On August 2, 2022, President Joe Biden went outside on a balcony at the White House to announce that the United States of America had killed another terrorist leader, namely, Ayman al-Zawahri.
The next day, The New York Times that I retrieved from my front lawn had an article that featured the picture above. In my hard copy edition of The Times, the article had the following headline: "Terrorists Lost Leaders, But Found More Fighters." Online, which you will discover if you click that link to read the article, the headline will be different.
My hard copy edition of The Times also carried an opinion article by Asfandyar Mir, who is a senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace. Mir's column was headlined as follows (in my hard copy version of the newspaper): "Al-Zawahri Is Gone, but Al Qaeda Is Resilient."
In essence, both the opinion piece and the news article made the same, and rather telling, point. Killing terrorist leaders just creates more terrorists.
In fact, the idea that killing terrorist leaders just creates more terrorists is not some sort of new insight. What sprang to my mind immediately, as I read the morning newspaper on Wednesday, were my past blog postings on the "Morcellator Metaphor." For those who don't immediately understand what I am talking about, let me provide references to four earlier blog postings that explain how the United States' strategy of killing terrorist leaders has the same effect on the growth of terrorism that the use of Johnson & Johnson's "power morcellator" had on the growth of cancer in those women who were operated upon using the device:
Johnson & Johnson's "Morcellator" device has now been recalled. Doctors don't use it anymore. Think the United States' government might show some similar wisdom?
That would be nice!
Image Credit:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/02/us/politics/al-qaeda-terrorism-isis.html
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!