Tragedies on all sides reveal the ultimate loss



Patrick Creaven


America’s Tragedy: We’re getting closer to the five-year anniversary of 9/11, and Osama bin Laden is still alive.

This is ridiculous. We have the most powerful army in the world. We have taken over a country and we have captured a dictator, but bin Laden is still living in a cave.

It is time to bring this terrorist to justice. He is directly responsible for the murders of thousands of Americans. It is a tragedy we haven’t avenged their innocent deaths. We need to kill bin Laden.

Al-Qaida’s Tragedy: They’re getting closer to their five-year anniversary of 9/11, and President George W. Bush is still alive.

They think this is ridiculous. They believe they have the most powerful terrorist organization in the world, a group that has bombed in Madrid and London. Yet despite their efforts, Bush is still living in the White House even though their efforts to destroy it through a collision course from flight United 93 were stopped.

They feel it’s time to bring that “Zionist” to justice. They believe he is directly responsible for the murders of thousands of Arabs and it’s a tragedy their deaths have not been avenged.

The Real Tragedy: The United States wants bin Laden dead. Al-Qaida wants Bush dead. Both sides want revenge.

I want revenge. I want to go home tonight, have a special report bulletin come up on the television telling me bin Laden is just as dead as the people he murdered on 9/11.

The problem is there is a 22-year-old just like me somewhere in the Middle East who also wants revenge. They want to go home tonight, turn on Al-Jazeera and be told Bush is just as dead as the people he bombed while invading Iraq.

This entire war is about revenge. Al-Qaida wanted revenge for the U.S. policy in the Middle East (among other things), so they decided to crash planes into important buildings.

Of course, the United States wanted revenge for 9/11, so it invaded Afghanistan and was even able to milk the revenge card enough to go into Iraq.

So begins the revenge merry-go-round.

Both sides in this war are forgetting what the big picture is. If the end game for al-Qaida is to kick out American influence in Middle East, they are farther away from this goal than ever before (Iraq). If the end game for the United States is to rid the world of terrorists, they too are farther away from this goal than ever before (Iraq).

The two sides are in a stalemate.

This isn’t a “War on Terrorism” or a “War on the West.” This is a “War on Ideology.” There is no chance al-Qaida can turn me to its side, just like there is no chance for the United States to convince a 22-year-old in the Middle East to come to our side.

But we will continue to fight. We both have to. We both need revenge, and we will both ultimately lose. That is the real tragedy.

Patrick Creaven is a senior journalism major.

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