Osama Will Haunt Obama – OpEd

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By Hassan Hanizadeh

The murder of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by US commando teams will certainly be considered to be a military and political victory for the US President Barack Obama.

But it seems the murdering of the al-Qaeda leader will not define Obama’s political future and it seems the ghost of bin Laden will continue to haunt Obama.

The manner in which he was killed and his body being tossed into the ocean is definitely not going to sit well with the Salafi Muslim community.

Instead of confronting terrorism through political and logical means the US has been bent on utilizing its military hegemony and hardware to confront this complicated phenomenon.

Over the past few years, the roots of the creation of global terrorism have never been fairly studied and analyzed by US academia.

Therefore, the dangerous phenomenon of terrorism will come back to threatened not only the US but the entire world with new and improved methods.

In general, the formation of al-Qaeda was a result of the existence of an undemocratic tribal atmosphere in Saudi Arabia as this country has proven to be the birthplace of terrorism over the past 100 years.

The founding core of al-Qaeda is based on Salafi and Wahabi ideology which opposes all forms of manifestations of western civilization.

Even though bin laden had lived in the US and other Western countries the roots of Salafi and Wahabi ideology continued to remain in his identity.

Today, there are young men in Saudi Arabia who have been educated in the most advanced universities of the US and the West, yet they continue to view Western nations with hatred.

The existence of a mental foundation of animosity toward the US and the West among Saudi youth has fueled extremist terrorist mentalities.

The structure of power in Saudi Arabia is still based on the Arab medieval ages where power is dependent on influential tribes.

Some 6,000 members of the Saudi royal family govern and decide for the 25 million residents of Saudi Arabia and control over half of the country’s oil revenues.

The existence of huge divide between the lower classes of society combined with the dry and inflexible teachings of Wahabi ideology, which includes violence in normal daily life, has fueled the phenomenon of terrorism.

But the Saudi regime has been able to gain the support of the US and Western international organizations through two elements of ‘media’ and ‘petro-dollars.’

Over the past twenty years that al-Qaeda has made its war against the US and the West official, important investment companies owned by the bin Laden family have been some of the most active in road construction and engineering services in Saudi Arabia and have been providing al-Qaeda with financial support.

Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars earned by bin Laden’s contractor companies in Saudi Arabia are channeled to al-Qaeda-linked terrorists worldwide under the guise of charity organizations run by Saudi royals.

The United States opts for silence here over its dependence on Saudi oil and the KSA’s influence on the decision-making institutions in the US.

In the 9/11 terror attacks, the then President George W. Bush pointed the finger at other countries in the region despite his prior knowledge that all the elements involved in the attack on the World Trade twin towers were Saudi nationals.

America’s paradoxical behavior –both political and security-wise– towards the regional countries leaves no doubt that the US is not keen on fighting terrorism.

Therefore, following the September 11 incident, it was expected of America to embark on action and change KSA’s nondemocratic structure in order to control the country. However, Saudi Arabia could easily mend fences with the West and the US.

It was said that Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to Washington, Bandar bin Sultan, spent some 20 million dollars in the aftermath of the 9/11 to help close the case on terrorism.

Now that ten years have passed after the woeful event, Barack Obama’s security and military teams have– in a rash decision for internal consumption-claimed they have gunned down the al-Qaeda leader.

Now, will the former ringleader’s assassination end terrorism in the world?

Certainly, the killing has early commercial use for Obama’s reelection bid but Osama bin Laden’s apparition is bound to haunt Barack Obama.

To uproot global terror, Obama needs to turn to Saudi Arabia- – the origin of terrorism in the world.

Without a fundamental change of structure in KSA and without a regime change in the otherwise undemocratic country, hundreds of bin Ladens will emerge from the harsh, barren deserts of Saudi Arabia.

Although, al-Qaeda’s head has been killed, the many-tentacled octopus will launch future movements against the US and the West with organizational restructuring and new management.

It is certain that bin Laden’s apparition will relentlessly haunt Obama during the 2012 presidential election in the states. This will be the most dangerous period in the US history in terms of security.

Thus, it appears that the al-Qaeda terrorists are well aware that bin Laden has fallen victim to Barack Obama’s election campaign.

Hence, these elements will attempt to take vengeance on Obama by trying to make him fail in the upcoming election by means of their previous experiences.

Press TV

Press TV is a state funded news network owned by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Its headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran and seeks to counter a western view on news.

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