“Our goal is a coalition of nations who share the aim of stamping out extremism and providing our children a hopeful future that does honor to God.”
As President Donald trump was upon Middle East soil to congeal diplomatic measures, to hone an anti-terrorism council, and to solidify a $400 billion business covenant, a jihadi suicidal bomber detonated careening nuts and bolts at an Ariana Grande concert, maiming and murdering throngs of youthful concert-goers.
While $110 billion of the overall commerce agreement funded by the Saudi government ensures its national security—specifically earmarked for defense acquisitions from American companies—a 22 year-old British national from Libya identified as Salman Abedi gruesomely extinguished young lives and unsettled national security in the United Kingdom.
According to British authorities, Abedi used an improvised explosive device (IED) concealed in his backpack, detonated as concert-happy youngsters exited the arena. Like a wolf in waiting, Abedi blew up and took 22 innocents with him.
Preceding Manchester
To leaders of 50 Muslim nations on, President Trump’s May 21st speech given in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia held Trump-esque remarks, American convictions, and a clarion call to “Drive them out!” and stem financing of terrorism. After a warm and no-expense-spared welcome onto Saudi soil, Pres. Trump declared in his oration:
“Our goal is a coalition of nations who share the aim of stamping out extremism and providing our children a hopeful future that does honor to God.”
“We are not here to lecture – we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership—based on shared interests and values—to pursue a better future for us all.” “Shared” and “values” are operative words here which, historically among varying nations, have not always held hands.
President Trump organized the Gulf Cooperation Council, partnering with Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates in national security efforts to abate terroristic activities. The success of this council depends on the concurrence of anti-terrorist sentiments and actionable plans to suppress radicalism and extremism while choking off any funding sources enabling ISIS.
Pres. Trump trumpeted in his speech, “…we must be united in pursuing the one goal that transcends every other consideration. That goal is to meet history’s great test—to conquer extremism and vanquish the forces of terrorism.”
History’s great test is before our eyes. It has been for quite some time and thousands of lives later. Will the players at the table embrace unity and manifest altruism?
Historical Malignancy
As if in celebration of dastardly deeds, the coward in the vile Manchester display of pro-ISIS behavior detonated his evil body on the fourth anniversary of the murderous attack on a British soldier which occurred in London on May 22, 2013.
In that broad-daylight bloodshed, a jihadist with a meat cleaver mortally wounded a British soldier on a damp London street. David Cameron, then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom described the broad daylight gore as “an absolutely sickening attack.” Much like any attack on a cop or soldier, it equates to an assault on a nation and all its citizens. The macabre display was a carefully crafted plot of extremist radical terrorists to exert their will upon other nations.
Supporting that notion and his despicable actions, the apprehended Muslim attacker boasted, “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslim’s are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” His stance stemmed from British soldiers fighting ISIS abroad, on Muslim soil.
The following utterance by this cleaver-wielding radical underscores how Islamic extremists have rooted intent to exert their will and suffocate non-Islamic nations with their Quran-held beliefs: “We must fight them. I apologize that women had to witness this today. But in our land, our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you.”
There is neither a granule of humanity nor a semblance of rationale in that statement, proven by his violence. There is ample condescension. There are sentiments of a brainwashed and misguided activist. There is gross contradiction. There is robotic rhetoric. To boldly state government cares not for its people while the speaker slices the throats of others typifies jihadi existence. It births and grows evil, nothing else.
David Cameron’s retort the day of the May 2013 slaughter pointedly and resoundingly echoed the sentiments of other nation heads, including our present commander-in-chief. Cameron declared, “We will never buckle in the face of it!” And that circles back to President Trump’s clarion call for Middle East nations to flex muscles against al-Qaeda cells and banish the horrific likes of radicals and their manifestations of terrorism. Like any entity, severing finances constricts its pulse until it is no more.
Last night’s pop concert was the latest example of the reach of terrorists’ tentacles and their wanton willingness to inflict mayhem wherever a sovereign democracy exists. But some bomb-toting radicals care not for ways, means and cultural values other than their own. They wish for us to conform to their ideologies, to adopt Islamic beliefs, and to forfeit western civilization.
Four years ago to the day, on May 22, 2013 the Muslim Council of Britain rebuffed the jihadists’ actions ending the life of a nation-serving British soldier, saying,
“This is a truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam and we condemn this unreservedly. This action will no doubt heighten tensions on the streets of the United Kingdom. We call on all our communities, Muslim and non-Muslim, to come together in solidarity to ensure the forces of hatred do not prevail.”
Albeit righteous, that beckoning call may be a too tardy and, as evinced in Manchester, upon deaf ears.
Although we witnessed President Trump’s “Muslim Ban” initiative weakened by our Courts, he sat back down at the table to reconstitute that plan of intent. The day before the Manchester arena bombing abruptly ended the festivities and sent children and teens scurrying for their lives, President Trump summoned leaders of Middle East nations to do their part. While law enforcement authorities in our and other western countries continue to flush-out terrorists, quashing their home-based spawning in Muslim nations is existentially paramount.
Hopefully the “Drive them out!” rallying cry is not misconstrued whereby evil-doers are not merely transplanted elsewhere. What’s your interpretation of this festering cancer and its ability to spread?
