The Story of The Fall of Al-Qaeda

One cold night in Shanghai, China, two people come to a toy-making factory. They did not look Chinese. As they lit a cigarette, they asked an employee of the toy-making factory to bring the toy that they had ordered for inspection.

What Was So Special About the Toy?

After inspecting the toy, they hastily made some phone calls and were ordered to bring the toy back with them. This toy figure was the action figurine of Osama bin Laden. 

The plan was to design a figurine of the terrorist which would lose its skin colour and turn red with features of demon after it wears out. This motivation behind creating such a doll was to scare children, thus portraying bin Laden as evil.

These figurines were sent out to soldiers to distribute in the areas of unrest. They smuggled the dolls into the school supplies that were given out to the children by the troops. 

They'd hoped that children who would later find the doll and play with it. Unfortunately, with the rise of Westernism, children began to consider these dolls as cool instead of scary. 

Then One Day, Everything Changed 

Dignified transfer is the name given to the process of returning a fallen soldier to their home. August 13, 1998, was by far the most disturbing and difficult day for US embassies abroad. 

Al Qaeda terrorists led by the infamous Osama bin Laden bombed the US embassies in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Nairobi (Kenya). A week earlier to this twelve Americans were killed. 

Some were State department servants and the others were marines carrying out their operations. The families of these heroes did not know that their world would turn upside down in a matter of seconds.

A child of one of the soldiers who passed had turned six that day. He was oblivious to the world. He never expected that his life would change forever that day. 

Loved ones of the fallen celebrated their graduation, anniversaries, birthdays, weddings and much more. But little did they know that a quarter-century later these occasions would never be the same for them.

America's Retaliation

America grieved and soon this grief hardened into resolve. President Clinton felt the burden of this. He promised to avenge the death of their heroes. It is fair to say he became obsessed with Al Qaeda for the rest of his presidency.

He relentlessly pursued bin Laden and narrowly missed him on several occasions. His successor, of course, declared war on terrorism especially against Al Qaeda to avenge the 9/11 tragedy.

President Barack Obama certainly avenged the death of all the fallen heroes. In a series of well made and courageous decisions, he ordered his special marine corps to storm bin Laden’s compound and kill him for good. 

At Long Last, Justice Was Done

 

In a compound in Pakistan’s Abbottabad, marine seals carried the operation swiftly. They'd been practising for about 8 months for this operation. Their training paid off as they managed to kill the most infamous terrorist of all time. 

The fear, the sheer nature of the operation, the secrecy made this operation successful as the man that killed thousands of people lay motionless in front of them. A man looking as common as any other person on this planet yet was feared by every person in the US finally rested, taking his principles with him. 

There was a wave of liberation and feeling of justice looming at every street, annexe, crossing and apartments of America. This was a party like no other. It took 3 presidents 13 years to get bin Laden.

Not doing this would have shown weakness and the troops would have lost confidence in the system, this would also invite aggression from the people of the country.

The government and the systems who took out bin Laden knew that if you kill a leader of a terrorist organisation, a power void is created, and there would only be bloodshed among terrorist organisations and civilians will lose their life.

In the first six months of his presidency, President Clinton learned that Saddam Hussein had plotted to assassinate former President George HW Bush. Clinton did not invite Saddam to join G-7, he bombed Baghdad, levelling the headquarters of Iraqi intelligence.

In an inspiring speech Clinton said “we will combat terrorism” and “we will deter aggression. We will protect our people”. Although Al Qaeda's legacy has hit a downfall, there is an emergence of a new catastrophe called ISIS. Read about it in my previous article.

Edited by: Christeena George

Written by: @thatfunnykidinthecrowd