President Trump on Sunday announced that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the elusive Islamic State leader, died during an American military operation in Syria, a major breakthrough more than five years after the militant launched the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate.
‘Last night the United States brought the world’s Number One terrorist leader to justice,’ Trump said in a televised announcement form the White House. ‘He was a sick and depraved man, and now he’s gone.’
(The Washington Post, October 27, 2019)
Naturally, President Trump gloated about this mission in an address to the nation this morning, which he teased last night in a tweet appropriate only for his reality-TV presidency.
Listening to him, you’d think he were General George S. Patton giving a blow-by-blow account of how he won the Battle of the Bulge. But I doubt even Patton would have demeaned his command by boasting to the world that the enemy was “whimpering and crying and screaming” before he “died like a dog.”
In any event, color me unimpressed. Because I have written too many commentaries on the “Breaking News” of similar killings – each of which was supposed to decimate the scourge of Islamic terrorism.
Here, for example, is how I greeted the killing of one of them in “Groundhog-Day Killing of Yet Another Terrorist Leader? Please, Spare Us,” August 31, 2019:
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It’s been a while since I felt constrained to pooh-pooh “Breaking News” about the killing of a “high-value” terrorist.
Listening to anchors report this news today, you’d never know that:
- Killing Taliban leader Mullah Omar did not stop the Taliban from terrorizing all, and reclaiming large parts of, Afghanistan.
- Killing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden did not stop al-Qaeda from spawning its demon child ISIS.
- Killing ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi will not stop ISIS from terrorizing the world in ways even bin-Laden could not have envisioned in his most diabolical dreams.
In truth, news anchors hailing this latest killing are like sports commentators hailing a spectacular touchdown by one team even though the other team retains an insurmountable lead. Nothing demonstrates this quite like these same anchors reporting just yesterday on hundreds of passengers running out of the terminal onto the tarmac at LAX – all in a panic after they were spooked by sounds and rumors of an ISIS-style terrorist attack.
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Islamic terrorism is more radical ideology than formidable military. Therefore, the best way to defeat it is to fight for the hearts and minds of those most susceptible to it.
This is obvious; it’s what any normal president of the United States would do. Unfortunately, the defining feature of Trump’s presidency is him doing what no normal president would do.
Recall that, in an effort to win those hearts and minds, former President George W. Bush made a public show of visiting a mosque mere days after the 9/11 attacks. He did so to show the world that America wants religious and cultural engagement with Islam, not war. Former President Barack Obama built on that strategy by making a public show of helping to rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq. He continued to forge enduring military/networking ties as well.
Then along came Trump and blew it all asunder. Nothing was more boneheaded in this respect than the way he infamously betrayed the Syrian Kurds a few weeks ago. But he began hardening the hearts and minds of Muslims just days into his presidency. That’s when he made a public show of announcing his “ban on all Muslims” visiting the United States. Not to mention that he’s blithely standing by as refugee camps in Jordan and Turkey become little more than breeding grounds for ISIS terrorists.
Most Muslims had good cause to hate ISIS. But I fear Trump’s insulting and chest-thumping account of Baghdadi’s demise has only given them cause to hate America more. This is why, far from making us safer, Trump has made us more liable to terrorist attacks than we’ve ever been since 9/11.
So beware the next attack, and whether it will be mere panic or sheer terror is anybody’s guess.
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