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I think people underestimate how much of a boon this kind of talk is to terrorist groups which have for years recruited on the premise that the United States invades and exploits the Middle East for the sole purpose of stealing oil https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1194671109679046658?s=20">https://twitter.com/atrupar/s...
A recap of additional ways in which Trump’s presidency has benefited ISIS despite his successful continuation of Obama’s policies to eradicate the caliphate (U.S. air support, limited SF deployments, targeting leaders, reliance on local forces like Kurds to fight on the ground):
1. Confirming the longstanding ISIS ideological goal of portraying the dynamic between Islam and the West as an irreconcilable fight to the death with Islamophobic rhetoric and U.S. policy like the Muslim ban https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/29/trumps-immigration-order-gives-ammunition-to-isis-endangers-u-s-troops/">https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/2...
In January 2017, just as Trump was being inaugurated, I interviewed a captured ISIS member in Iraq about how the group perceived the incoming president. This is what he said. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/01/in-iraq-u-s-allies-and-enemies-wait-for-trumps-first-move.html">https://nymag.com/intellige...
2. Drastically increasing U.S.-caused civilian casualties in the fight against ISIS, creating a huge population of grieving families in the region with a grudge against America https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/middle-east-civilian-deaths-have-soared-under-trump-and-the-media-mostly-shrug/2018/03/16/fc344968-2932-11e8-874b-d517e912f125_story.html">https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle...
3. Abandoning any pretext of diplomacy in Iraq, neglecting to assist the Iraqi government in strengthening institutions that might be able to prevent an ISIS resurgence out of isolationism and rejection of "nation-building" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/world/middleeast/trump-iraq-iran-reaction.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/0...
4. Abandoning our most effective allies in the fight against ISIS, Kurdish forces, by allowing Turkey to continue with its military operation in Syria, which further destabilized the region, freed 100s of ISIS prisoners, and made ISIS very happy https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/world/middleeast/isis-syria-us.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/2...
Before people say that at least Baghdadi is dead, as I explain in this CNN interview, the fact that Baghdadi was killed by brave members of our military while Trump happened to be president likely means very little re: the likelihood of an ISIS resurgence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsbjEU-SoiI">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
