RNA - According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, between 2012-2016, Western-made arms imports in terms of volume by countries in Asia and Oceania accounted for 43 percent of global imports, a 7.7 rise compared to the previous 2007-2011 period. The share of countries in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf monarchies has also jumped from 17 percent to 29 percent, far ahead of Europe (11 percent), the Americas (8.6 percent) and Africa (8.1 percent).
It is time we raise our voice against this disastrous rollback of international peace and security, because that is indeed the goal here:
1- One thing that will not change under President Donald Trump is the US military's occupation of the Muslim world on the pretext of War on Terror - read War on Islam. As maintained by new Defense Secretary James Mattis, "We'll be in this fight for a while." It’s the same endless war, launched in 2003 by then-President George W. Bush and continued by his successor President Barack Obama, with disastrous consequences for humanity.
2- For-Profit President Trump has announced that American troops will stay in Iraq and that he is for establishing a safe zone (that could also be read as a no-fly zone) in Syria - if the Persian Gulf Arab monarchies pay for it. Same way, Secretary Mattis says "he is open to any request from his military commanders to launch a major battle to oust ISIL from the base of its so-called caliphate in Raqqa, Syria.”
3- The plan to continue the endless War on Islam and occupy the heartlands of the Muslim world eternally, particularly to escalate the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, goes against statements made by Trump on the campaign trail. Among other things, he said that the “US might use the oil grab as a strategy,” and that the "US doesn't gain anything in helping Iraq recapture Mosul.” Guess what? He is right. Once the terrorist group of ISIL is fully dislodged, America has no excuse to stay and entertain.
4- One month into the Trump administration, and it’s clear that there has been a wholesale corporate and Military-Industrial Complex takeover of the White House. A day-by-day review of the administration’s first month shows that virtually every day there has been a new, extraordinary grant of power to corporate and Military-Industrial Complex interests in Trump’s anti-Muslim agenda: Trump signed an executive order to ban Muslims and Syrian refugees from travelling to the US. He continued his full-fledged assault on everything and everyone, including European allies, civil rights, International Law, global safety and security, environmental security, and other international protections.
5- Congress has been hard at work serving the interests of the Israel lobby and the Military-Industrial Complex as well. Congressional Republicans and Democrats are prioritizing a series of votes to impose new illegal sanctions against Iran. With many more to come, one such measure has passed both houses and been signed into law after Iran tested a single conventional missile - which the United Nations said didn’t violate the terms of the nuclear agreement between Tehran and the world powers.
6- It makes poetic sense that Trump has gleefully signed a new executive order that allows American arms manufacturers to sell even more weapons to the Persian Gulf Arab monarchies. As we speak, they are busy bombing Yemen, including its schools, hospitals, and markets - with tacit support from the United States and Britain. They are also aiding various terror groups in Syria.
This astounding series of actions make clear that Trump’s pervasive and consequential conflicts of interest has immersed his administration in a permanent miasma of confrontation with the Muslim world and the international community: Using Muslims as a scapegoat, being mean to the people who are the victims of America’s terrorism and wars, building a wall along the Mexican border, backing the Saudi-led war on Yemen, the never-ending occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, the apparent plans to create no-fly zones over Syria and to massively expand America’s financial-military support to Israel, the provocative moves of the US Navy to incite violence in the South China Sea, and that of NATO along the borders with Russia, and on and on. He wants violence, tension, war and chaos, and he is good at it.
There remain extraordinary dangers ahead. The Trumpsters are propagating and implementing many proposals and policies cut from the same cloth as the previous administrations. This week, the administration plans to release its successor executive order designed to reactivate the Muslim ban, using more palatable language of course. The Trump administration is also conducting aggressive immigration policies to get the Europeans on board that seem to be a harbinger of even more draconian actions against Muslim immigrants and refugees to come. The new Muslim ban could become permanent and extend to non-Muslim countries. Other countries might also start to follow suit.
It is time for the international civil society, in alliance with human rights organizations, to stand ready to challenge these inhumane, racist, immoral, and dangerous actions. The commitment to do so truly honors and respects those who have taken to the streets worldwide to condemn warmongers and war criminals, to dispel the stereotypes about Muslims and refugees, to say 'I am Muslim too,’ and to express solidarity and unity with those who are the main victims of America's endless War on Islam.
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