Assasination of Al-Awlaki-Winning the battle on the ground and losing the war of ideas

Last week the American people saw over their television the announcement of the assassination of one of their own by their popularly elected government. There was some jubilation in the traditional conservative circles in terms of like “Thank God, another one of them bites the dust” and some condemnation from the libertarian circles of the Obama administration for assassinating an American citizen without a proper trial.

For most Americans struggling with worries about from where the next meal is going to come ; the death of Anwar-Al Awlaki may be an event without any immediate consequence and in a far away land. But yet this particular event raises a fundamental set of questions which may yet turn out to be decisive in their significances over the long term.

First of all, groups like Al-Qaeda and people like Al-Qaeda do motivate and encourage their existing followers and potential recruits by posing fundamental questions with respect to ideology. The point that they want to make is that the United States is not unlike any hegemonic power and when push comes to shove she could be willing to transgress those very same rules that she preaches to the whole World. When President Obama signs the order to execute one of his own citizens without any course of law, he unwittingly follows in the footsteps of Gaddafi, Bashar Al-Asad, Mubarak, the likes of whom he has opposed because of their treatment of dissidents in their own country, thereby hollowing his own criticisms of those very same regimes. Next time when he decides to lecture the like of Bashar Al-Asad or the Bahraini monarch about the killing of innocent protesters they may throw the Al-Awlaki example back to him.

Secondly, to a West Asian audience in the revolutionary mood and looking for models and ideals to guide, this particular assassination just reduces the appeal of the American model one more notch. After all if the sole superpower which claims to be exceptional in nature and which preaches to the whole world about “rule of law”; goes down to the very level of those authoritarians whom the West Asian revolutionaries have been trying their best to throw to the dustbin of history then surely, then surely the revolutionary movements in the West Asia fighting for dignity and freedom in their own countries may decide to look elsewhere for guidance other than the American model which because of this assassination may not look like so exceptional at all from the regimes they have fighting against. The Turkish model or some other model may be something that they may find more attractive or suitable to work with.

Thirdly, and probably most importantly, this particular assassination shows the desperation of America. People like Al-Awlaki or Osama Bin Laden for that matter, throw ideological questions to the American superpower regarding the contradictions of American policies and practices. When America decides to suspend the rule of law and go down to the very same level of these terrorists whom she is in war with, she just not only fails to meet the ideological challenges head on, but she unknowingly makes those ideological counter-claims from the likes of Al-Awlaki of America being “arrogant” and “unprincipled” seemingly truthful. Already people may be concerned with questions like “would Obama have taken this decision had the terrorist been not an American with a West Asian background?” This is something American policymakers need to consider with much more careful deliberation and consideration. Otherwise they may win this battle on the ground of assassinating people like Al-Awlaki but they may lose the battle of ideas in the long run.