US urged to find root cause of terrorism
RAWALPINDI, Sept 22: The United States should find out the root cause of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington instead of running after Osama bin Laden, said Greg Mortenson, the chief executive of US-based Central Asia Institute (CAI), while talking to Dawn.
The approach, Mr Mortenson believed, reflected the ignorance of the Americans about Islam and geo-political and other issues concerning the Muslims.
He was of the view that the US had been facing present crisis due to its policy of “Love them (when you need them) and leave them (when they have fulfilled your purpose)”. He urged the American leadership and the public to give up this attitude that had proved detrimental to its own interests.
“Revenge is no solution to such problems,” the CAI chief maintained as he wondered if the impending US retaliatory strikes would help root out the menace of global terrorism.
The problem, the expert on Central Asian affairs believed, was far more complex and could not be cured by the “surgical methods” in which Americans seem to have blind faith as they looked for quick and decisive solutions because of abundance of wealth and complacency of having an invincible military might.
“First we targeted Ayatollah Khomeini, then came Gaddafi, later it was Saddam and the latest villain in Americans’ eyes is Osama – it would continue on like that and it is matter of time before we have another man to target,” Mr Mortenson said as he tried to convince that the US would have to re-think its own strategy.
“These Afghans, whom the Americans now see as terrorists, were recruited and trained by the CIA itself to prepare them for the fight against Russia”, he said, adding: “Now, when they have finished the task, we do not require them and they have become detestable for us”.
He said when Afghans were busy in war against Russia, the US provided them a grant of one billion US dollars. When the Russian troops left Afghanistan, the assistance dropped to less than 100 million US dollars despite the fact that Afghanistan at that time required enhancement in the grant for re-building the war- devastated country.
He said poverty, unemployment, inequality, lack of education and other such misfortunes that the Afghans had received after the war against Russia were the root causes of terrorism.
The CAI chief predicted that the US would launch strikes against Afghanistan. However, he said, by attacking Afghanistan the US government would be committing a grave mistake.
About the perception of an average American about the crisis, Mr Mortenson said, initially emotions were running high and people wanted to avenge the disaster, but as time passed on and people reflected over the happenings, they felt reluctant in launching attacks against Afghanistan and involving US troops in active combat without concrete evidence.
Copyright (c) 2001 Pakistan Dawn
