So who won the War On Terror?

Osama Bin Laden is dead. So are most of his brethren and compatriots who fought shoulder-to-shoulder with him against the might of the American military. His organization, the once feared Al-Qaeda, is splintered. The country which he ruled with such impunity was under US occupation for nearly a decade, and there’s a (pseudo) democratic government in place now. Surely, all that must add up to provide an easy answer – the US - to the provocative question posed in the title of this piece. Right?

Wrong.

Any serious student of war must realise that war is not a game of numbers, and its success is almost never measured in terms of number of casualties inflicted. There is always a strategic objective to be achieved. This is something Indians need to be reminded of everytime they boast proudly of India’s thrashing of Pakistan during the Kargil War in 1999, basing their arguments solely on the greater number of casualties suffered by the Pakistani side, and the fact that India, after much huffing and puffing, was able to wrest back its own territory. They forget that the war was waged by General Musharraf, purely with the purpose of scuttling the imminent Kashmir accord between the civilian governments of the two countries, which would have robbed the Pakistan military of its raison d’etre. That purpose was achieved beyond Gen. Musharraf’s wildest imagination.

Likewise, did Osama Bin Laden really expect to pummel the US military into submission when he brought down the Twin Towers? No. He merely did something outrageous to draw the US out of its comfort zone, into a battleground of his own choosing. Osama wasn’t really fighting the American military. No one would dream of doing that armed with just a few hundred Kalashnikovs.

Osama waged a war against the American - or more generally the Western - way of life. He waged a war against democracy, freedom of expression and multiculturalism, ideals which were on a roll in the West, till September 11, 2001. Osama fought to once and for all destroy the growing bonhomie between Muslims and the West. He envisioned a world where these two communities would form polar ends of the world.

Once the bastion of individual freedom, US has turned into a pseudo-police state post 9/11. Snowden's revelations are not really an anomaly, they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Most worryingly, draconian laws such as Patriot Act were largely welcomed and citizens in the West have now succumbed to a trade-off between security and privacy, and the inclination is generally towards security, at the great cost of privacy. Even though corrections are being made now, the scales are clearly tilted in favour of security. US airports have turned into the Abu Ghraib of innocent citizens, and every pat down that will be, and has been, carried out post-9/11 must fleetingly remind both the parties involved of one bearded man who changed the course of history from inside a dark cave.

Now, people who happen to lay their eyes on a man with a skull cap on his head or a woman with a black cloth around her body wish for x-ray vision, so that they could see the perceived bomb hidden inside. The Muslims have responded in equal measure. It is hard to think of even one American who loves his country as much as almost every new-born in the Middle East hates America.

In addition, Osama might have, albeit unknowingly, triggered America’s economic downfall by making the country spend trillions of dollars on its costliest and longest war yet.

As also evidenced by statistics on terrorism, Osama has comprehensively trounced the War on Terror. The number of terrorist attacks globally has gone up annually by over 10 times since 9/11. Al-Qaeda has only passed on its legacy to the likes of Jabhat al-Nusra, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab and ISIS, whose beheading and burning videos must have got more hits than all anti-terrorism videos calling for peace put together. These organisations have spread to countries hitherto untouched by terrorism. Yemen experienced 1,000 terror attacks between 2006-09, compared to 21 between 2002-05. Currently, the country is a cesspool of global terrorism. Algeria, Egypt, Somalia and Nigeria have their own struggles. The very existence of the last two is under threat from terrorists.

The terrorist organisations feed off the scantiness of resources – education, employment, food and water security - in an increasing number of countries. The resources are on a sharply dwindling path. The heydays of terrorism are dawning only now. Even President Obama, armed with his mesmerising oratory and a military force unmatched in the history of humankind, should realise that his rhetoric to “degrade and destroy” terrorism remains just that, rhetoric.

Looking at the current state of affairs, which looks set to get worse for a long time to come, the emotions for Osama ought to be an oxymoronic mix of deep-seated disgust and absolute admiration. On one hand, he reminds us of what a single human being - armed with intellect, loyalists and an indomitable will - is capable of achieving. On the other, he reminds us that despite all the technological shenanigans, a strong moral compass is still the most desirable trait in a human being.