Is Trump Just Joining Religious Wars Among Middle East Countries?

Is Trump Just Joining Religious Wars Among Middle East Countries?

Did “America First” really mean first to institute a military response, and to win any conflict that we get involved in? Yesterday’s Trump speech to appoint Rex Tillerson Secretary of State, said that the world is a very, very dangerous place.

As feared, Trump, Lt. Gen. Flynn, and “Christian First” VP Pence, had their thin skin pierced, and responded with threats, leaving room for a trademark Trump surprise response with little consultation. Flynn said in response to Iran testing a medium range missile test, that he was “putting Iran on notice.” As before, they put the blame on President Obama for being soft. If Trump wanted to sound strong, he will no longer shift the blame. The Iranian missile test could be a violation of an agreement with the UN, and should have been responded through and with the strength of the UN, including possible sanctions. However, Flynn called the UN “weak and ineffective”. Update: Apparently calmer heads prevailed, and the missile firing is being submitted to the UN for review.

The other incident was jumping into the Saudi Sunni conflict with the Yemen rebel Shias, as the rebel Houthis fired on a Saudi frigate, killing two of its crew. Houthis fired on a US warship in October. The US blames Iran for supplying the missiles. We responded in October with an air attack on the Houthis. Saudi Arabia undoubtedly has one of the best funded militaries in the Middle East, and can respond by itself, and in kind. We also just carried out a seal team shoot-out raid in Yemen to seize computers, which may have triggered this response.

Last week, Trump instituted a seven country Muslim Ban for 90 or 120 days, or indefinitely on Syria, stopping already screened refugees, including those who helped us with our battles with ISIS. This stopped people traveling to the US from Iran, including returnees. Iran responded with an equivalent block. This obviously kills any US businesses trying to start up in Iran. Their more moderate regime may have considered this as a trade assault, requiring a response. Or it could just be a disagreement over what a ballistic missile is, as Iran claims, which will never be resolved without consulting the State Department and the UN.

The seven nation Muslim Ban was a gift to ISIS recruiting, escalating our conflict with ISIS, and destroying our aid from Iraqis and Syrian Rebels. This also increases the threats to our troops there. Adding that Christians will get special treatment, has put them more at risk in all Middle East countries. These actions also increase the probabilities of attacks on US facilities abroad, as well as domestically. Any Defense Department or State Department employee could have told the administration these things, but apparently none were consulted. So we have now revived the Crusades of a thousand years ago.

So now, we could be involved in a 1300 year old conflict between Muslim Sunnis and Shiites in Yemen, but also involving the much larger Saudi – Iran competition.

The intermediate range ballistic missile could threaten Israel with a nuclear weapon, except that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon, and won’t, for at least a decade! This is because they signed a UN pack to destroy their weapons’ facilities, and Uranium and Plutonium stockpiles. So now Trump has involved us in the Israel – Iran strategic Cold War. This drags us into Biblical-age tensions between Israel and their strong surrounding states.

Of course, when Trump backed Netanyahu and settlements, and then appointed his bankruptcy lawyer, David Friedman, as Ambassador to Israel, it really killed world hopes for a two state solution. Friedman not only backs settlements, but also moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Friedman is called far to the right of Netanyahu. So we are now involved in a 70 year old intifada with Palestinians, which had quieted down.

In some of these cases we now see that Trump acts aggressively, there is some response, and then we threaten them as if they had attacked us first. This is actually the standard terrorist scenario, only now we are the recent provocateur.

What kind of “America First” policy is this, from Trump, who claimed he never backed the second war and invasion of Iraq.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
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