http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=19408
The World Forgets but Al Qaeda Remembers
By Muhammad Diyab
05/01/2010
Muhammad Diyab
Muhammad Diyab is a well-known Saudi writer and journalist.
During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, this impoverished country was at
the heart of [international] events, and its people were showered with money.
This was not out of love of the Afghans, but due to hatred of the Soviet Union.
This money helped to establish leaders, warlords, and professional fighters [in
Afghanistan]. When the Soviets departed from Afghanistan, Afghanistan itself
departed from the word's consciousness, and was left to be ravaged by poverty,
brutality, and the conflict of its warlords. It was inevitable that terrorism
would thrive in such a chaotic environment. The west did not shake off its
indifference and apathy to what was happening in Afghanistan until after the
disastrous events of 11 September 2001. This was the moment that the world
found itself paying a thousands time the cost of what it would have originally
paid had it helped the Afghans following the end of the Soviet era, rescuing
them from the chaotic aftermath of the war by supporting civilian rule and
thereby ensuring a decent life for all Afghans.
The world committed the same mistake in Somalia by spending many years standing
and "watching" what was happening in that poverty-stricken, hungry, and
miserable country as if what was taking place there did not concern the world
at large. This crisis could have been nipped in the bud before it snowballed
and required more money and effort to resolve. However this deliberate
negligence caused Somalia to become one of the most dangerous incubators for
terrorism around the world. The world awoke to this threat after it was too
late, becoming aware of the phenomenon of piracy, and the future solution to
this will no doubt be extremely expensive. However just a fraction of this cost
in the past could have saved Somalia and the world at large from this fate.
What happened in Afghanistan and Somalia can happen anywhere in the world. The
potential spots where this could happen will become apparent if the world
continues ignorantly turning a blind eye [to this]. Such locations will then be
exploited by Al Qaeda, in accordance with the natural law that nature abhors a
vacuum.
Despite all of this, the world today lives in one house, and no inhabitant can
ignore what is taking place in another part of the house, otherwise the house
itself will collapse onto everybody. The distance between countries is now an
illusion, to the extent that a Nigerian terrorist armed with explosives can
pass from the mountainside of Yemen to Europe and from there to the US. Nobody
is able to live in isolation from everybody else. Therefore countries do not
have to fight against terrorism alone; terrorists have no [moral] compass, and
everybody is an opponent.
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