LEARNING FROM UMAR IN THE U.K.
http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/learning_from_umar.html
By Steve McGregor
Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab shattered the mold — and not just because he put a bomb in his underwear. His attempted destruction of Flight 253 reveals a dangerous ignorance in the West about the enemy threatening the United States.
As an American studying in London, I interviewed several protesters at the G20 protests earlier this year. Outside the American Embassy, a crowd gathered to protest the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. “I don’t think al-Qaeda exists,” one man told me. “If you went to Arab countries, you’d see the peace.” Many in the crowd shared his sentiment that al-Qaeda is simply a convenient myth used by the Bush administration to wage war. A startling number of people believe that the “U.S. government” was behind the 9/11 attacks. Will Umar’s existence change their minds?
Among those who acknowledge al-Qaeda, some discount its influence. Just three days before Umar’s attack, Representative John Murtha told reporters that he “isn’t convinced Al Qaeda is still a threat to national security.” This mantra has been repeated by security experts and professors alike. But the reality is that Farouk was trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen. And he’s not the only one.
What about causality? Former Obama administration official Van Jones said that “the bombs the [US] government drops in Iraq are the bombs that blew up in New York city.” President Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, claimed that the United States deserved 9/11 because of our own “terrorism.” Yet Umar is the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker. He was afforded every chance in life to succeed and was far removed from the “accidental guerilla” cycle potentially taking place within Iraq and Afghanistan. How did this youth with so much potential become a violent terrorist?
Like Umar, I too am a student at the University College London, a bustling university at the heart of London renowned for its egalitarian atmosphere and illustrious alumni, including Mohandas Gandhi, Alexander Graham Bell, and G.K. Chesterton. While some students have already commented on the startling presence of extremist Islamic groups at UCL, I’ve noticed a more troubling absence of something vital: the proud British military. Is it any coincidence that while Umar was preparing for his final exams in 2008, UCL was embroiled in an uproar over British military recruitment at Student Union events? A coalition of leftist groups, including the Revolution Socialist Youth Society, Marxist Society, and Stop the War Society, successfully campaigned to ban the military from student union events. In their attempt to weaken support for “an aggressive foreign war,” who knows how much these protests contributed to validating the violence to come on flight 253 to Detroit?
This situation reveals another truth about the current war with al-Qaeda and groups like them. Universities can no longer consider themselves above the political morass of conflicts like the Afghan War. In trying to allow for diversity, college campuses are erring on the wrong side of caution. Instead of focusing so much effort on banning the military, shouldn’t schools be more concerned with banning students like Umar?
A final important element to Umar’s attack is the list of countries involved. Born in Nigeria, educated in England, trained in Yemen, flying through Amsterdam en route to Detroit, Umar proves the truth contained within the infamous phrase, “Global War on Terror.” Despite the best efforts of the Obama administration to avoid this term, Umar himself proves that the current conflict is more than a localized military campaign in the mountains of Tora Bora.
To defeat al-Qaeda and prevent further attacks from terrorists like Umar, the Obama administration must recognize the threat as it is, discard false narratives, and martial all of our military and diplomatic resources. Al-Qaeda is real, and the Obama administration’s willful ignorance is a powerful enabler.
Steve McGregor is Special Adviser on defense issues to a peer in the British House of Lords. He is also a post-graduate student in Social Anthropology at University College London. Previously, he served as a captain in the 101st Airborne Division. Read more of his writing at stevemcgregor.org.
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