Think that the notion of Trump taking America into a war against the Muslim nations of the world is inconceivable, that this couldn’t actually happen? Well, it could indeed happen and faster than we think since Trump has shown that, in addition to his hatred of ISIS, which is understandable, he has some kind of deeply embedded resentment of Muslims in general.
That resentment has been evidenced by the disdain and disrespect that he has shown against American Muslims who have lived in this country for some time and have an almost spotless record with regard to crime and violence. They seem to have become some kind of scapegoats because those of the same mindset as Trump don’t trust them simply because they are of the same religion as the ISIS terrorists.
Here’s a series of measures that Trump has already taken against Muslims. Only a few days into his presidency, he created a huge new controversy when, in one of his first presidential executive orders, he took steps to ban citizens from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan from entering America for the next 90 days plus a similar ban on all refugees for 120 days. The order also included an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees.
By singling out these seven Muslim countries for that ban he has made a clear inference that they pose a definite threat to America and its people. That is simply looking for trouble where it doesn’t exist and is poor judgment.
He apparently can’t tell the difference between radical Islamist terrorists and the majority of peaceful, law-abiding Muslims. This is a form of guilt by association that brands the entire Muslim community in this country, as well as in other nations, as being threats to America.
That ban almost immediately created a firestorm of dissension across America which then spread across the world. Trump has quickly shown that he lacks leadership skills but he is certainly a master of the art of creating dissension and controversy. This is the Trump we have come to know, the bull in the China shop, acting in haste instead of considering the degree of complexity and danger involved with his questionable presidential edicts.
In a move to further control and punish Muslims the Trump administration is also considering a plan to deport legal immigrants already living in the United States who are receiving various forms of government welfare. If he decides to do exactly that, then we could see monumental protests across the country.
And then there is the threat of the creation of a Muslim registry that he issued during the presidential campaign, which could be implemented at any given time. What in world is he going to do next to keep these people living in a state of fear? Is this what he meant when he said he was going to “Make America great again?”
Let’s further discuss the potential of a war against the Muslim nations of the world. Is Trump actually capable of igniting such a war, could he be that reckless? Well, considering his bizarre behavior and highly questionable actions thus far, there should be no question but that he is quite capable of doing just that. He has a very short fuse, can be entirely unpredictable, and quick to anger. One never knows what he will do next.
How might such a war actually erupt? Let’s say that he turns this current travel ban into a permanent one, deports those Muslims who are dependent on government welfare and also creates a Muslim registry. And then he continues to launch or even escalate the use of drones that rain Hellfire missiles down upon the countries of Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan, and then extends the program to other Muslim counties.
He would be, in effect, creating more and more enemies and hatred against America, and energizing those who will then seek deadly revenge against the U.S. He will be laying the groundwork for a massive confrontation that could lead to outright war. We could see these revenge-seekers launch some kind of massive attack on an American overseas facility such as an embassy or a military installation; an act that could be the spark that sets off an inferno of all-out war.
Speaking of initiating wars and how a small spark can sometimes evolve into an inferno, a review of some major events in the history of war in the 20th century will serve to illustrate just how a war can be initiated by some unexpected act and then quickly evolve into a huge conflict.
World War I was ignited with the assassination of Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife that took place on June 28, 1914 while they were visiting the city of Sarajevo in the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
That act did not immediately trigger a war. Austria-Hungry wanted to make certain that it had the support of Germany, its close ally, before declaring war. This allowed Serbia time to get the backing of Russia, their ally. Austria-Hungary declared war on July 28, 1914 and the bloodbath that followed took the lives of 10 million people, wounded twice that number, and lasted from 1914 to 1919.
Next, there was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that was triggered because Japan was highly dependent upon supplies of oil and the U.S. government, because of Japan’s occupation of southern Indochina, froze Japanese assets that then prevented Japan from buying oil which it desperately needed for its military forces. This caused Japanese officials to launch that deadly attack on Pearl Harbor.
If the 911 hijackers plot to attack the World Trade Center in New Yok City had been thwarted there would not have been war with Afghanistan and, quite likely, neither with Iraq; but it was not and, sad to say, 19 hijackers were responsible for initiating two massive wars, killing and wounding hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.
Who would win such a war between the U.S. and Muslim countries which have a combined population of 1.7 billion? Would it go on with no end in sight? There is no way of predicting the terrible things that could happen. One thing those like Trump should do, before they would ever think about provoking such a world conflict, is to review the history of the use of U.S. force in past decades and see how successful it was.
Documented facts show that the U.S. military was not able to defeat designated enemies in the countries of Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, which, at the time that the U.S. initiated war against each of them, had populations of 35, 25 and 21 million people respectively. Would going to war with Muslim nations that have many times more people make any sense at all?
Of course, something must be done to deal with the threat represented by radical Islamic terrorists. However, Mr. Trump needs to back off his current belligerent attitude and stance against Muslims in general, considering them to all be cut out of the same cloth. That kind of faulted thinking will accomplish nothing except getting America embroiled in yet another misguided, unjustifiable war. It’s time that he and this government start learning the lessons of the past and stop making the same mistakes again and again.
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