US President Barack Obama declared on Thursday the Al Qaeda network is nearing total defeat, having failed to destroy the United States’ “unique” leadership role in the world.
In an op-ed for the French daily Le Figaro penned to mark the 10th anniversary of the Islamist extremist group’s September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, Obama thanked America’s allies and vowed to cooperate with them closely. “Those who attacked us on 9/11 wanted to drive a wedge between the United States and the world. They failed. On this 10th anniversary, we are united with our friends and partners in remembering all those we have been lost in this struggle,” he said.
“Working together, we have disrupted Al Qaeda plots, eliminated Osama Bin Laden and much of his leadership and put Al Qaeda on the path to defeat,” he said, welcoming the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. “Meanwhile, people across the Middle East and North Africa are showing that the surest path to justice and dignity is the moral force of nonviolence, not mindless terrorism and violence,” Obama added.
“It is clear that violent extremists are being left behind and that the future belongs to those who want to build, not destroy.”
Obama also sought to reassure the United States’ friends that his country’s economic problems will not cause it to turn in on itself. “To nations and people seeking a future of peace and prosperity, you have a partner in the United States. For even as we confront economic challenges at home, the United States will continue to play a unique leadership role in the world.”
The piece in Le Figaro was separate from an earlier op-ed published in the US daily USA Today, in which Obama said the September 11 attackers were “no match for our resilience.” The 2001 assault, in which four airliners were hijacked and crashed by suicide attackers from Saudi-born extremist Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, left more than 3,000 dead and led the United States to invade Afghanistan.
Obama’s predecessor, George W Bush, also used the attacks in part to justify his later 2003 invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, arguing that the dictator might share weapons of mass destruction with terrorists.
