We, the survivors of Osama

The war against terror has united us - we are all victims, regardless of where we come from.

Sahar Aman May 03, 2011
It has been almost a decade since 9/11 and now that Osama Bin Laden is dead, politicians will have meetings, intelligence services will brief each other, armies will re-strategise - but what will the rest of us do?

We, the survivors of terrorism, the people who mourn loved ones on a daily basis and the people who live alongside drone attacks and bomb blasts - do we rejoice or do we look back over the last ten years and try to remember a world before all of this?

My heart feels heavy - because even as I write this I know somewhere, children, men and women are still being trained to become terrorists. Bin Laden may be gone but the havoc that he started ten years ago is very much present.

Why do we accept the way the world has become, because some people have given up hope?

Why have our choices always been wrong?

Today I mourn for soldiers, families, friends and those who have lost loved ones to acts of terrorism around the globe. But I also choose to see the broken hearts of the women whose sons, husbands, fathers and brothers have left them for a life of terrorism.

We are all capable of cruelty. This war,,, the war against terror is not just being fought by men with guns. It is being fought on our streets and in our homes - between families and friends and neighbours. It is being fought in our hearts and our minds. Its’ victims are not just on the battlefield or in the aftermath of an explosion. This is not just a war between the leaders of countries and terrorist regimes.

It is our world war and whether we realise it or not every single one of us is part of it.

This the time to eradicate the differences that we have  accepted in a bid to be alone and angry.

Are our future generations, the children of our children doomed to live in a post 9/11 world forever?

 

 
WRITTEN BY:
Sahar Aman The author is the editor-in-chief of an online travel magazine, Days to Come. She tweets as @sahar_aman (twitter.com/sahar_aman). Follow her on Instagram: sahar_aman (www.instagram.com/sahar_aman/)
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (15)

Raj | 12 years ago | Reply @ Faiza..osama ‘if’ dead will always live in our hearts! He was a mujahid and we are proud of him. May Allah forgive his sins and bless him in jannah! Ameen..." Chadarassa killings had not happened when you wrote these comments. I wonder nobody of your family member were among 89 killed by the followers of your hero OBL.
Tony Singh | 12 years ago | Reply @Nobody: Roshni's point of view has some truth there. Wonder what is your take on America's foreign policy of last 60 years. Are their actions not responsible directly/indirectly that has led the world to such precipice. For the world to be a safer place, Americans will have to look at their foreign policy. We in India do not suffer from their domination as yet (thanks to our very independent foreign agenda). But you have to look at USA's Vietnam war, Middle East policy(wherein till the other day they were best buddies with Mubarak and Gadaffi). The argument that American foreign policy is in the best interest of Americans does not hold water here. It has not given them and the world peace which we all yearn for. At best it has only served its Military - Industrial complex by selling arms and ammunations to both the conflicting parties. It is easily said that we should not deal with American arm merchants, but they will force you to deal with them by creating a conflict where none exist. (Example - In Syria, Iran and Lebanon) and will remain silence where their Military- Industrial commerce is harmed (Example - oppresive regimes of KSA, Behrain and Yemen - all big market for big American toys. KSA just signed $80 billion worth of armament contract with USA citing Iran bogey) Till the rest of the world keep aside their differences, and challenge US and its partners on econmic and technological front, I am afraid no peace will prevail for a long time to come.
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