Only the beginning
War on terror far from over

Keyvan Sepehri
July 15, 2005
iranian.com

On July 7th 2005, when Londoners started going to work on a typical busy rush hour in London they suddenly started to feel the heat. Four explosions, three in the underground system and one in a double-decker bus plunged the city into a chaos.

Many people were under that impression that by taking the battleground to Iraq and Afghanistan, Western cities will be safer and more secure. But they were totally wrong.

Since the start of the war on terror, the U.S.-led coalition has always been trying to defeat Al-Qaeda international terror network and bring their master minds to justice. But to date, the outcome has been disastrous and out of control. Since the war started, terrorist organizations have become more sophisticated, organized and they have spread out their attacks even to the heart of Europe.

We can assume that the war in Afghanistan in 2001 which toppled the Taliban has been rather justified as there was much evidence indicating the presence of terror cells in that war-torn country.

But the war in Iraq is a very different story. At the start, the U.S accused Saddam Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction.But to this date none have been found. Then, they argued that they toppled the Iraqi dictator to bring democracy and peace to Iraq. But as we can see, they have turned Iraq into a safe haven for the terrorists.

There is some evidence which suggest that the sole reason for toppling Saddam was for very personal reasons. The U.S and its allies did not care very much about post-Saddam Iraq. They simply wanted to overthrow him .This is why we see Iraq is sinking into chaos and the threat of a devastating civil war after the coalition withdraws is very real.

As a result of this baseless and unjustified war, the most important objectives in the war on terror have been lost their original context. Thousands of foreign troops are still in Iraq and although sovereignty has been transferred to the Iraqis, they have failed to restore order and or provide basic utilities and services in the country.

Maybe some day Iraqis will come to this conclusion that although Saddam was a brutal dictator at least they had security under his government. Now even that little bit of safety and security that existed before has disappeared and it has been replaced by countless number of suicide attacks, kidnappings, poverty and economic devastation across the country.

Besides, the world is not safer than it was before the war. Explosions in Madrid and later on in London are only the first steps of a vicious cycle of global hatred and terror.

Maybe some day George W. Bush and his administration come to see that their efforts in the fight against terrorism were totally wrong and they simply strengthened global terrorism. Maybe some day the world will open its eyes to the facts and realities of the war on terror -- not on TV screens, but behind the scenes of a war in terrible disarray. A war far from being over.