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Died Like a Dog

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It seems we are all supposed to sing Hosanna in the Highest now that Trump has killed the notorious Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.  He gave a 48-minute speech honoring his great achievement, an achievement like the United States has never known, least not since the killing of Osama bin Laden.  In his declaration, he provided gruesome details of the infamous ISIS leader's death, claiming he "died like a dog."

The White House desperately needed something to counter all the bad press it has received following Trump's withdrawal from Northern Syria, which created a power vacuum that Turkey and Russia soon filled.  One wouldn't be surprised if Turkish forces tipped the US military on the whereabouts of Baghdadi, giving Trump a chance to save face.

The radical imam has been floating about for well over a decade.  He was detained at Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca back in 2004 but apparently wasn't considered enough of a threat to hold indefinitely.  However, he quickly rose to power in the vacuum created by the death of bin Laden in 2011.

It's really hard to say how much control these clerics have over the hydra-headed organization that is ISIS or Daesh or al Qaeda or whatever you want to call it, but Baghdadi had long been sought after and Trump is now proudly boasting of having got his man.  Mind you, Trump was telling us that ISIS has been dead for months so this really comes as a footnote to a long sordid chapter in American Foreign Policy that may not be over yet.  Presumably 100s, if not 1000s, of ISIS detainees broke free from detention camps in the chaos that followed the Turkish invasion of Northern Syria.  Who knows who the next major villain in the neverending "war on terror" will be?

Nate Silver is telling us we should give credit where credit is due, bemoaning "Libs" who won't cut the president any slack.  The verdict is still out on this kill, as Trump greatly exaggerated the events surrounding the death of Baghdadi, and we have no idea yet how much of this was staged.  Even the photo op appears staged, with reports that Trump was golfing at the time of the raid.  It strikes me as too much of a coincidence this raid came so soon after the pullout from Northern Syria, where Baghdadi was found in Idlib, close to the Turkish border.

You can take what you will of this raid, as I'm sure conservatives will do.  However, it doesn't change the dynamic in Northern Syria or anywhere else in the Middle East.  All it appears to do is give Trump a long sought after "kill," although he appears to have upstaged himself with a dog.

Comments

  1. TripplerOctober 31, 2019 at 3:44 PM

    Obama orders the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and gives all the credit to the military for the successful campaign. By contrast, arrogant Trump credits himself for the death of Baghdadi.

    No surprise.

    ReplyDelete

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