Articles - Addostour - Date: 2020-02-20

By: Oraib Al Rantawi

A few days ago, the new Sudanese regime made an agreement with the families of the victims in the U.S.S. Cole bombing that stipulates paying them compensation among other things, even though the regime and its predecessors refuse to admit any responsibility for the terrorist attack, while Washington believes Osama bin Laden to be the mastermind and finds Khartoum culpable for hosting the al-Qa'ida leader for a spell.

 

In a few days' time, Washington will sign an agreement with the Taliban ending the Afghan war and paving the way for the U.S. forces' withdrawal from Afghanistan two decades after invading it for harboring Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'ida, who committed the biggest attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor in World War II. Yet no one demands that the Taliban compensate the families of the 3000 plus victims who died in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the fourth plane, which no one bothers to mention anymore.

 

Although it is a very poor and vulnerable country, Sudan is under heavy pressure from a massive financial and political extortion campaign that will not be limited to compensating U.S.S. Cole victims; those of the Nairobi and Dar es-Salaam attacks may be next, preceded by the Entebbe Summit and open normalization with Israel, and followed by [former Sudanese president] Bashir's extradition along with his companions to the Hague Court. We do not know what is in store for Sudan, but we have never feared more for the popular uprising's fate than we do today.

 

Meanwhile, none of this is demanded of the powerful terrorist Taliban at all. No compensation and no normalization with Israel – all that Washington asks is 'de-escalation' for a short while, and for the U.S. forces' departure from Afghanistan to be as dignified as possible. There is apparently no room here for the arrogance of power or a policy of dictates; the Taliban is the party that gets to impose its terms, unlike the generals of Sudan's new era.

 

 

Washington does not seem to be interested in allowing Sudan a breather if only for a moment; the stream of conditions keeps flowing and the wheel of U.S./Israeli demands never stops turning. In Afghanistan, it is Washington that is looking for a chance to catch its breath; its war has ended in failure, its allies are prone to dangerous division amid squabbling over the presidency and contested election results. The Taliban brook no delay; they do not have too much time to give [U.S. Envoy] Zalmay Khalilzad and are counting down the days and hours to the truce as the White House celebrates and heralds the imminent peace accord.

 

Peace with the terrorists in Afghanistan is possible, but as long as the battle lasts, they will keep killing and dying, Americans and Afghans alike. In Doha, where the negotiations take place, the rules of waging war on terror are of no concern, nor is debating how to define or categorize it. The language of power dictates, with an illustrious Afghan tongue. Meanwhile, the Trump administration issues non-stop sanctions and embargoes on hundreds and thousands of governments, organizations, companies, and individuals, often on charges related or adjacent to terrorism, and nobody dares question its double standards and skewed scales.

 

What message does Washington send the world when it does one thing in Sudan and the exact opposite in Afghanistan? Simply, 'Be strong, worry not'.

 

It does not matter if are right or wrong, it does not matter if you are a regime born of an uprising or the agent of a terrorist movement that endlessly kills Americans and Afghans... all that matters is whether you are strong or weak, and that determines everything.