4 - 10 October 2001
Issue No.554
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 4 - 10 October 2001 Issue No.554 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Action heroes
After regaling the world for decades with stories of superhuman power and doomsday scenarios, America has had to confront a situation in which its vainglory and military might were drastically undermined.
Still, Washington evidently has not learned its lesson: America's only response to the attacks on Washington and New York has been to declare war on a shadowy, as yet unidentified entity it has called, conveniently, terrorism. At no point have the masterminds of the American empire wondered why such attacks took place, what induced so much hatred in the hearts of millions of people around the world or whether the result of the war on terrorism would intensify this hatred, causing even more violence in the long term.
The culprits who allegedly perpetrated these attacks are Arabs and Muslims. Sadly, it is only they who will continue to suffer. In the attempt to capture Bin Laden, a legend of its own invention, America will not be so bold as to send troops into Afghanistan but will bomb disadvantaged civilians, as it did in Iraq and elsewhere throughout the past decades. The conflicts will multiply, and so will the victims. Israel, America's Middle East ally, will resume its oppression of Palestinians in tandem. Arab and Islamic governments, powerless and embarrassed before their peoples, will have to put up with more humiliation.
And though the action movie has yet to begin, perhaps the attacks on Washington and New York signal an end of greater moment.
*This week's Soapbox speaker is the head of the Arab Centre for Strategic Studies.
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