Rasha Saad reviews 9/11 a decade later Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, pundits pondered over what is left of it and announced the winners and losers. In the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Jihad Al-Khazen pronounced both Al-Qaeda and the US as losers of the war on terrorism. Citing examples of Al-Qaeda losses, Al-Khazen wrote that Osama bin Laden has been killed, and was recently followed by the Libyan Abdel-Rahman Attia, whom the Americans claimed was the number two man in Al-Qaeda's command. Also while Al-Qaeda has spawned many similar organisations, its biggest loss is that it has been marginalised in the Arab street, he added. As for the US, Al-Khazen pointed out the lost civil liberties "in the country of liberties", the destruction of the American economy, and the unleashing of an ongoing global financial crisis, as examples of its losses. At the same time, Al-Khazen added, the US armed forces have become "exposed" and "terrorism continues to exist today" as well. Al-Khazen reminded readers that 10 years ago he condemned terrorism in absolute terms, and that he continues to do so. Yet Al-Khazen clarifies that today he would argue that both sides, ie the aggressor and the victim, bear some responsibility for what has happened. However, he warns, "terrorism will continue to exist as long as the United States will not take its share of the blame and change its policy." Also in Al-Hayat, Ghassan Charbel underlined the ramifications of the "Arab Spring" on "the war against terrorism." Charbel argues that "while America has dealt painful blows to Al-Qaeda, the strongest blow came via the Arab Spring, which is today giving Islamist factions, with sometimes broad representation, the chance to engage in political life." According to Charbel, the discourse of Al-Qaeda, which appeared attractive to certain youths for some time "proved to be lacking in appeal, when the people took to the street in a number of countries to express their anger, their dreams and their aspirations." Charbel adds that one can even say that those who flocked to the public squares have demanded the opposite of what Al-Qaeda has been calling for. In the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Abdel-Bari Atwan maintains that Al-Qaeda beat the US in the war against terrorism. In his article, 'Al-Qaeda 10 years after 9/11', Atwan argues that if it is true that "it's the results that count, then on this, the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the United States has been the biggest loser." The attacks on New York and Washington, argues Atwan, dragged the United States into two devastating wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which greatly damaged America's military prestige, drained it financially, and left more than 5,000 US soldiers dead and 40,000 others wounded. Also, as a result of the 9/11 attacks and their catastrophic consequences, Atwan explains, the United States has become weaker and more timid, and is now the world's most heavily indebted nation ($14 trillion). Atwan also mentioned America's "utter defeat" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, prior to the US occupation of Afghanistan, according to Atwan, Al-Qaeda had just one address -- the Tora Bora Mountains. In the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Salman Al-Dossari focussed on the impact on Saudi Arabia 10 years after 9/11. He wrote that "between the American insistence on portraying 9/11 as a modern holocaust, and the insistence of others on clinging to conspiracy theories, the world has experienced a frightening decade following the infamous 9/11 attacks." In 'Saudi Arabia: A decade on after 9/11' Al-Dossari wrote that Saudi society required long months to comprehend the extent of "this disaster that a group of its citizens were accused of perpetrating." He added that the shocking participation of 15 Saudi citizens in "this terrorist operation would place Saudi Arabia in a vulnerable position, and this led to clear hostility towards Saudi Arabia in many countries." Al-Dossari wrote that he was proud that while 9/11 was "one of the severest incidents to affect Saudi Arabian society in recent history�ê� the Saudi street did not withdraw into itself, or take pride in this wrongdoing, or respond violently." Also in Asharq Al-Awsat, Walid Abi Merchid, wrote that since 9/11, it has been in Washington's way of "cautiously" dealing with both the Muslim and Arab worlds, which suggests that all the Arabs and Muslims are morally responsible for the consequences of the actions of an extremist Salafi group." Abi Merchid pointed out that despite the fact that after storming Iraq, Washington tried to "appease" the "moderate" Arabs, "the realistic introduction to this appeasement -- resolving the Palestinian issue -- has remained a hostage to the whims of Israel and of the Zionist lobby in Washington, and it still is." Abi Merchid reminded readers that more than 10 years have passed since the proposal by three US presidents -- Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama -- of the two-state solution in Palestine "but this solution still awaits decisive US action."
