It is really foolish of the Bush administration and most of the western world that they think they can win the war on terrorism by eliminating Al Qaeda. Even if they were to succeed in finishing off Al qaeda, I dont think it will have a major impact on Islamic terrorism. We must understand that Al Qaeda is just one of the hundreds (probably thousands) of those Islamic terror outfits. It is just that Al Qaeda has managed to become extremely popular by making spectacular attacks against US/UK. It is not uncommon, as we can see from our experiences in Kashmir and Bangladesh, for these terror groups to change names and merge with other groups. It is ridiculous to think that Islamic terrorism will be finished if Al Qaeda is dismantled.
It is like thinking that people in India will stop playing Cricket if Indian Cricket team is killed .
The policy makers need to look at Islamic extremism in a holistic manner and treat Al Qaeda as just a popular face of the phenomenon. There are no short-cuts to ending this menace of Islamic terrorism. While measures need to be taken to ward off day to day threats of this menace, the key to the long term strategy for eliminating this menace lies in understanding that 'WE CAN NOT DEFEAT ISLAMIC TERRORISM BY FIGHTING FROM OUTSIDE, WE HAVE TO FIGHT FROM INSIDE!' Let me elaborate a little more, some of the steps that can be taken to eradicate Islamic extremism once and for all in the long run are:
1.First of all understand that Islamic terrorism can not be eliminated by 'military invasion' but by 'cultural invasion'.
2. Penetrate the Muslim society(not by force) and to sow the seeds of westernization and/or modernization.
3. Gain control over and use the media well to make Muslims feel that it is uncool/unfashionable to sympathize with extremists. And ensure that they feel it is fashionable to be modern/western ( very much like how the Indian middle/urban class is increasingly getting westernized, thanks(!) to our media).
4. In all countries where there is sizable Muslim population (including India) , the CIA should tactically ensure that the liberal/western muslim leaders, poets, authors etc., get good media coverage/funding etc.,
5. Ensure that the media (especially Indian media, which is too keen to appease the sensibilities of the muslims) does not portray the terrorists as humans (such as by showing their weeping wives/mothers). All these portrayals of terrorists as humans, some how tells the collective muslim psyche that these terrorist guys are doing some major sacrifices for the sake of their community.
6. Apply the principles of 'divide and weaken' effectively. Not necessarily as Shia and Sunni. Many other opportunities can be arrived at if we take a proper bottom-up approach, may be we can set up one firebrand mullah against another etc.,
There can be many such steps which can be thought of as long as the powers that be realize that the outsiders can not directly change the Muslim society, it is the insiders who can do that, outsiders can just enable/catalyze the process in a DISCREET manner.
PS : Dear Muslim friends, I am not a Hindu/Christian fundamentalist. I am against all forms of extremism. My comments would have been the same even if we had the prospects of a global Hindu terrorism.
