Today thousands of Americans are coming together to celebrate the death of thousands of people killed eleven years ago by a shocking terrorist attack on World Trade Center in New York. The incident is marked as a turning point in the twenty first century and it alerted the world about a growing global challenge.
The attacks were astonishing in terms of extent of destructions and magnitude. The US since the collapse of its main rival, USSR, had been largely deemed invincible and impermeable with such a well-established and sophisticated security establishments, particularly its intelligence, CIA. Carrying such destructive attacks on the US soil was horrifying. It was said: If the US was not safe, then perhaps there were no country out of reach of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
The incident paved the way for another necessary military maneuver. Thus, huge sympathy with the US, on one hand, and prevalent fear from terrorism on the other supported the US to topple Taliban regime in Afghanistan after the demand for handover of Osama bin Laden was refused. President Bush also asked the world to determine their positions: "Those who are not with us are with Al-Qaeda", the statements which were resented by many countries.
Meanwhile, the words "terrorism and Al-Qaeda" changed into a political catch-phrase to weaken the position of enemies. Fronts have been determined in regard to approach of the particular government towards terrorism, at least it is what seems to be so. Many countries are branded as supporter of terrorism in the region. Iraq of Saddam Hussein was the first that was largely toppled on the basis of maintaining linkage with al-Qaeda and terrorism.
Meanwhile, it should be noticed that many countries have been the supporter of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups openly but remained unharmed by political prick. Anyhow, eleven years ago, the United States could get a global consensus to fight terrorism. Perhaps, all agreed that a world with Al-Qaeda and its allies was not safe. It waged war in Afghanistan and Iraq to eradicate the sanctuaries of terrorists but credible assessments show that the global security has remained volatile.
No doubt, there is no Osama bin Laden to plan 9/11 like attacks, but his successors may gather the potential if not tackled properly. Terrorism not only eradicated instead changed into tremendous danger to global peace and security. So, celebrating eleventh anniversary of 9/11, world leaders should try something new – should try to eliminate terrorism and al-Qaeda.