DAILY STAR EDITORIAL

The death of Osama bin Laden Sunday is indeed a notable moment, but the U.S. should take advantage of this milestone to redouble its efforts to eradicate the root causes of the anti-U.S. sentiment that has spawned so many other would-be Osamas throughout the Middle East.

To be sure, bin Laden’s killing represents a significant blow in Washington’s so-called “war on terror,” and Barack Obama will certainly reap many benefits from the mission, but bin Laden is not the only violent fanatic committed to attacking the U.S.

To consolidate the progress made by getting rid of bin Laden, Washington must address the issues that allowed Osama’s twisted ideology to find so much resonance among the inhabitants of this region. No one is saying the U.S. deserved what happened on Sept. 11, but the inexcusable horrors perpetrated by bin Laden must not obscure the truth that misguided U.S. policies in the Middle East have – not unreasonably – resulted in a deep-seated antagonism toward Washington among millions in the region, many if most of whom find no common ground with bin Laden’s warped visions.

The U.S. has for years persisted in pursuing two strategies that run counter to Washington’s own security interests. First, the unalloyed U.S. favoritism toward Israel has made the entirely legitimate cause for Palestinian statehood – a cause ostensibly endorsed by the U.S. – into a pretext for violence among militants of all stripes. For all of Israel’s violations of international law and its blatant oppression of Palestinians, Washington has never resolutely stood up to Israel on behalf of the Palestinians.

Second, American politicians and officials have for generations circled the globe trumpeting freedom and democracy as humanity’s greatest political virtues – but Washington has for decades been openly willing to deny Middle Eastern peoples those fundamental rights in favor of evidently more important U.S. interests such as oil and an erroneous concept of security.

If the U.S. wants to stamp out terror, then Washington must show as much desire to bring freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law to the Middle East as the U.S. has for the region’s natural resources. Indeed, it is not just violent extremists such as bin Laden who have mined U.S. follies for their own causes – alas, many of the tyrants long supported by the U.S. have also for too many years brutalized their own citizens as they all the while loudly declaimed their righteousness in supporting the Palestinians and simultaneously whispered to Washington that their state-sponsored terror was the only alternative to Islamist terrorists or a populace unable to rule itself.
With the Arab Spring creating an opening to end the long-running U.S. hypocrisy of human rights in the Middle East, Washington has an ideal opportunity to act as a positive force in the region: if it will champion the broad call of the people for freedom and help the Arabs – and Palestinians – achieve their quest, the U.S. will do much to hollow out the basis for terrorism.