The Curse of Terror

It was more than just a symbolic gesture that the president of the United States returned to the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack just after the violent death of Osama bin Laden. Barack Obama publicly paid homage to the 3,389 victims of the 9/11 attacks and later met privately with those who survived. That’s what one does when one settles an open account, brings justice to public enemy number one and wants to reap the political dividends of it all. But Obama’s visit to ground zero didn’t close the circle.

Not quite ten years ago, George W. Bush stood among the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center with a megaphone and swore revenge on those who caused the destruction. From that point on, the numbers 9/11 represented a watershed in world history. With its “war on terror” and forward military strategy, the Bush administration set out to eliminate this new threat. The knee-jerk action of the Texan in the White House followed the old logic of fighting fire with fire.

End of a long chase.

But these were two unequal opponents that faced one another: A suddenly vulnerable superpower and a shadowy terror group called al-Qaida. The asymmetrical war always had something immoderate on both sides. A small network of ruthless terrorists had thrown down the gauntlet before the greatest military power in the world. Nineteen airplane hijackers and a perfidious plan were enough to strike to America’s very core. In response, the United States spent hundreds of billions of dollars combating terror, waged two wars and got carried away with torturing prisoners and disregarding human rights. They were unsuccessful in eliminating the terrorist threat militarily. The symbol of that failure remained Osama bin Laden. After 9/11, who would have predicted that it would take a decade to track him down in his lair?

The end of the long hunt for bin Laden could have meant that phase was over and a new beginning had arrived. In fact, the dark 9/11 era had long since passed by the time the Navy SEAL bullets brought bin Laden down in Abbottabad. History had already bypassed those holy warriors who had envisioned the Muslim future as a medieval caliphate. The Arab Spring in Tunis and Cairo had shown the people that they had other choices beside corrupt dictators and Islamic preachers of hate.

What kind of fresh start is this?

Since Obama’s election in 2008, the United States had begun correcting the misguided direction in which nearly all of its foreign and security policy was headed toward a real but perhaps not existential terror threat. And the new president began correcting another of Bush’s tragic mistakes by announcing a troop withdrawal from Iraq. Rejecting torture and Obama’s announced intention to close Guantanamo were intended to re-establish America’s moral authority. Obama appeared to realize that the decade following 9/11 was a lost decade. He wanted to modernize America’s infrastructure and find foreign policy answers to counter Asia’s ascendance.

But Obama found it difficult to avoid the pitfalls of the old way of thinking. Hardliners blocked his attempt to close Guantanamo. He sent another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, using the excuse that al-Qaida should be deprived of ever again establishing a safe haven for terrorists. In the meantime, the terrorists had long since been encamped across the border in Pakistan and had branches around the world. A withdrawal from Afghanistan, however, was politically out of the question as long as Osama bin Laden’s name was on the FBI’s most wanted list.

Now that has changed. With its commando raid in Abbottabad, the United States has theoretically liberated itself from curse of 9/11 and given the government latitude for a new foreign policy. America can reshuffle its priorities and discard old, ineffective methods. But what kind of fresh start is this? It’s a fresh start that we increasingly suspect is based on a crime. Osama bin Laden’s corpse was sunk in the waters of the Arabian Sea. The world won’t be allowed to see photographs and newly emerging details awaken new doubts about the claim that bin Laden put up resistance against the U.S. troops.

This also closes a circle: Obama’s commando raid could well have been taken directly from George W. Bush’s playbook.