Just Imagine: Fighting al-Qaida without America!

Within the last 50 years, no vicious terrorist organization with the ability to survive, move, recruit, demolish and build capacity of its membership and its organizational structure, has been better established than al-Qaida. No terrorist organizations founded after World War II could match al-Qaida in international identity. One of its most prominent features is the manipulation of an extreme religious ideology that enables recruitment of troops that have the most willingness on earth to sacrifice their lives, properties and families. Al-Qaida still is the biggest terrorist organization in the world, despite the fact that all its founders and top leaders were killed or captured, except a few like Ayman al-Zawahiri. The organization was removed from its stronghold in Afghanistan and defeated in Saudi Arabia. It has also failed to penetrate American territories since September 2001. No less than 30 countries around the globe have gathered resources for surveillance and pursuance of al-Qaida in a kind of a consensus to combat this dangerous organization. But al-Qaida is still alive and breathing.

By capturing Abu Anas, who was seemingly kidnapped, we are reminded that the war is continuing and it is back and forth between the two parties. We are lucky that America is participating in this battle; this beast called al-Qaida is too powerful to be combated by individual countries. No doubt that the Americans, since the attacks of Sept. 11, have considered al-Qaida to be the most direct threat to their national security and, therefore, have decided to devote all their huge resources to fighting it. It is almost a daily war between al-Qaida and its enemies through surveillance and hot pursuit in different parts of the world.

Ironically, the Americans and the West, in general, were skeptical in the 1990s about the existence of al-Qaida as an ideological organization. All writings at that point focused on interpreting it as a phenomenon resulting from poverty, unemployment and lack of political freedom. However, in the decade following the Sept. 11 attacks, many have realized that al-Qaida is an ideological “extremist” organization that has nothing to do with unemployment, rights, freedoms or elections. Al-Qaida could be compared to the Nazis in their rejection of the other and the attempt to eliminate it, and in believing that its ideology transcends others’. But al-Qaida is more dangerous because it claims and uses religion.

Luckily, al-Qaida targeted many governments around the world and so those governments started fighting it — but if it continued as it started, targeting only limited countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the situation would have been more difficult. Al-Qaida represents no terminal threat to any specific regime, but it is capable of inflicting harm anywhere. It has been proven that this organization has the ability to survive, hide and renew its cells even if chased out. It begets new members despite the fact that its leadership has been terminated.

It was documented in al-Qaida records that an argument took place among al-Qaida’s leadership whether to carry out the Sept. 11 attacks or not. Some leaders opposed the idea of targeting Americans in their homeland and wanted the plan to be implemented later on. However, bin Laden knew that attacking big targets in New York and Washington, D.C. would be a message to the world about their project and their willingness. Other attacks that were carried out against American interests in Saudi Arabia and Yemen were just limited battles, but targeting the U.S. directly was a game changer — and it changed the whole world. Arab countries were not capable of facing this dreadful threat, which today represents the biggest war of our time. I would also add that it was not possible for the United States to defeat this extremist organization without cooperation from Islamic countries, which have better knowledge of the culture and ideology of their communities. This makes the Islamic countries more capable of facing al-Qaida at the point of its strength — religion — and the United States more capable of facing the organization on war.