Al-Qaeda
Developing a Coherent Strategy for a Long War with Al-Qaeda
The phrase 'War on Terror' would have been a very uncommon phenomena if it was discussed somewhere near the 1970s. Till then, wars had only been fought amongst nations for the race to become a super power and achieve global supremacy over other states. In present times, the term 'War on Terror' has brought a new dimension to the concept of war on our planet. This has been due to organizations rising up to achieve their agendas using the means of violence. The Al-Qaeda has been one such organization and it can be said that the current international 'War on Terror' is being fought mainly because of the Al-Qaeda and its terrorist activities around the globe.
Such activities have and will continue to hinder global development in all aspects and endanger people's lives, if not dealt with urgency. Therefore, to achieve global peace and harmony, it is vital to strictly act against the Al-Qaeda and its operations being carried out through the globe. But, considering the mobile nature and globally expanded network of the Al-Qaeda and other such difficulties, this war has taken more than a decade to fight and to bring these terrorists to justice, and it still doesn't seem to end.
Therefore, different perspectives over this war against the Al-Qaeda have been discussed in this paper. To tackle this problem, the necessity to follow a strong strategy and the important areas to focus, have been laid down. If properly followed, such a strategy can surely achieve success against the Al-Qaeda and its terror.
Introduction:
The decision to go to war against a country or a particular group is usually made by the Congress or the President in the case of an emergency. However, these few individuals not only make the decision for themselves, they decide on behalf of the millions of people that reside in their country. Thus, the elected representatives of a country should bear in mind when making such irreversible decision with gargantuan consequences for the nation and people they govern and the ones on which they are set to declare war.
The costs and benefits that arise from taking such an action that puts millions of lives in inevitable risk and danger should be evaluated with great care and each and every move should be strategized and planned meticulously. It should be the least sought after option for political wars can lead to mistrust and unrest in the public when body-bags start rolling in as an aftermath. Carl Von Clauswitz is of the opinion that, "No one starts a war or rather, no one in his senses ought to do so, without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war and how he intends to conduct it . . . Since war is not an act of senseless passion but is controlled by its political object, the value of the object must determine the sacrifices made for it in magnitude and also in duration. Once the expenditure of effort exceeds the value of the political object, the object must be renounced and peace must follow." (Clauswitz, 1984)
A cohesive and well thought-out strategy is required in combating those that threaten the security of a nation. In this case, we choose Al-Qaeda, the architects of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and definers of the term, "International Terrorism." The pre-September 9, 2001 history of Al-Qaeda has been largely erased to poise the terrorist group as Anti-American with objectives to destroy the democratic and economic progress in the country. The origin of Al-Qaeda and its ties to the CIA are rarely mentioned.
Formed in the early 1980's, Al-Qaeda started out as a band of Muslim soldiers (also referred to as the Mujahedeen) fighting against the Soviet Union in the Soviet-Afghan War, with financial and military-training support provided by the CIA in close connection with the Pakistani ISI (Coll, 1992).
Literature Review:
Ahmed Rashid reports that, "With the active encouragement of the CIA and Pakistan's ISI, who wanted to turn the Afghan Jihad into a global war waged by all Muslim states against the Soviet Union, some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 Islamic countries joined Afghanistan's fight between 1982 and 1992. Tens of thousands more came to study in Pakistani madrasahs. Eventually, more than 100,000 foreign Muslim radicals were directly influenced by the Afghan jihad." (Rashid, 1999). Indeed, the illusive leader and mastermind behind modern day Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden was recruited from
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