Donald Trump’s Riyadh Circus: Farcical, Nasty, And Dangerous

 

Saudi King Salman presents President Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace, Saturday, May 20, 2017, in Riyadh. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Although there’s no reason to take Donald Trump’s erratic behaviour, and his ambivalent and nasty assertions seriously, yet we can’t ignore his latest gimmick, the circus he staged in Riyadh in the name of defeating Islamist terrorism on May 21st. To paraphrase Shakespeare, Trump’s so-called Islamic-Arab-American Summit was “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. The whole thing was based on lies and deception, greed and malice. The so-called summit was aimed at terrorizing the whole world in the name of peace. Trump and his Saudi host in particular singled out Iran as the sole sponsor of Islamist terrorism. Nothing could be farthest from the truth, and nothing could be more deceptive, vile, and vicious! All the ingredients of destabilizing the whole world for decades – well beyond America and the Middle East – were present in the rhetoric Trump and his surrogates used in Riyadh last Sunday.

Heads of state/government from forty-odd Sunni Muslim-majority countries – autocracies and “authoritarian democracies” – from Indonesia to Bangladesh, and Pakistan to Saudi Arabia, reluctantly or enthusiastically attended the Riyadh gathering. The only positive things emerging out of the summit are: a) Many of Trump’s clueless supporters in America might have learnt from his summit speech that Muslims are not that bad after all, and most victims of terrorism are Muslims. b) Trump, for the first time, used the politically correct expression, “Islamist terrorism” instead of “Islamic terrorism”, which he had persistently used till the other day, defying all logic and criticism. c) Jordan’s King Abdullah’s stand on the Palestine problem was exceptionally brilliant. He spelled out in unambiguous terms: “No injustice has spread more bitter fruits than the absence of a Palestinian state. This is the core issue for our region, and it has driven radicalism and instability beyond our region and into the Muslim world.” d) Last but not least, one may agree with Trump that Muslims must fight their own war against terrorism without expecting any direct involvement by the US.

So far so good! There’s nothing else to celebrate about the summit, which has ominously signalled that some world leaders are hell bent to make the world a more dangerous place than before by creating more problems, without resolving the existing ones. Those who think Trump has really transformed himself into a statesman from a comical demagogue-cum-vicious warmonger are delusional. There’s no reason to assume, one who last year asserted “Islam hates us”, and soon after becoming the President wanted to impose a complete ban on Muslim visit and immigration to the US, has all of a sudden become pragmatic enough to assert Islamist terrorism doesn’t indicate there’s a battle between faiths.

The summit was a reflection of Trump’s desperation to divert Americans’ attention from the ongoing investigation into his alleged “Russian Connections”, and his opponents’ demands for further investigation after Trump had abruptly dismissed the not-so-compliant FBI Director James Comey from his position. One has reasons to believe, projecting Iran as the mastermind of global terrorism by Trump and his surrogates is integral to the game he and his associates are playing to divert American’s attention from the brewing “Russia Gate”, which could turn very nasty for the President à la Watergate. Presenting Iran as the new bogeyman also brings rich dividends to the President from the powerful Israeli lobby in America, which also wants to single out Iran as the biggest security threat to the Jewish State. The so-called Arab-Islamic-American alliance aims at destabilizing Iran by overthrowing the Islamic regime to comfort Israel as well as the Sunni regimes in the region, from the Gulf countries to Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, all of whom also consider Iran a menace. Saudi Arabia and most Sunni monarchies in the Gulf consider Iran as an existential threat to their very existence as well.

The utopian concept of the “Muslim NATO”– as contemplated by some people – has gained wide currency after the summit. As the summit is aimed at neutralsing the adverse effects of the “Russia Gate” by salvaging the sinking popularity of the President, it’s also about appeasing the overpowering Israeli/Zionist and Military-Industrial lobbies in the US. While the former influences and partially controls American administration, economy, media, think tanks, higher education and research centres, the latter profits from armed conflicts across the world. It often drags America into long-drawn expensive wars in different parts of the world, mainly by selling weapons to the US and its allies. While President Eisenhower spelled out the evil influence of the Military-Industrial complex on US administration in his valedictory speech on January 17, 1961, US General (ret) Wesley Clark spilled the beans in the wake of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. As Eisenhower and Clark have revealed, all US-led wars after World War II, invasions of countries, and demonizing regimes right and left have only two purposes: a) establishing American hegemony on weaker states; and b) making as much profit as possible by selling arms and expertise to various countries and insurgent groups throughout the world. The recent signing of the $350 billion US arms deal with Saudi Arabia (the largest arms deal in history) in Riyadh may be mentioned in this regard.

What’s most shocking is while the “Trump and Company” excluded Shiite majority Iran, and a couple of “undesirable” Muslim-majority countries from the summit; paradoxically, they had no problem inviting countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey, and Pakistan to resolve the problem of Islamist terrorism. And we know the track record of some of these countries vis-à-vis direct promotion of terrorism across the world. It’s noteworthy that 15 of the19 terrorists who attacked America on 11th September 2001were Saudi citizens, and several Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are known sponsors of the Jabhat ul-Nusra, an al Qaeda offshoot, and other anti-Assad terror groups in Syria. We also know about the duplicitous role of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan with regard to the promotion of terrorism to bleed their immediate neighbours. Interestingly, one can’t name a single terror group that Iran has ever supported in the last four decades. Hezbollah, a protégé of Iran, isn’t a terrorist outfit but a part of the resistance against Israeli invasions and occupations of southern Lebanon, Gaza, and parts of Syria. Thus, singling out Iran as the main sponsor of terrorism isn’t only shocking, but also counterproductive to any effective move toward counterterrorism. Then again, we know the Riyadh Summit wasn’t about countering terrorism, at all.

Now, it’s evident the summit was a hogwash, a deception, and a not-so-clever ploy by Trump to annoy Russia by going against Iran and Syria, Russia’s main allies in the Middle East, to extricate himself from the “Russia Gate”. In the event of Putin’s total estrangement from Trump, the latter might tell his countrymen one day: “I told you, I had nothing to do with the Russians in the past, nor will I have anything to do with them in future.” It appears that although Trump might survive the growing demand for his impeachment and arrest in the US – thanks to his rendezvous with Muslim autocrats, Israel, and the Vatican, to some extent – the world would continue to become more dangerous everyday so long he remains the President. Then again, as a popular bumper sticker in the US reads, “When you elect a clown, expect a circus”! To paraphrase a friend, “The circus is being outsourced now”!

The writer teaches security studies at Austin Peay State University. He is the author of several books, including his latest, Global Jihad and America: The Hundred-Year War Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan (Sage, 2014). Email: [email protected]

Tags:

Support Countercurrents

Countercurrents is answerable only to our readers. Support honest journalism because we have no PLANET B.
Become a Patron at Patreon

Join Our Newsletter

GET COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX

Join our WhatsApp and Telegram Channels

Get CounterCurrents updates on our WhatsApp and Telegram Channels

Related Posts

Join Our Newsletter


Annual Subscription

Join Countercurrents Annual Fund Raising Campaign and help us

Latest News