On Aug. 3, British police foiled a plot to blow up 17 planes bound for the United States. Taking swift action, Britain’s intelligence officials arrested members of the group, who were preparing to inflict a catastrophe that would have killed thousands of innocent passengers. What followed instantly was the highest state of emergency at all the airports in the UK and the US.
As a result, some countries which are far from the US and UK and are in no way affected, or threatened, by the bombing plot, have also adopted strict security measures at their airports causing great trouble for passengers.
Here one may ask the International Air Travel Association (IATA) the logic behind tightening safety measures for every flight at every international airport despite the fact that only America and UK were threatened. The situation justified such drastic measures only in relation to the flights heading to these two countries.
These unnecessary measures created chaos and disruption with innocent passengers paying the price. They were subjected to stiff inspection and inhuman treatment despite the fact that they were heading to countries quite far from the US and UK. Again, one is inclined to ask: Why should the entire world stand on one foot whenever the United States is threatened? And why should those who have nothing to do with the situation pay the price?
The plane-bombing plot carries a clear message to the US administration highlighting the anger of millions of people around the world and their rejection of its foreign policy, bias toward Israel, continued double standards as well as interference in other countries’ internal affairs.
The American stand on the Palestine-Israeli conflict and its sheer bias toward the Zionists, its blind protection of Israel, the situation in Iraq which claims lives of innocent people every day and the stark pressure to force Iran to suspend its nuclear program in addition to the American interference in the internal affairs of many countries followed by continuous intimidation to punish both economically as well as militarily all those opposing its policies — all this has greatly helped spread hatred against it, leading to increase in America’s enemies in recent years.
US administration’s policies always go against the stream. These are based on injustice and usurping others rights. One wonders if the American public realizes that only the US citizens are paying the price for these policies as their interests are threatened in several countries. The American soldiers have to pay with their lives in unwarranted wars being fought thousands of miles away from its territory. Some American soldiers had in fact vehemently opposed the war but they had to follow the orders of their command. We sadly hear about assassination of US citizens committed by people who carry hatred against America because of the unjust stands of the US administration.
Many US citizens live in constant fear and threat. Americans are killed on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even Sept. 11 bombings, which claimed the lives of so many innocent American citizens, were not enough for the US administration to read the writing on the wall, review its policies and look at the reasons for such hatred across the globe.
This is in sharp contrast to the proud stand of the Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who gained instant popularity when she decided to withdraw Philippine forces from Iraq soon after a Filipino was kidnapped and others were threatened to be killed.
No doubt the UK airliner plot was intended to blow up flying planes and if it had happened it would have been a massive human tragedy.
Peace-loving people across the world hope that the United States will get the message and think twice before continuing with the policy of war and violence.
It’s time America stopped making more enemies for the good of its own people.
— Essa bin Mohammed Al-Zedjali is editor in chief of The Times of Oman.
