U.S.-al Qaeda conflict assessed in Rosenthal Lecture

The United States' fight against al-Qaeda—an effort that became a high priority after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001—has produced mixed results, says Juan Cole, a U-M expert on the Middle East.

(File Photo/Paul Jaronski, U-M Photo Services)

U.S. military and intelligence forces have seen some success in disrupting al-Qaeda's efforts, however they failed to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri, he says.

"That's significant because Zawahri is probably still involved in operational matters, such as the London subway bombing plot," says Cole, a professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History.

Cole will be the featured speaker for the 2006-07 Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy's Josh Rosenthal Education Fund Lecture. The talk, "Are we winning the fight against al-Qaeda? Reflections Five Years Later," is at 4 p.m. Sept. 11 in Rackham Auditorium and is open to the public.

The lecture is supported by the Josh Rosenthal Education Fund, created in memory of Rosenthal, a 1979 alumnus, who died at the World Trade Center.

Marilynn Rosenthal, Josh's mother, who is an adjunct professor of internal medicine at the Medical School and professor emerita of sociology from U-M-Dearborn, says she has coped with her son's death. But she doesn't accept what she calls the unwillingness of the current administration "to think outside its narrow perspective about the reasons behind the attack."

"Of course the country has to protect itself, militarily if necessary," Rosenthal says. "It can do this while still respecting civil liberties and the justice system. Our country also has a variety of diplomatic and economic tools at its disposal. We should be using those aggressively."

Cole, who has written extensively about modern Islamic movements in Egypt, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia, said other countries do not view U.S. policies favorably. For instance, 75 percent of Muslims in Indonesia considered the United States in a positive light in 2000, but that dropped dramatically to 15 percent in 2004 and now is at 38 percent. In Egypt the favorability rating of this country is 2 percent, Cole says.

He maintains that this negative view of the United States in the Muslim world has allowed terrorist groups to recruit young people who are angry with U.S. involvement in the Iraq war and with the government's role in abuses at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

"It's worrisome that U.S. policy has produced such negative views of our country," Cole says, adding an equitable resolution between Israel and its Arab neighbors would go a long way toward reducing tensions and curbing terrorism.

"I don't think a resolution can be imposed militarily," he says. "It must involve a negotiated settlement that all parties can live with."