A Pointless Foray for Trump: War on Terror Gets a New Face

Rasa - On Friday, January 20, Donald J. Trump officially became the 45th president of the United States.

News ID: 426715

Date: 21 January 2017 - 23:57

RNA - It’s a day in which War-party Washington and the Military-Industrial Complex got their wish as well. Trump uttered “radical Islamic terrorism” and promised to "unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate from the face of the Earth."

Per usual, few points could be said in this respect:

1-President Trump needs reminding that Islam is a religion of peace. He should never generalize, much less harbor associations between Islam and terrorism. "Radical Islam" is an unhelpful term because it sounds too much like "Islam" and has been used so much by war-party Washington and allies that it practically sounds like "Islam" alone at this point.

2-In his inaugural address, Trump painted a portrait of a new war-on-terror carnage by promising to "reinforce old alliances and form new ones.” This suggests he is interested in expanding the ongoing war on Syria. The question is whether his administration will also arm Al-Qaeda-linked “moderate” militant groups and just like the Obama administration insist that US national security interests in Syria includes the removal of President Bashar Assad from power.

3-Obama declared in his 2013 inaugural address that “a decade of war is now ending.” He was wrong. He left office as the first US president to preside entirely during a time of war. Four years later his successor promised more of it. Trump is wrong too. Exploiting the culture of fear and paranoia about national security will get him nowhere. It will only prolong the ongoing wave of terrorism and violence across the globe.

4-There is a reason why Trump wants to prolong the War on Terror. It is designed to last decades and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. The permanent war has more to do with American profits than regional protection. And no matter how pointless this war proves, the Military-Industrial Complex will make a killing. That's why under a plan entitled ‘Making our military strong again’, Trump said he would plough more money into the army, navy and air force. He even declared that American military dominance “must be unquestioned” and warned about the prospect of America's rivals leapfrogging the US on defence.

5-Trump will take the same tone as his predecessor in the focus of the War on Terror: Attacks against the heartlands of the Muslim world laced with vows to limit the number of Muslim refugees, protect American military bases, build new naval bases, and make the US Army less responsive to International Law.

6-One of Trump’s first official actions on Friday was to hype missile defense systems targeting Iran and North Korea. Within mere minutes of his inauguration, Trump’s White House website laid out a series of new policy positions, including a promise to develop a “state-of-the-art” missile defense system to protect against Iran and North Korea. It is now post-truth that the so-called anti-Iran missile defense systems were first bankrolled by the Bush Administration. Since then, it has become a sore subject in US-Russia relations because the Pentagon has positioned all these missiles along the Russian frontier - far outside the range of Iran’s missiles.

Per usual, the new president of the United States did not walk to the microphone in front of the Capitol to mend ties with the international civil society.  There were no calls for unity and peace in Syria or attempts to end the dirty war on Yemen. Quite the contrary, after being sworn in, Trump issued a call to arms and redeclared hostility toward Iran, Syria and Russia - a foray he knows will be long, pointless and costly.

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