Saturday, May 7, 2011

Time to rethink how America relates to the world?

The following editorial comment by Walt's old buddy "CZ" appeared in the Financial Gazette, a more-or-less independent newspaper published in Harare, Zimbabwe.

This week the world joined America in celebrating the killing of Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader whose organisation is blamed for the September 2001 bombing of America.

Primitive as he might sound, CZ honestly thinks real victory (the real “momentous occasion”) will only come when Washington reviews the way it relates with other peoples of the world, which right now breeds resentment and has resulted in the proliferation of militant groups such as al-Qaeda and others.

Even with bin Laden dead, Americans — with all their money and weapons — will still not be able to go to bed peacefully because of this inkling that somewhere in the darkness lurks a person who is plotting something against them. And they will still have to sleep with one eye wide open and always walk with their backs firmly to the wall. This is not how life should be enjoyed.

The fact that it has taken the Americans with all their sophistication 10 long years to kill the al Qaeda leader means that he received sympathy, if not direct support, from a lot of people around the globe and these people will continue to support anything anti-American whenever they can.

Beneath the patina of wide diplomatic smiles, there is a deep-seated anti-American feeling and it is only the Americans who can do something useful about it. Just listen to the deafening silence with which the Arab world received the news of bin Laden’s death.

That silence was pregnant with meaning!

Postscript: Reuters reports today that the Taliban have unleashed a spring offensive in Afghanistan, meant to exact a measure of vengeance for the death of bin Laden. Target: Kandahar, due to be abandoned by Canadian forces in July.

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