Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive - Research Paper Example

?After years of terrorist activities, violence and bloodshed, Osama bin Laden is dead. The man who changed the whole picture of the globe is finally dead now but the most important question out of the many that his death has left is ‘does the death of Osama bin Laden mark an end to terrorism in the world and what will be the future of his organization, al Qaeda: the largest and the most well established terrorist organization of the world. Osama’s last message to his son and wives, which has been called by al Qaeda as a fake but is being taken seriously by the western intelligence agencies, clearly depicts that Osama did not want any of his sons to take the command of al Qaeda and he actually forbade them to join the organization (The Economist). That means any of Osama’s sone taking the command of al Qaeda is very unlikely to happen and thus the next supreme leader of al Qaeda, if it survives, will be from its leading commanders. Al Qaeda was founded way back in 1988 by Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam, who is believed to be killed by Ayman al Zawahiri in Peshawar a year later because of the rising differences between the two. Ever since the death of Abdullah Azzam, Ayman al Zawahiri rose to the position of the second in command of al Qaeda. But it is also believed that the real power was always in the hand of Ayman al Zawahiri and Osama was given the status of the supreme leader only because of the large funding he provided for the establishment of al Qaeda from his personal wealth, if this is true than there is no doubt about the fact that Osama’s will not turn out to be that big a blow for the organization as long as al Zawahiri is alive (Randal). It is also believed that Osama was present in Abbottabad and was not operating the terrorist organization effectively because he had developed differences with Ayman al Zawahiri who preferred keeping Osama at a place where he could not effectively communicate with the hundreds of members of the terrorist organizations (Murdico). Al Zawahiri is the leader of al Qaeda now but regardless of his power within the organization, he has lost his power, mobility and effectiveness because of the repeated successful operations led by the coalition forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he was almost killed in one such air borne operation which took place in the North Western Pakistani region of Bajaur. Same is the situation with most of the al Qaeda commanders who are reportedly hiding in the mountains in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Many of the Taliban and Arabs who were present in Pakistan helping al Qaeda to carry out its activities are bound to stay underground because of the increased frequency of the drone attacks on various Taliban and al Qaeda sanctuaries in Afghanistan and Pakistan which killed renowned Taliban commanders like Nek Muhammad and BaitullahMehsud (The Economist). There is no doubt about the fact that al Qaeda is still strong in Pakistan, the country where it was first formed by Osama bin Laden and the future of al Qaeda after Osama’s death largely depends on the stance the Pakistani government, Pakistani politicians and particularly the Pakistan Army and the ISI (Pakistani equivalent to CIA) takes on al Qaeda. The presence of Osama bin Laden in a military city of Pakistan and just a few meters away from the largest military academy in Pakistan is not very encouraging and gives hints about the negative practices of the Pakistani Army in favor of al Qaeda and Taliban and raises a lot of questions about the effectiveness of the role Pakistan is playing in the war against terrorism. Pakistani Army’s affiliation with the Taliban and al Qaeda does not seem very surprising if we consider the history of ties between the Taliban, al Qaeda and Pakistani Army through the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and other Pakistani military intelligence agencies. After the end of the soviet war in Afghanistan, the various Islamic militants which were gathered in the region to fight a holy war (Jihad) against the soviet expansion in Afghanistan started forming organizations to carry out various operations to force countries like US and Israel to pull out their troops from Saudi Arabia and Palestine. During the war against the soviet union in Afghanistan, large amounts of financial and military assistance from the US was channelized to these Islamic militant groups through the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. It is when ISI developed strong relationships with these militants and after the war ended started using them for carrying out its own operations. Al Qaeda was one of the many organizations formed in the aftermath of the soviet war in Afghanistan and fighting for the rights of the people of Kashmir was also present in its agenda that is where the ISI and al Qaeda and some of the other militant groups found common interest (Randal). ISI started using al Qaeda and its subsidiary organizations against India in Kashmir and developed strong relationships with them. So in the present scenario, ISI supporting al Qaeda is totally understandable if we consider the history. Under such circumstances, ending al Qaeda would be very difficult because most of its militants are operating in Pakistan and without the support of Pakistani army, it is very difficult to catch or kill all of them. The manner in which Osama bin Laden was killed only added to the already deteriorating situation between the US and Pakistani army because the Pakistani army believe that the US should have shared intelligence with them about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and a joint operation would have been better to kill him (The Economist). On the other hand the United States government believes that the Pakistani army is not doing enough to achieve success in the war against terrorism. Under these circumstances al Qaeda can achieve its past strength if the issues between the US and the Pakistani army are not resolved at the earliest. But most of the analysts say that al Qaeda would become weak after the death of bin Laden but here one question needs to be answered that whether al Qaeda was strong even with Osama bin Laden alive? For answering this question we need to consider the influence of al Qaeda over the whole world in general and over the Islamic world in particular. During the last decade, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, al Qaeda was effectively carrying out its activities in various regions of the world including the West and was able to set new examples of brutality in various terrorist attacks it carried out in the world. But during the last 3 years al Qaeda’s influence and power in various regions of the world has been hitting new lows every other month because of the successful campaigns carried out by the coalition forces and the intelligence agencies. However, the decrease in power is also due to some other factors which are related to the Islamic world. When al Qaeda was established back in 1988, decreasing the western influence in the Islamic world, establishment of Islamic Shariah Law through reviving the institution of Caliphate were identified as its core mission values and the means adopted for achieving these targets also included armed struggle against the non Muslims, the Jewish people in particular because al Qaeda portrayed them to be the enemies of Islam and the Muslims. Under the Caliphate, all the Muslim states were to be joined together to form on country without the concept of any regional nationalism. At that time these ideas were welcomed by a majority of people in Muslim states (though the Muslim governments never accepted them) and that is why a large number of Arabs, Asian and African Muslims gathered under the al Qaeda banner first in Sudan and then in Pakistan and Afghanistan to mark the start of the Caliphate and to drive the western forces away from the Muslim lands. These ideas though welcomed 20 years earlier, are not very popular among the people of the Muslim states and now a majority of the Muslim people consider al Qaeda as terrorist organization rather than a revolutionary organization, as it was considered in the past. As a result, the various places in the World, particularly the Muslim World which used to serve as safe havens for the al Qaeda leaders, commanders and militants do not exist now because al Qaeda has lost the support of the people of the Muslim world and thus has lost its past effectiveness and strength. The people in the Muslim states who in the past were motivated through the slogans of Caliphate and Shariah are now motivated by the western norms of democracy, human rights, freedom of expression and are aspiring for their own liberties, separately in their own countries following regional nationalism. The reason behind this change of attitude in most of the Muslim countries is the fact that al Qaeda killed more Muslims than non Muslims during the past decade, in various bombings and suicide attacks which were carried out in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Osama bin Laden’s death is certainly a severe blow to al Qaeda but it will not put an end to its activities. Pakistan’s role on War against terrorism has always been criticized by the Afghan government and the Afghan President Hamid Karzai repeated this in his reaction to Osama bin Laden’s death, “We hope that the terrorists' activities will be stopped after Osama Bin Laden's death which was his punishment. And as well, the world should realize what we have repeatedly said all these years and every single day, that the war against terrorism should not be followed in the villages of Afghanistan. The war against terrorism is not in the houses of innocent Afghan civilians. The fight against terrorism is not in bombing children and women in Afghanistan. The war against terrorism should be carried out in his safe haven, sanctuary and his training camp, not in Afghanistan, and today this has been proved right.” The analysis of the world with Osama alive and after his death clearly shows that it would not affect the workings of al Qaeda much because Osama though was very important for the organization in the past but he had practically become non operational during the last 3 or 4 years. However, the death of Osama bin Laden has revealed some of the very important facts about the country in which he was killed, Pakistan. Considered an ally in the war against terrorism, Pakistan continued to enjoy a very important position in the global community with large sums of aid money directed towards them as support in the war against terrorism, however the presence of Osama just under the nose of Pakistani army and some of the other incidents has revealed to the world that the country is still the central location for the global terrorists organization and al Qaeda is operating from this country, a fact which was confirmed by the death of Osama bin Laden. It has also clarified the position and stance of the Pakistani army and the Pakistani democratic government; the two institutions in the country differ in opinion on various issues regarding relationships with the US and the war against terrorism. No doubt, Pakistan was the focus of al Qaeda during the last few years because the leaders of the terrorist organization has rightly guessed the vulnerability and the militancy potential of the country and al Qaeda continued to use it to continue its activities. The Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari showed comfort on the death of Osama bin Laden saying “Pakistan is perhaps the world’s greatest victim of terrorism”, the murder of Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani Prime Minister and a renowned politician was one of the major triumphs al Qaeda achieved after the 9/11 attacks, however the government has failed to force the army to fight effectively against al Qaeda and Taliban. Other major successes which can be derived from the death of Osama bin Laden include the weakening of al Qaeda internally because their leader Osama was considered a symbol of unity and was equally respected by all the members of the terrorist organization, his death will certainly trigger the division of the organization into factions. Another major advantage is the end of the image of al Qaeda that it is beyond the reach of the US and coalition forces. With their supreme commander killed, everyone is hopeful that all the other leaders will also meet the fate of their supreme leader very soon. The various documents and records retrieved from Osama’s compound in Abbottabad also tell about the whereabouts of many important figures in the organization and thus they are not out of the reach of the forces anymore (Griffin). Despite these successes, some of the recent developments show that bigger challenges still exist, the biggest of which is to kill Aymen al Zawahiri, the new leader of the organization. A few new names are also being heard like the Yemeni Anwar Awlaki who is operating an al Qaeda cell in Yemen and has already conducted unsuccessful terrorist campaigns in Detroit and Chicago. Recently the attacks conducted by al Qaeda on a naval base in the coastal city of Karachi in Pakistan and also on the western tourists in Morocco give indications that al Qaeda will remain operational and powerful even after Osama, and the world can expect bigger attacks from al Qaeda as a revenge of the death of their supreme commander. So the death of Osama bin Laden is not the end of al Qaeda or the end of terrorism in the world, his network can be much more stronger than he himself was, which means that al Qaeda remains a threat to the global security as it was before the death of Osama bin Laden. According to Toby Feakin, the director of national security at London-based defense think tank Royal United Services Institute, the death of Osama bin Laden will hasten the “rapid decentralization of al Qaeda operations” and it may be said that “a chapter has ended for al Qaeda, however the story is far from over”. Its leaders could limit their communication and movements however they will not stop to kill people in the name of Islam and Caliphate (Riedel). Talking about the threat of al Qaeda after Osama bin Laden President Obama while telling the nation about Osama’s death said, “…his death does not mark the end of our effort. There is no doubt that al Qaeda will continue to pursuit attacks against us. We must – and we will – remain vigilant at home and abroad.” So al Qaeda is still believed to be strong enough to conduct its terrorist activities across the globe. The focus now needs to be shifted towards Pakistan, a country where all this started and who is still suspected to support the terrorist organizations. The world needs to support the democratic governments in Pakistan in order to end the influence of the Pakistani army in the affairs of the state. With the Muslim world getting out of the influence of the extremist Islamic groups and organizations, the current era is the most favorable one for putting an end to terrorism, however correct steps needs to be taken. The death of Osama bin Laden is being deemed as an end to an era of terrorism and a lesson for the other terrorist leaders as well, as said by the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, “My heartfelt gratitude to President Obama and to all of those who so brilliantly undertook and executed this operation. We should never forget 9/11 was also the worst ever terrorist attack against UK civilians, and our thoughts are with all those - American, British and from nations across the world - who lost their lives and with their loved ones who remain and who live with their loss. 9/11 was an attack not just on the United States, but on all those who shared the best values of civilization. The operation shows those who commit acts of terror against the innocent will be brought to justice, however long it takes. So this is a huge achievement in the fight against terrorism but we know the fight against the terrorism and the ideology that Bin Laden represents continues and is as urgent as ever.” Al Qaeda will continue to survive and carry out its activities until it is dismantled completely with all its leaders killed and the networks destroyed. Osama bin Laden’s death, though a big achievement but it should be considered as a step towards the end of terrorism in the world as said by the French President, “The scourge of terrorism has suffered a historic defeat but it is not the end of Al Qaeda”. Works Cited Griffin, David. Osama bin Laden: dead or alive? N.p.: Interlink Books, 2009. Print. Murdico, Suzanne. Osama bin Laden. N.p.: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2007. Print. Randal, Jonathan. Osama: the making of a terrorist. N.p.: I. B. Tauris, 2006. Print. Riedel, Bruce. The Search for Al Qaeda: its leadership, ideology and future. N.p.: Brookings Institution Press, 2010. Print. "They got him." The Economist. N.p., 5 May 2011. Web. 20 July 2011. . Read More