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NewsWeek (2/27/17): HOW DONALD TRUMP IS FUELING ISIS
Since the horrors of 9/11, American presidents operating under the advice of the intelligence community’s counterterrorism experts have understood that countering this propaganda has been among the most essential parts of the fight against ISIS, Al-Qaeda and other murderous jihadi extremists. Through carefully selected language and—for the most part—considered policy, the United States has worked to expose the lies and convince young Muslims drawn by the propaganda toward hate that they are welcome and appreciated in America.
That era appears to be over. President Donald Trump, in office for less than two months, has gutted the strategy used by Republicans and Democrats alike—out of ignorance, hubris or both—sending a new message from the White House, one that reinforces the jihadi extremists’ propaganda and increases the likelihood that more Americans will die in attacks.
“If there was a scriptwriter for ISIS, he could not have written a better script than what is coming out of the White House,’’ said M. Ehsan Ahrari, an adjunct research professor with the Strategic Studies Institute at the Army War College. “Since President Trump came into office, he has been going out of his way to make statements and decisions that are hurting America’s cause.”
The intricacies of fighting against jihadi attacks are complex. They involve military, cultural, linguistic, pattern recognition, social media and counter-propaganda skills, and they cannot be learned in a few days or by watching cable television. What might seem logical to the uninformed horrifies the experts who have spent years, even decades, trying to learn what drives jihadi movements and how best to reduce the danger of attacks. Ideas formed based on uneducated surmises, particularly those by people with poor knowledge of Islam, can backfire horribly. American leaders would never have taken the country into war against the Nazis without a comprehensive analysis of Hitler, his fascist ideology and its role in German nationalism. But in a matter of weeks, Trump has shown a willingness to do just that: make reckless actions that sound like common sense and lead his supporters to cheer, while exposing America to a greater danger from attacks than it faced before he entered the Oval Office.
The problem stems from the White House’s inability or unwillingness to understand two principles that have formed the core of American strategy in countering the jihadi threat. First, American Muslims and governments in Muslim-majority countries are the most important allies in the U.S.’s fight against extremists. And second, the enemies of America’s enemies are America’s friends. This requires understanding that not all Muslims practice their faith in the same way. Just as Catholics and Protestants murdered each other over doctrinal disputes in the wake of the Reformation 500 years ago (scholars estimate at least 50 million Christians died), the violent wars between the primary sects of Islam—the Sunnis and the Shiites—continue to this day. The large-scale attacks in the U.S. and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have involved Sunni extremist sects, including the most prominent of the violent groups, who tend to be practitioners of a particularly harsh form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism.
That era appears to be over. President Donald Trump, in office for less than two months, has gutted the strategy used by Republicans and Democrats alike—out of ignorance, hubris or both—sending a new message from the White House, one that reinforces the jihadi extremists’ propaganda and increases the likelihood that more Americans will die in attacks.
“If there was a scriptwriter for ISIS, he could not have written a better script than what is coming out of the White House,’’ said M. Ehsan Ahrari, an adjunct research professor with the Strategic Studies Institute at the Army War College. “Since President Trump came into office, he has been going out of his way to make statements and decisions that are hurting America’s cause.”
The intricacies of fighting against jihadi attacks are complex. They involve military, cultural, linguistic, pattern recognition, social media and counter-propaganda skills, and they cannot be learned in a few days or by watching cable television. What might seem logical to the uninformed horrifies the experts who have spent years, even decades, trying to learn what drives jihadi movements and how best to reduce the danger of attacks. Ideas formed based on uneducated surmises, particularly those by people with poor knowledge of Islam, can backfire horribly. American leaders would never have taken the country into war against the Nazis without a comprehensive analysis of Hitler, his fascist ideology and its role in German nationalism. But in a matter of weeks, Trump has shown a willingness to do just that: make reckless actions that sound like common sense and lead his supporters to cheer, while exposing America to a greater danger from attacks than it faced before he entered the Oval Office.
The problem stems from the White House’s inability or unwillingness to understand two principles that have formed the core of American strategy in countering the jihadi threat. First, American Muslims and governments in Muslim-majority countries are the most important allies in the U.S.’s fight against extremists. And second, the enemies of America’s enemies are America’s friends. This requires understanding that not all Muslims practice their faith in the same way. Just as Catholics and Protestants murdered each other over doctrinal disputes in the wake of the Reformation 500 years ago (scholars estimate at least 50 million Christians died), the violent wars between the primary sects of Islam—the Sunnis and the Shiites—continue to this day. The large-scale attacks in the U.S. and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have involved Sunni extremist sects, including the most prominent of the violent groups, who tend to be practitioners of a particularly harsh form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism.
http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-fueling-isis-560999
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