Trump Gives Terrorism a Boost
By Thom Hartmann A...
If Donald Trump fails in his quest to become the 45th President of the United States, he’ll always have a career in terrorist propaganda.
For months now, security experts have been warning us that Trump’s call for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States was going to become a recruitment goldmine for terrorist groups.
Well, those security experts were right.
Al-Shabab, a Somali terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda, has just come out with a new recruiting video, and Donald Trump plays a starring role, comb over and all.
While appearing in a terrorist recruitment video probably won’t do much to hurt Trump’s campaign, it does clear up one thing: contrary to conventional Beltway thinking, Donald Trump is, in fact, a real Republican.
Let me explain.
Some people, and by “some people” I mean establishment Republicans who are terrified that he’ll actually win the nomination, don’t think Donald Trump is a real Republican.
They point to his past support for universal healthcare, the Clintons, and Democrats as proof that he’s a donkey in an elephant’s clothing.
But these establishment Republicans are wrong.
Donald Trump is just like them.
He’s a “real” Republican.
And that’s not just because he’s spewing hate speech, degrading women, or flirting with fascism.
It’s because, like all true Republicans, Donald Trump is doing his part to fuel terrorism, at home and abroad.
I know, I know.
I know what you’re thinking: “Republicans hate terrorism! They want to carpet bomb ISIS! They want to torture all the bad guys! They want to go all Terminator on Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi! And you want me to think they support terrorism? Yeah right, buddy!”
Well, here’s the dirty little secret Republicans don’t want you to know: they’re just as bad as Jihadi John when it comes to making people want to kill Americans.
Everything they’ve done to “fight” terrorism over the past decade-and-a-half has actually done the exact opposite.
The Iraq War, Guantanamo Bay, the CIA’s torture program -- they were all free propaganda for groups like Al Qaeda and made terrorism a bigger problem than it already was.
There wasn’t even a suicide bombing in the 7,000-year-long history of Iraq before Bush and his neocons blew that country apart!
And here’s the thing: it’s not some big secret that Republican policies play a big role in creating terrorism.
Terrorists themselves have told us that they killed Americans not because they hated our values or thought we were “weak”, but they were mad about Republican policies in the War on Terror.
For example, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two Boston Marathon bombers, left a note for police claiming that his attack on one of the biggest sporting events in the country was revenge for Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Other terrorists like Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hassan, and “underwear bomber” Umar Abdulmutallab have all said similar things about why they did what they did.
They all said that they were retaliating against the mostly Republican-supported policies of our government, which have caused the deaths and displacement of millions of Muslims all over the world.
If we’re going to believe terrorists when they say they’re going to attack us, we should also believe them when they say why they’re going to attack us.
Which brings us back to Donald Trump.
At this point, it’s no longer just a debating point to say that he’s a walking, talking terrorist recruitment campaign.
Not when he appears in a terrorist recruitment video.
Not when people who want to kill Americans are using his words to get other people to kill Americans.
Not when he’s literally doing the terrorist’s job for them.
Of course, that doesn’t make him any different than any other Republican.
The Grand Old Party has been supporting terrorism for decades now, through its policies and its rhetoric and, as Osama Bin Laden pointed out in 1998, that's been a real boon for Halliburton and other members of the Republican's military-industrial complex donors.
Donald Trump is just the logical conclusion of that dark, dark trend.
Comments
#2
In my opinion, if we could remove profit from, "war for profit," then war would eventually fade away. The Republicans would have to find another out of control spending avenue to kiss the ass of their Fascist Masters with.
#3
It's time to admit that both the Democratic and the Republican parties have been bought and paid for by Corporations and Defense Contractors. They are both guilty of making terrorism a much worse problem than it would've been. Thom, I wish you would stop defending Democrats; this is doing us no good. We need to stop promoting these two terrible ideas: "Vote Democrat, as it's the lesser of the two evils," and "if you vote independent/green, you're just giving your vote away to the Republicans." I for one, am done with Ds and Rs. At this point we're fighting for the survival of the human race and all other life on earth, and neither Democrats nor Republicans are going to make that happen. Thom, I beg you, please only promote green/independent candidates and politicians from now on. As we know all too well: The lesser evil only leads to the greater evil.
#4
Awkword-o, the way out of this is to get rid of the two-party system, which is a result of the single-member-district (SMD) system of elections. I have a couple blog posts about how we could change away from SMD. Some state may be capable of doing it, and once one does, it can be shown how well it works for democracy, and not having to worry about wasting your vote on a third party. Once it's accepted, it can go national.
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Trumps call to ban Muslims may have been both stupid and impossible to execute but these terrorists groups hardly need his comments as a recruiting tool. Furthermore don't you find it a little suspicious that a week after Clinton shoots her mouth off the ad appears.
Everything we do to eradicate these groups (like killing them) is a much better recruitment tool than Trump.
Thom you're better than this.