Trump’s coalition of the Gulf states
Comments are open to all today.
Operation Epic Fury did not begin February 28. It began in Donald Trump’s first presidency when he made his first trip abroad landing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 20, 2017, accompanied by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Melania, and Trump’s Jewish son-in-law and Jewish daughter.
King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud personally greeted them on the tarmac—a rare honor not extended to President Obama. The Saudis greeted Trump with a grand military display with fighter jet flyovers, cannon salutes, and trumpets. American and Saudi flags lined highways, with billboards of Trump’s image.
State newspapers splashed the visit on their front pages and inside as well.
The king awarded the president the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s highest honor for a foreign leader, for strengthening bilateral ties.
The visit concluded with an Ardah—a traditional sword Saudi all-male dance. Trump dances as well with a sword as he does to the YMCA.
Then Trump and his entourage flew directly to Tel Aviv without stopping in Cyprus making Air Force One the first and perhaps only aircraft to travel straight to Israel. The Saudis knew and didn’t care because they knew they had a trusted ally residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I have no doubt the Arabs knew Trump briefed Bibi. In fact, Trump was their messenger boy. :)
After 8 years of Obama’s pro-terrorist call for an Arab Spring and his engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood Saudi Arabia and several other Gulf states had it with the USA. Egyptian President Nasser had banned the Muslim Brotherhood in 1954 for its terrorist activities including assassinations.
Saudi leaders were shocked and angered when Obama quickly called for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down in early 2011. Obama accepted the election of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi as president.
Gulf states (especially Saudi Arabia and UAE) poured billions into supporting Egypt’s 2013 military coup that removed Morsi and backed the new regime under Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Under Obama, the USA was as trustworthy as a scorpion because Obama wanted a world of chaos, which would put the various isms in control.
Obama giving Iran $1.7 billion to finance terrorism did not help ease tensions because Obama loved to flip the bird at those who won’t accept the new Marxist world order.
Trump’s task and purpose in Saudi Arabia was to the inauguration of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology—an alliance of Muslims who oppose terrorism.
In a darkened room filled with computer screens (part of the new center’s high-tech monitoring setup), President Trump, Saudi King Salman, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and First Lady Melania Trump placed their hands on the volleyball-sized, translucent glowing orb.
The press and the late-night hosts tried to mock the orb because deep inside, they knew Trump changed the world that night.
Earlier, at our favorite president addressed Arab leaders at the Arab Islamic American Summit:
“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.”
“This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects, or different civilizations. This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it. This is a battle between Good and Evil.”
“A better future is only possible if your nations drive out the terrorists and extremists. Drive. Them. Out. DRIVE THEM OUT of your places of worship. DRIVE THEM OUT of your communities. DRIVE THEM OUT of your holy land, and DRIVE THEM OUT OF THIS EARTH.”
“America is prepared to stand with you, but the nations of the Middle East cannot wait for American power to crush this enemy for them. Muslim nations must be willing to take on the burden.”
What is the result of all this?
Well, I have noticed that since then the USA under Trump has unalived many a terrorist leader, including General Soleimani, without a pip from Arabian nations. Iran is not an Arab state.
And of course, the six major Gulf states—Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman—host U.S. military personnel and operations.
I state all this in light of a tweet by Newt Gingrich, which said:
After spending this week reviewing the Iranian war I am now convinced President Trump is on the edge of an historic victory. The real breakthrough for me came as I reviewed President Trump’s decisions and maneuvers not from the standpoint of American unilateralism but from the standpoint of the leader of a remarkable historic coalition, the largest coalition ever put together in the modern Middle East.
Everyone understands that Israel is an important ally. What is little discussed is the depth of support from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region. It has to be sobering for the Iranian dictatorship to realize that it does not have a single ally willing to challenge the American naval blockade. Slowly, gradually, timidly, our European allies are lining up to help with the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
A great deal of President Trump’s maneuvers against Iran make sense once he is seen as a coalition leader and not just as a unilateral American President.
[Blah, blah, blah.]
Coalitions are inherently slower than unilateral campaigns. However coalitions ultimately bring vastly more power to the fight. I am as frustrated as everyone else by the pace of talking with the dictatorship but having reviewed the correlation of forces and the options available to the coalition on one side and the Iranian religiously motivated dictatorship on the other I am prepared to assert that President Trump’s coalition leadership (something almost none of his critics want to acknowledge) is within reach of an enormous historic victory.
Bang on. Gingrich does not use the word history lightly because he taught it for decades and he made it by returning the House to Republican control after 40 years of Democrat speakers of the House.
More than 75 years after ganging up on Israel to end its statehood even as it began, President Trump has everyone on the same side as Israel. Remarkable.
The media misses this because it still thinks foreign policy is speeches, summits, and faculty-lounge morality. Trump understands power, memory, and alignment. Obama empowered chaos, embraced the Muslim Brotherhood fantasy, alienated the Gulf, and handed Iran cash. Trump reversed the whole table: Riyadh first, Israel next, terrorism named plainly, Gulf states treated as partners, Iran treated as the enemy, and Abraham Accords logic turned into regional architecture. That glowing orb the late-night clowns mocked was the symbol of something they were too stupid to understand. Trump built trust where Obama burned it. Now Iran has no Arab rescue. That is history.
I’m convinced it’s that b itch Obama, and I don’t mean the Mrs., and that monkey-faced Valerie J., who are leading whatever is left of Iran’s dictatorship.