The Jihadists' Theology By Terror

I have never trusted President Barack Obama when it comes to fighting terrorism and the security of the world.  He seems sluggish to take action and only wants to be called the 'good guy' even when Rome burns. Unlike his predecessor George Walter Bush who was ready to put boots on the ground to fight terrorism that threatens world peace, Mr Obama is fearful for reasons best known to himself and his cabinet.  Maybe somebody must remind our kinsman that America is the number one world policeman and will remain so for the unforeseeable future.  When the world is on a meltdown mold and everyone seems not to know where to get the answer, we look up to America for salvation.

So far, Obama seems to have pleased almost no one.  For those who had been urging military boots on the ground when ISIS started gaining grounds, Obama dithered and remains too cautious.  For those wary of another open ended US commitment in the Muslim world, Obama suddenly turned from restraint and became reckless.  But more than anything else, what appears to have infuriated many American politicians is Obama's unwillingness to put the US in the driver's seat like the way Bush did when he went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.  For now Americans have a Spectator-In- Chief rather than a Commander-In-Chief.

When more than two hundred school girls were abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria and there was an outcry over the heinous crime, all what Obama could do was to send a few military advisers to Nigeria to help the embattled government while his wife Michel declared the 'Bring Back Our Girls' campaign.  It has been nearly one year since these poor girls were abducted but the end is as elusive as trying to find a needle in the Atlantic Ocean.  Meanwhile, Boko Haram continues to kill, maim and abduct women and children with ease while the Nigerian Army runs for cover anytime they hear Boko Haram is going to attack a village.

We all thought Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group based in Somalia, will concentrate their exploits in that country alone until they expanded their tentacles to Uganda and attacked the Westgate Shopping Mall in Kenya.  Co-incidentally, Kenya is where Obama's father came from to sojourn in the US.  Ghanaians who hitherto thought the Al-Shabaab menace was an East African affair, laughed at the wrong side of their mouths when the great writer,  statesman  and scholar  (My former lecturer in English Literature) Professor Kofi Awoonor (Awoonor Williams) was mowed down by these sick brains.  When these maniacs bombed the American Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, the world thought it was an American case and they must deal with it.  That was the biggest mistake the civilised world made.

As the years rolled by, Al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, was to show the world that they could even attack the heart of America.  And so on September 11, 2001, Americans had the shock of their lives.  On that peaceful morning, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against the people of America.  Indeed, Americans had known and experienced wars before, but all had been fought on foreign soils.  Americans had known the casualties of war but not at the centre of a great city like New York.  Americans had known surprised attacks but never before on thousands of civilians.  All these were brought upon America in a single day, and night fell on a different world—a world where freedom itself was under attack.

Immediately after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre, George Bush assembled his security advisers and the unanimous decision was to go to war in Afghanistan where Al-Qaeda operated from.  George defied the United Nations and went to war alone, bearing in mind that the security of the people of America was paramount to any resolution that the UN may adopt before ordering for a strike at Al-Qaeda. African leaders who supported George Bush in one way or the other knew that the Al-Qaeda terrorists targeted Americans, Christians, Jews and African none Muslims, making no distinction between military and civilians, including women and children.  After all, in the Tanzania and Kenya attacks many Africans too died alongside the Americans.

In Afghanistan, we saw Al-Qaeda's vision for the world. Afghans were brutalised, many were starved to death and many fled for their dear lives.  Women were not allowed to attend school and one could even be jailed for owning a television set.  In Afghanistan, when the Talibans and Al-Qaeda held the country at ransom, religion could only be practised according to the dictates of their leaders.  A man could be jailed if his beard was not long enough.  The people of Afghanistan lived in fear on daily basis until the bombs started raining down on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Millions, if not billions, of the civilised world respect the faith of Muslims.  It is practised freely by millions of people all over the world.  In fact, it is the second largest religion after Christianity. Its teachings are good and peaceful.  Therefore the Jihadists who profess to be working for Allah should know that those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah.  These terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying desperately to hijack Islam itself.  Muslim clerics all over the world condemn the Jihadists and the way they misinterpret the Holy Quran.

George Bush did a yeoman's job by dismantling all the terrorists' training camps in Afghanistan and even promised that even though the war on terror began with Al-Qaeda, it will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.  His dream died when he left office; and when he was interviewed by CBS  with regard to how he felt when he heard that Osama bin Laden had been killed, this was what he had to tell the reporter: 'The fact that I was not able to kill the guy was my biggest disappointment.' That is a brave warrior for you.

Enter Barrack Obama, a Black American and the successor of George Bush.  Instead of pursuing these terrorists the way George Bush did, he rather concentrated on bringing back home troops who were fighting Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Iraq and Afghanistan and the closing down of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.  His decision gave Al-Qaeda room to regroup and before one could blink an eye, they were found fighting in Syria and Iraq. Today they call themselves the Islamic State of Iraq, Syria and the Levant (ISIL).  These terrorists are more vicious than the original Al-Qaeda and continue to commit atrocities on a large scale, beheading captives, amputating limps and stoning women to death.  They have conquered large territories in both Iraq and Syria.  They have even declared an Islamic State (IS) or Caliphate, with Abubakar Al Bagdadi as their new leader.

Even though the world is calling on America to put boots on the ground, Obama is still adamant, preferring to adopt bombardment which does not affect these terrorists anyway.  As Obama continues to drag his feet, the ISIL continue to sell oil on the black market in order to make money to pay fighters, buy sophisticated weapons and recruit more Jihadists from Europe and beyond.  President Obama should not disappoint Black Americans who pinned their hopes on him.  He should direct all resources at his command as the Commander-In-Chief of the US Army, every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence and of course every necessary weapon of war towards the destruction  and defeat of ISIL. Apart from covert operations, the tactics to defeat these sick brains has to include dramatic strikes visible on TV to serve as a deterrent to those who are yet to be recruited as terrorists.  Can you imagine what the world will look like when the ISIL lay hands on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)?

One particular area is the sources of terrorists funding.  They have to be starved of such funding. Turn them against one another, like the Al Nusra and Al-Qaeda in Syria, and drive them from place to place until there is no refuge or no rest for them. President Obama should pursue nations that provide aid to these mad dogs or give them safe haven and declare war against such nations.  I had cause to write in this column when Boko Haram started their madness that the fight against terrorism is not just one nation's fight.  And what is at stake is not just the freedom of one particular nation.  This is the world's fight.  This is civilisation's fight.  This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, peaceful co-existence, tolerance and freedom.  It is just that America is called to duty by history to lead the fight.

Every nation should join America in this fight.  The era of 'dzi wo fie asem' as propounded by the late President Mills belongs to the dogs.  Boko Haram is knocking on our doors and we do not know when they will strike. Perhaps the United Nation's Charter reflects best the attitude of the world:  'An attack on one is an attack on all'.  If you have been a regular reader of this column you will remember that when Boko Haram started their hate campaign, I had cause to write in this very column that much as the cause of the conflict was not known, its outcome was certain. Throughout history, freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we all know God is not neutral between them.  God is always on the side of freedom and justice.

Today, the world is awakened to danger and called to defend freedom.  Responding to terrorists after they have struck first is not self-defence; it is suicide. In times like this, our grief, following the beheading of innocent souls by ISIL and the abduction of poor girls from Chibok in Nigeria, turns into anger, and anger into resolution.  The world must collectively resolve not to only defeat these sick brains but to wipe them out of the surface of the earth for peace to prevail.  Every nation in every region now has a choice to make:  Either you are with the civilised world or you are with the barbarians.  Simplista!!!  Let me just puff away my Cohiba Nicaragua cigar and just be.

Eric Bawah