Donald Trump delivered a dark, menacing speech on Monday afternoon, focusing on his approach to addressing terrorism and making frequent reference to the harshest moments of the Cold War. In the speech, Trump stuck with the theme that “radical Islam” was the enemy of the United States, but rather than focusing on fighting ISIS or al-Qaida overseas, he spent far more time detailing limits on immigration and attacking Americans seen as providing support for radicals. Trump also took the time to feed right-wing rumors about Hillary Clinton’s health. And, in a speech marked with extraordinary and disturbing proposals, he topped himself with an assertion that rather than nation building, America should have simply occupied Iraq and “kept the oil.”
Among the proposals: an ideological test for all those applying to enter the country.
In the Cold War, we had an ideological screening test. The time is overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today. I call it extreme vetting. Extreme, extreme, vetting.
Trump also pushed for a propaganda commission inside the United States that would detail the real nature of the enemy.
The goal of the commission will be to identify and explain to the American public the core convictions and beliefs of Radical Islam, to identify the warning signs of radicalization, and to expose the networks in our society that support radicalization.
And finally, he proposed to eliminate both any immigrants who give any hint of an incorrect attitude, and any Americans who show support for the enemy.
To accomplish a goal, you must state a mission: the support networks for Radical Islam in this country will be stripped out and removed one by one. Viciously. Viciously if necessary.
Immigration officers will also have their powers restored—they’ve been taken away. Those who are guests in our country that are preaching hate will be asked to return home. And if they won’t go, we’ll send them home.
A ideological purity test, a propaganda agency that defines the enemy, and “vicious" action against those seen as sympathizers or supporters. The Cold War comparisons were more than just casual—they were chilling.
And while Trump was announcing his plans to create a security state, he took a moment to announce that Hillary Clinton wasn’t up to the task.
Hillary Clinton lacks the judgement, the temperament and the moral character to lead this nation. Importantly, she also lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS, and all the many adversaries we face – not only in terrorism, but in trade and every other challenge we must confront to turn this country around.
The attack on Hillary’s “mental and physical stamina” is a none-too-subtle link to the stories circulating in right-wing media making reference to supposed injuries that Hillary suffered some years ago. According to these sites, Hillary is both figuratively and literally unsteady—an idea that Trump stoked with his statement.
At another point in the speech, Trump called Hillary both “weak” and “stupid.”
Trump’s speech began with a recitation of terrorism incidents reaching back to 9/11 and including events from the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. Trump used the more expansive “radical Islam” to pull together events that had been instigated by varying individuals and organizations. Likewise, Trump launched into a long list of horrors that have occurred primarily in the Middle East and Africa, including beheading, mass kidnappings, and “just unthinkable other things.”
As always, Trump repeated the charge that President Obama will not even “name our enemy” saying that “a president who doesn’t want to say the words” was not fit to lead out country, ignoring the many occasions on which the president has pointed out the nature of terrorists.
This led to a repeat of Trump’s statement that President Obama and Hillary Clinton—in the “Obama Clinton administration”—were directly responsible for the rise of ISIS. Trump moved through a repeat of his last foreign policy speech, citing a litany of claims about the state of the Middle East before and after 2009. As he has in the past, Trump pinned the explosion of civil war in Syria and the Arab Spring uprising in Egypt on the Obama administration.
It all began in 2009 with what has become known as President Obama’s global ‘Apology Tour.’ We all remember.
The so-called apology tour has become a central tenet of Republican mythology. In particular, Trump recalled Obama’s speech in Cairo as one with “no moral courage” that included blaming America for everything that had gone wrong. This would be the speech in which President Obama actually said:
The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress that the world has ever known. We were born out of revolution against an empire. We were founded upon the ideal that all are created equal, and we have shed blood and struggled for centuries to give meaning to those words – within our borders, and around the world. We are shaped by every culture, drawn from every end of the Earth, and dedicated to a simple concept: E pluribus unum: "Out of many, one."
... I made clear that America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security. Because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as President to protect the American people.
Which doesn’t sound much like the groveling, weak speech that Trump said “I remember well.”
The biggest theme in Donald Trump’s before and after sequence was simply this: Things were much better when dictatorial strongmen held the reins. The Middle East portion of the speech could have been delivered by Vladimir Putin … and it may have been.
In fact, Trump made a point of once again making a call to partner up with the Kremlin.
I also believe that we could find common ground with Russia in the fight against ISIS. They too have much at stake in the outcome in Syria, and have had their own battles with Islamic terrorism. Wouldn’t that be good?
At this moment, Russia is engaged in attacking U.S.-backed rebels, including the Kurds that have just taken another border city from ISIS. Russia has no goal in the region except to prop up their partner, Bashar al-Assad. They’re protecting their sole asset in the Middle East, and perhaps more importantly protecting the idea of dictatorial rule over emerging democracies.
Trump made a point of saying “any country that fights terrorism will become an ally of the United States,” adding another leg to his ideological warfare position and opening the door to both discard old allies and welcome Putin … or even Assad.
Trump spent considerable time going after Obama and Clinton’s actions in Libya, calling them a huge mistake that had established another ISIS location. That’s a point that needs some updating, as ISIS'last stronghold in Libya is gone. But since Trump used the vaunted “many people” to claim that ISIS is now “fully operational” in 28 to 30 countries, Libya is barely a drop in the bucket.
The biggest knock against President Obama was that he failed “to establish a new status of forces agreement” in Iraq, which was the key factor in leading to the rise of ISIS. Likewise, Trump several times made reference to President Obama letting our enemies know exactly what he was going to do.
On Iraq, Trump repeated his (false) position that he had opposed the war from the beginning, backing this statement with a standard “believe me.” He offered up a couple of interviews that included the extraordinarily weak statement “perhaps we shouldn’t be doing it yet” from shortly before the invasion, and another statement of “I would never have handled it that way” from an interview that happened months after Saddam was toppled.
But perhaps the most incredible portion of the speech was that Trump repeatedly insisted that rather than nation building, we should have “kept the oil.”
I said keep the oil … keep the oil … keep the oil. …
And if that leaves any doubt about his meaning, Trump gave a definitive statement against nation building, then said:
This proposal, by its very nature, would have left soldiers in place to guard our assets. In the old days, when we won a war, to the victor belonged the spoils.
So Trump is simply stating that we should have replaced nation building with a war of conquest. He went on to detail how we could have benefited from all the oil. That we took. Through war.
Trump’s thoughts wandered around the world, talking about both honor killings and attacking Hillary Clinton’s proposal to allow in more of the refugees who are seeking to escape the area that is under assault from ISIS. He gave some numbers that, as Trump said, were completely “unbelievable” when it came to costs.
At one point, Trump referred to Clinton as “America’s Angela Merkel:"
and you know what a disaster this massive immigration has been to Germany and the people of Germany – crime has risen to levels that no one thought would they would ever see. We have enough problems in our country, we don’t need another one.
The crime rate in Germany is actually one-half that of the United States.
Trump closed with an additional reference to the Cold War, again explaining how his propaganda service was needed to detail the threat, and expanded police powers were needed to root it out.
But just like we couldn’t defeat communism without acknowledging that communism exists – or explaining its evils – we can’t defeat Radical Islamic Terrorism unless we do the same.
This also means we have to promote the exceptional virtues of our own way of life – and expecting that newcomers to our society do the same.
Pride in our institutions, our history and our values should be taught by parents and teachers, and impressed upon all who join our society.
Assimilation is not an act of hostility, but an expression of compassion. Our system of government, and our American culture, is the best in the world and will produce the best outcomes for all who adopt it.
Assimilation is not an act of hostility … unless you’re the one being assimilated.