The 9/11 moment

This anniversary is an apt moment to remember the hundreds and thousands who perished, and continue to perish, in heinous acts of terror. It is also time to take stock of an America-led endeavour announced then to make the world a safer place. Two aspects of that project stand out. One, the war against this new kind of terror was to be founded on international cooperation.

Two, the war was not to be against a state or a people; it was against rage. Certainly, the battle was to be taken to virtual networks like Osama bin Laden’s, governments supportive of terrorists were to be chastened; but the ultimate aim, it was said, was to address the roots of rage, the burning anger that drives men to take innocent lives.

After September 11, a sense of common purpose held through the invasion of Afghanistan. As America’s war of terror, however, took a westward turn to Iraq, it rapidly dissipated. At one level, this highlights the US’s isolation today. It asks of the lonely superpower a few questions. Is its purported desire to tackle threats to global security actually an operation to zero in on threats to American security alone? Is talk of coalitions of the willing simply a cover for American unilateralism?

The current crisis in managing Iraq after the war, as too in attending to terrorisms threatening other countries, also throws light on the need for reform in international institutions charged with maintaining peace and security. Washington may be suddenly keen on repairing relations with the UN; but the UN is ripe for repair. Today, its highest bodies represent an old world order, and it is ill-equipped to deal with new challenges.

Smart military manoeuvres and glib foreign policy formulations, in any case, are not enough to reverse alienation and anger. Bio-datas to new recruits to terrorism include a new variant: Well-educated youth, with no criminal taint, willing to cede their opportunities to register indignation at their community’s marginalisation. Defusing this, sometimes inchoate, rage is a 9/11 challenge that is still to be fully met.