As foreign leaders with opposing U.S. interests continue assessing Donald Trump's presidency, comparing it to his predecessor, two actions to date should have drawn their attention. Both convey the same message – the first more subtly; the second leaving no doubt, if any existed, Trump and his predecessor stand worlds apart on how they view the one we are in.
One of Barack Obama's first actions as president was to remove Winston Churchill's bust from the Oval Office. Apparently, Churchill's talents as a statesman and man of character, whose unique lifetime experiences prepared him to lead the charge to save Europe from Nazi aggression, failed adequately to impress Obama.
While Obama replaced it with a bust of another revered leader – Dr. Martin Luther King – doing so sent a subtle message to our enemies. King was a man who chose non-violence to make his impact upon the world; Churchill – a man who knew violence was often necessary to contain the forces of evil – unhesitatingly used it.
Undoubtedly, Trump understood this. Immediately after taking office, he had Churchill's bust returned to its rightful place.
Trump's second action is compared to Obama's June 2009 trip to Egypt. Obama delivered his "New Beginning" speech at Cairo University in which he sought to atone for all perceived affronts the U.S. had ever made against the Islamic world.
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Of course, by doing so, Obama ignored 1,400 years of Muslim aggression since the religion's founding – aggression causing the U.S. to fight its first two wars against pirates claiming the Quran bestowed upon them the right to attack American ships without provocation. After the Barbary minister shared this revelation with Thomas Jefferson in 1786 as negotiations to end the first war ensued, the future president sought money to fund a U.S. navy, knowing a second war with Muslim pirates was inevitable.
Obama's Egypt speech left our enemies encouraged, quickly recognizing he was no President Theodore Roosevelt. They saw he intended to "speak softly" and not "carry a big stick." Obama's birth date became obvious to them, knowing one is born every minute!
Contrastingly, Trump chose Saudi Arabia to announce an American foreign policy viewing global terrorism through a much sharper lens. Unlike Obama, no apologies were made. Unlike Obama, responsibility was put on Muslims to "drive out the terrorists and extremists" from their mosques, communities and off Planet Earth. Unlike Obama, who claimed Islam a peaceful religion hijacked by extremists, Trump made Islam's connection to global terrorism.
Apparently, Trump's staffers vacillated over whether the connection should be made in front of such an audience. Speech excerpts initially released made the connection, but two hours before the speech's delivery it was announced otherwise. However, Trump being Trump, strayed from his prepared text during the speech, eventually making the link. Those remarks included a statement suggesting terrorism "means honestly confronting the crisis of Islamic extremism and Islamists and Islamic terror of all kinds."
Trump's message was quite different than Obama's delivered eight years earlier. Unusual for Trump, however, was that he conveyed a more subtle message as to where the problem lies. This included comments such as, "estimates hold that more than 95 percent of the victims of terrorism are themselves Muslim. We now face a humanitarian and security disaster in this region that is spreading across the planet."
Interestingly, the Saudis – long recognizing Islam's terrorist link – had no problem with Trump saying so. Their foreign minister issued a most positive response, declaring, "Today was a truly historic day in the relationship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States and we believe at the beginning of a turning point in the relationship between the United States and the Arab and Islamic world."
There is one statement Trump made with which Sir Winston Churchill may well have taken exception.
In his book "The River War," Churchill – unrestrained by political correctness in 1899 – wrote:
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy … exist(ing) wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.
"The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men … all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. …"
Perceiving Islam thusly, undoubtedly Churchill would have disagreed with Trump's comment, "Terrorists do not worship God, they worship death." Churchill recognized Islam, far from being a peaceful religion, is a death cult in which fighting for its global domination in this life guarantees an afterlife of endless fulfilled sexual pleasures. Thus, for Islam's devout – whether moderate or extremist – death becomes a reward.
Also embedded in Trump's remarks to his Muslim audience was an underlying plea to recognize the equality of all human life. Made in general terms, it is a plea Riyadh alone can bridge.
Saudi Arabia is the custodian of Islam's two holiest mosque sites – in Mecca and Medina. Non-Muslims are strictly forbidden, by the Quran, from entry into these cities. Roadway signs today underscore this message. Why? Because infidels are deemed "unclean."
A gesture of true equality by Riyadh would be not only to open the gates of these cities to all but also to drop its ban against building non-Muslim houses of worship anywhere in the country. Realistically, this will never happen as "moderate" Saudis are so indoctrinated by Islamic domination, they would seek their government's overthrow for doing so.
Neil Armstrong's first words upon walking on the moon were, "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." Riyadh needs to take a similar leap.