US
campaign on war against international terrorism in Afghanistan is a serious
case that has attracted state, regional and global attention. Attack on one
country when not prevented will actually lead to an attack on another
country. Freedom of one is a loss to the other terrorism is a
collective responsibility that should be fought using all necessary measures.
Since
September, 2001 terrorist attack directed at the United State of America, the
issue of terrorism has attracted more than ever before a global
attention. This is because the scale of
damage, which accompanied the attack
and the attendant loss of human lives is a serious one. Osama Bin Laden after
repeated denial in 2004 , claimed
responsibility for the September
11, 2001 attack on the
united states. The attacks
involved the hijacking of four commercial passenger aircraft. The subsequent
destruction of those planes and the world trade center in new York city, severe damage to the pentagon
in Arlington, Virginia and the deaths
of about 2974 people and the nineteen
hijackers including citizens of eighty countries. Between
2003 to 2010, in
over 10,000 attacks being executed by Al-Quaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan,
4470 people have died and 8141
people injured. President George Bush in
his address to a joint session of the United States congress and the people of
the United States lamented as follows:
On
September 11, the enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our
country. American have known wars but for the past 136 years they have seen wars on; foreign soil, except for one Sunday in
1941 . American have known
casualties of war but not at the centre of
a great city on a peaceful morning. American have known surprise attacks
but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in
a single day and night fell on a
different world where freedom itself was
under attack.
From the foregoing, the US in response to the attacks,
launched war on terror to depose the
Taliban regime in Afghanistan and
capture Al-quaeda operatives and several
countries strengthened their
anti-terrorism legislation to prevent
further attacks. The federal bureau of
investigation (EBI) has stated that classified evidence linking Al-quaeda and
bin laden to the attacks of September
11, is clear and irrefutable.
The UK government also reached a similar conclusion regarding Al-quaeda and
Bin Laden’s culpability for the September 11,
2001 attacks.
On
September 16, 2001 bin laden read
a statement later broadcast by qutar’s
al-jazeera satellite channel denying responsibility for the attack in
video tape recovered by the US forces in
November, 2001 in Jalalabad, bin laden
was seen discussing the attack with
Khaled al Habi in a way that indicates fore knowledge. The tape was broadcast on
various news networks
on December 13, 2001.
The merits of
this translation have been disputed.
Arabist Dr. Abdel E.I.M Husseini stated: “thus translation is very problematic because
it is not identical with Arabic. In the 18 -minute tape, played on Al Jazeera,
four days before the American presidential election ,. Bin Ladin accused US president
George Bush of negligence on the
Hijacking of the planes on
September 11. According to the tapes, bin laden claimed he was
inspired to destroy the world trade centre after watching the destruction of
towers in Lebanon by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon war. In two other tapes
aired by Al Jazeera in 2006 Osama bin laden announces, I am the
one in charge of the nineteen brothers, I was responsible for entrusting the nineteen brothers with the raids (5 minutes
audio tape broad cast May 23, 2006.)
and is seen with Ramzi Binal Shibh as well as two of the 9/11
hijackers, Haniza Al Ghamdi and
wail Al-shhri as they make preparation for the attacks.
In 1999,
US President Bill Clinton convinced the united nations to impose
sanctions against Afghanistan in an
attempt to force the Taliban to extradite him. On October, 2001, Bin Laden appeared a well on the initial list of the top 22 FBI
most wanted terrorists, which was released
to the public by the president of the United State George W. Bush in
direct response to the attacks of 9/11 but which was again based on indictment for the 1998 embassy attack Bush concluded the guilty of Osama as the Taliban refused to try him after many times of requests by USA as a matter of fact,
Bill Clinton administration has in his
objectives the capture of Osama Bin Laden. President Clinton shortly after September 11,2001 had
signed a directive giving legal support to apprehend bin laden and
bring him to United States for trial after the
1998 United States embassy bombing in
African. In 2000, prior to the September 11 attacks,
Paul Bremer characterized the Clinton
administration as correctly focused on Bin Laden while Robert O Akley criticized
their obsession with Osama. Bush administration immediately after the 9/11
attack, US government official named
bin laden and the Al-Quada
organization as the prime suspects and offered a reward of $25 million for information leading to his capture or
death. On July 13 2007, the figure was doubled to $50million. At line pilot and air transport association
offered an additional $2 million reward. The US Afghanistan forces raided the mountains
caves in tora between august 14/6 /2007.
More so the Obama
administration played a vital role. On October 7, 2008 in the second
presidential debate on foreign policy, the presidential candidate Barrack
Obama pledged
“we
will kill bin laden. We will crush Al –quaeda.
That
has to be our biggest national security
priority
The President elect,
Obama expressed his plains to “renew US commitment to finding Al-quaeda
leader, Osama Bin Ladin .
According to his
national security advises “ in an effort to ratchet up the hunt of the
terrorist, the US secretary of defense Robert
Gates said in December, 2009 that officials had had no reliable information on Bin Laden’s where abouts for years. A week later, General
Stanley MCchrystal, the top us commander in Afghanistan said in 2009
that Al-quaeda will not be degreated
unless its leader is captured or killed. Testifying to the US congress, he said Osama
had become an Iconic figure, whose survival emboldens Al-quaeda as a
franchising organization across the world. Osama deployed 30,000 extra troops
to Afghanistan to ensure a victory.
In April 2011,
Obama ordered a convert operation to kill Bin Laden. On May 2, 2011 US Navy Seals carried it out
and killed him in his Abbottabad, Pkistan compound.
Since the
terrorist attack started, US has lost
many solders and Afghanistan soldiers mixed with civilians giving rise to about
10,000 people death and hundreds of thousands of casualties. a recent study by the New York partnership and
chamber of commerce reveals that the
direct and indirect economics costs of
the destruction of the world
trade centrer is about $83
billion as Lee and Perl 2002
cited in Onuoha, 2008 in his book
entitled “beyond diplomacy, contemporary
issues in international relations. The afghan red army is fighting seriously to defeat the US forces while PLO
and HAMAH have been unleashing terror
over Israel domination of the territory
that now form Afghanistan were established toward the
end of
the 19th century, when the British and the Bussian empires
were competing for control of the
region. The pashtun population was split, one part living in British India and the
pashtun majority in Afghanistan reduced to about half the population.