Obama’s First Year in the White House

A year has passed since Barack Obama entered the White House to assume the presidency. This past year had been long enough for the U.S. president to realize that sweet talk and the discussion of a new American policy that takes into account the importance of dialogue for attaining a more just world is one thing, but reality is another. The U.S. president was taken aback by the present reality. He realized that he needed to change if he truly wanted to change the world.

Barack Obama has been dealt a series of blows in less than a year. He finally realized that U.S. security agencies enjoy great technological capabilities but are lacking in the ability to analyze direct information, as well as to coordinate amongst one another. It is truly catastrophic that a young Nigerian man, who was recently recruited by al-Qaida in London and met with terrorists in Yemen, was able to board a plane to the U.S. Furthermore, this young man, whose father reported him to the U.S. government complaining of his radical ideas and odd behavior, departed from a European airport carrying enough explosives to blow up the entire plane.

Obama has realized that the performance of the American security agencies has changed little since September 11, 2001. Despite the money spent on strengthening the United States against terrorism, the performance of the security agencies remains weak. All that has changed is the inconvenience to passengers in U.S. and European airports. They are the ones who are truly paying the price for America’s war on terror. Eight years after the disaster of September 11, Obama recognizes that all of the government’s efforts to win this war were in vain. A 23-year-old had the ability to blow up a passenger airplane on a trip from Amsterdam to Detroit, despite the availability of intelligence pertaining to his plans and the gravity of the threat. The Americans had every means to prevent him from boarding the plane, but they did nothing. The rest is history.

What can only be described as an enormous terrorist act was prevented by chance, thereby confirming to Obama that he needs to start from scratch. Simply put, Obama needs to wage his own war if he wants to triumph over terrorism. Everything that George Bush’s administration carried out since September 11, 2001 contributed to furthering terrorism and enabling it to establish new footing in different parts of the world. The United States could not get rid of al-Qaida or the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

With each passing day it becomes apparent that Pakistan is the real area of conflict while Afghanistan is beyond the control of the Americans and their NATO allies. The world has become a more dangerous place since September 11, 2001. George Bush erred in entering Iraq before resolving issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is impossible to separate the conflict in Afghanistan from that in Pakistan. It was expected that the U.S. would focus on those two countries when the twin towers collapsed in New York. Obama will pay dearly for George Bush’s decision. While the main part of Al-Qaida is contained in Pakistan and Afghanistan alone, the clan has heavy influence in Iraq and Indonesia, with its power becoming more prominent in Somalia with each passing day.

The Obama administration has the right to complain about the presence of al-Qaida in Yemen. That is hardly a military secret, particularly since al-Qaida attacked the American destroyer USS Cole in Port of Aden during October 2000, based on Osama bin Laden’s instructions. Every Arab who opposes terrorism has the right to wonder what helped al-Qaida expand in Yemen. Is the problem of al-Qaida in Yemen really separable from other problems afflicting a country that is situated so strategically?

There is no doubt that the Obama administration is in an unenviable position; with each passing day, the burden of George Bush’s legacy becomes clearer. It has also become evident that the problem does not only lie in Bush’s legacy and the two wars that exhausted the U.S. army, limiting its ability to interfere with other parts of the world; the problem lies specifically in the inability of U.S. security agencies to understand what is happening in the world. Yemen is the most recent example.

When it comes to Yemen, it is not possible to focus solely on al-Qaida. Al-Qaida is a problem for many reasons. What enabled al-Qaida to gain such a strong presence in this country, though? Is the Saada war that has persisted for over five years not a factor in promoting al-Qaida’s growth and expansion after its limited presence? Is the worsening economic crisis during the past few years not a contributing factor in boosting the al-Qaida that preys on ignorance and misery before anything else? It is important to continue the war on terror, but the Obama administration will be in serious trouble if it does not review American policies, particularly the ones implemented since 2001. The war on terror requires human intelligence first and a broad horizon second. The war on terror cannot be fought with security agencies that lack coordination and the acknowledgment that Yemen could easily become another Somalia or Afghanistan in the absence of a comprehensive approach to the problem of al-Qaida’s prominence.