Soapbox:

Errors of judgement

By Ammar Ali Hassan

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Bush is out and Al-Qaeda is back: these are the words that best sum up the current outcome of the US war on terror. The curtain is coming down on certain individuals who drove their country to the edge of the abyss.

Those who may recall US official discourse following 9/11 would find it chockfull of abstract ideas: "excessive force", "overwhelming supremacy", and "the value of freedom". And don't forget the "eradication of international terror". The Bush administration refused to listen to those who warned it against the futile quest for abstract ideas. The White House had only one goal, that of asserting US hegemony over the world.

In order to achieve this goal, Washington moved on the military, diplomatic and security fronts.

Despite all its efforts, the US failed to arrest or even silence Osama Bin Laden and Ayman El-Zawahri. Bombings rocked Madrid, London, Bali, Cairo, Oman, Sinai, Sanaa and other places in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. The Iraqis became a people struggling against occupation forces. The Taliban regrouped and began fighting back. In Somalia, the Islamic Courts regained their momentum and inflicted losses on Ethiopian forces. In Lebanon, the US-backed "majority" is stranded. In Georgia, Russia taught Washington's allies a harsh lesson.

Having regained their vigour, terrorists recently bombed the US embassy in Sanaa and then the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. They have also promised to attack Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Western interests across Arab and Islamic countries.

All those forces the US once promised to eliminate are making a comeback. Israel lost to Hizbullah in the summer 2006 war. America's image in the world has not improved. Its quest to establish stable democratic regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan has failed. In short, the world is not a safer place.

As the Bush administration leaves office, US interests are more vulnerable than ever before.

Obama knows that Bush is ending two presidential terms in disgrace. His errors of judgement are simply too big to ignore.

* The writer is director of the Middle East Studies and Research Centre, Cairo.