The song that never ends

The "War on Terror" and it's amorphous cousin "The War on Dictators We Don't Like" have seemingly come to a temporary publicity end with the death of Muammar Gaddafi.

The first 21st Century boogeyman, Saddam Hussein, was executed in December 2006. Osama bin Laden was assassinated on May 2nd, 2011. Likewise, dozens of terrorists deemed of high rank within various terrorism organizations have also been killed, many by the US's current weapon of choice, the unmanned drone. Most recently, US-Yemeni citizen Anwar al-Awlaki was killed by drone strike, as well as his 16 year old US-born son just two weeks later, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki.

These two deaths have sparked debate about the extrajudicial killings of American citizens, ranging from pieces in The Washington Post, to foreign policy critic and anti-war advocate Glenn Greenwald and even entered the national stage when Republican Nomination hopeful Ron Paul raised his voice about it.

The next monkey in this line of kings is anyone's guess.

Warnings and stern language emerged today from the world's leaders, condemning Gaddafi's actions as leader, the inevitable end of an oppressive ruler. Today President Obama came out swinging against other tyrannical dictators, saying "the rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to an end."

These words fall flat, and are astoundingly far from the truth, if the current actions of the US and NATO are any indication. These words were said by the president for no reason other than the NATO intervention helped end Gaddafi's reign. The people of Yemen and Syria in particular are currently risking their lives every day to protest en masse against their own dictatorships, with no help from the West. The people of Bahrain are also in the same position, while the US nears approval of a $53 million dollar arms deal, which will do nothing but actually help the government of Bahrain inflict terror on it's own people.

Who the next boogeyman will be is not evident, as the world seems unwilling to enter another conflict to heroically propel another country to freedom and democracy. While tens of thousands continue protesting in Syria and in Yemen, and the same human rights abuses that (supposedly) warranted the intervention in Libya continue, we will sit on our hands. In Bahrain's case, the US will even assist them in quelling the protesters. Innocent eople die in protests every day in these countries.

I am glad this conflict is over, and I am glad our CF-18s are coming home. I do not agree with a country who will so readily join one fight, but ignore others. Dictatorship Favouritism is alive and well, and the Arab Spring protests have shown where Western powers' allegiances really are.

The US will continue drone strikes in Somalia against al-Shabaab, and in the Af-Pak region against the Haqqani (which is being presented in the news as if it is a "new" threat, their existence dates back to the early 1990s). Extensive research has been carried out regarding drone strikes, and the great work done by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found that 160 children have been killed in nearly 300 drone strikes in Pakistan. Innocent children of course, being perfectly reasonable collateral damage in the name of the war on terror.

Inevitably various dictatorships will be accused of harbouring terrorist militants, and their countries will also be the subject of counter-terrorism operations by the CIA. We see this now as drone strikes occur in Yemen and Somalia, and the US sends a small team of soldiers to Uganda.

The War on Terror is kind of like the War on Drugs, it is everywhere, every place, and it will never end. There is always a new source, a new threat, and requires trillions of dollars to carry out each year.

The world now holds it's breath for the announcement of the next supposed terrorist threat. Matthew Good said this rather succinctly in 2004:

"Alert status red, but the sun comes up instead."