operations for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. In that role, he took the lead in planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans.”

Today Obama is a military leader, having liquidated an enemy general. It is not in vain that America calls the global campaign against terrorism, proclaimed by Washington 10 years ago, a war. It is a war with many casualties, including the innocent, from air attacks and derailed trains. Al-Awlaki was also killed according to wartime law. And this, alongside the applause of some, invoked the outrage of others, even in America, in the streets.

A local resident said, “To kill someone anywhere — that’s not right. Even if the person committed some evil. In that case, you capture him and try him!”

Another one claimed, “Even if he is from al-Qaida, he is first of all a person, a living being. Now they have killed him, he left behind a family, his relatives are grieving.”

Political scientists dropped a spoonful of skepticism into the barrel of Washington’s euphoria, cautiously remarking that taking out one terrorist — even a ringleader — is still not the end of the war.

Mohammed Asaadi, political scientist, said, “Of course the Yemeni wing of al-Qaida sustained a serious wound. But that doesn’t mean that al-Qaida is now destroyed. One must fight not against the organization, but against the ideology. Particular individuals don’t play such an important role.”

However, it is unlikely that the relatives of those killed in 2009 at the Texas military base or the passengers of the 2009 flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, who are still alive only by a miracle, would sign their names under the words of these and others. Al-Awlaki was directly related to both of these terrorist acts.

And on the whole, Obama can count on the understanding of America: He has already been through this. After the death of Osama bin Laden, the American president’s rating immediately went up by 10 percent.

*Translator’s Note: Al-Awlaki was actually killed by a CIA drone, not a U.S. Air Force attack.