Evan Vucci / AP
Carolyn Kaster/Ap
Jim Watson/Getty Images
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Carolyn Kaster / AP
YURI KADOBNOV / AFP/Getty Images
SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP/Getty Images
Andrew Harnik / AP
Andrew Harnik / AP
Evan Vucci / AP
Alex Brandon / AP
Alex Brandon / AP
Susan Walsh / AP
SAUL LOEB / AFP/Getty Images
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
Andrew Harnik / AP
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Bloomberg/Getty Images
Alex Wong / Getty Images
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Evan Vucci / AP
Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette via AP
Mikhail Svetlov / Getty Images
Tia Dufour/The White House via AP
Reuters
Susan Walsh/Ap
JIM WATSON / Getty Images
Alex Brandon / AP
Evan Vucci / AP
Patrick Semansky / AP
SAUL LOEB / AFP/Getty Images
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Alex Brandon / AP
Sean Gallup / Getty Images
Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Jacquelyn Martin / AP
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Saul Loeb/Getty Images
Evan Vucci/Ap
Saul Loebsaul Loeb/Afp/Getty Images
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
Evan Vucci / AP
Matt Dunham / AP
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Steve Helber / AP
Mandel Ngan/Getty Images
Matt Dunham / AP
Brendan Smialowski/Afp/Getty Images
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Evan Vucci / AP
Anthony Peltier/AP
Andrew Harnik / AP
Ap Photo/Evan Vucci
SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images
Matt Dunham / AP
Evan Vucci / AP
Andrew Harnik/Ap
Jim Mone / AP
Patrick Semansky/AP
Saul Loeb/Getty Images
Matt Rourke/AP
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Carlos Barria/Reuters
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
SAUL LOEB / AFP/Getty Images
Alex Brandon / AP
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
Carolyn Kaster / AP
Alex Brandon/AP
DOUG MILLS / POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Saul Loeb/Getty Images
YURI KADOBNOV / AFP/Getty Images
Pool/Getty Images
Greg Lovett Via Zuma Wire
Chris Jackson / AP
Win Mcnamee/Getty Images
Susan Walsh / AP
Evan Vucci / AP
Evan Vucci / AP
Susan Walsh / AP
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
CARLOS BARRIA/Reuters
Susan Walsh / AP
Carolyn Kaster / AP
Dan Kitwood / Getty Images
Win Mcnamee/Getty Images
Evan Vucci / AP
Saul Loeb/Getty Images
Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/Tns
Susan Walsh / AP
Evan Vucci / AP
Evan Vucci/AP
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Mark Wilson / Getty Images
NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP via Getty Images
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Patrick Semansky/AP
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Evan Vucci/AP
Alex Brandon / AP
Andrew Harnik/Ap Photos
Alex Brandon / AP
Alex Brandon / AP
Jim Watson/Getty Images
SAUL LOEB / AFP/Getty Images
Alex Brandon/AP
JIM WATSON / AFP via Getty Images
Alex Brandon / AP
NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP/Getty Images
Evan Vucci/Ap
Patrick Semansky / AP
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Carolyn Kaster/AP
Alex Brandon / AP
Carolyn Kaster/Ap
Susan Walsh/Ap
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Evan Vucci / AP
Ron Sachs - Pool/Getty Images
Susan Walsh / AP
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Andrew Harnik / AP
SAUL LOEB / AFP/Getty Images
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
BEN STANSALL / AFP/Getty Images
Alex Brandon/AP
Robyn Beck/Getty Images
Evan Vucci/AP
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Evan Vucci/Ap
Alex Brandon/AP
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Pablo Martinez/Ap
Alex Brandon/AP
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Evan Vucci / AP
Evan Vucci / AP
Alex Brandon / AP
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP/Getty Images
Alex Brandon / AP
Seth Wenig / AP
Charles Platiau/Reuters
Alex Brandon/Ap
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Evan Vucci/AP
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP/Getty Images
Carolyn Kaster / AP
Evan Vucci / AP
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Carolyn Kaster / AP
Alex Brandon / AP
Pool / Getty Images
Evan Vucci/Ap Photo
Alex Brandon / AP
JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Mark Wilson / Getty Images
JIM WATSON / Getty Images
Carlos Vargas/AP
Evan Vucci / AP
Saul Loeb/Getty Images
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Ap, Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
John Minchillo / AP
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
Alex Brandon / AP
Evan Vucci/Ap
Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images
Scott Olson / Getty Images
Andrew Harnik / AP
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
President Trump’s major speech in Saudi Arabia has garnered some praise from commentators relieved that he did not explicitly insult the assembled Islamic leaders. A great speech befitting an American President, however, it was not. In fact, it was an invitation to crack down on their opposition by claiming they are terrorists. It said nothing of American values, aside from our need for security from terrorists.
Trump’s solution to terrorism was as simplistic as the phrase he repeated: “Drive them out.” The more sophisticated Arab and other Islamic leaders in the assembly no doubt thought as they listened, “If only it were that easy.” They would have reflected on the practical problems with which they have dealt for decades: the attractiveness of the terrorists’ message to young and disaffected youth, the difficulty of creating an alternative path, the high unemployment of young men, and the lack of a counter ideology to that of Daesh (ISIS) and Al Qaeda.
The experienced leaders in Trump’s audience would have thought about why people join the terrorist groups in the first place. Unless governments and Islamic religious leaders can address the underlying causes of the terrorist movements, they will be unable to “drive them out.” Oppressive regimes that attempt to solve the terrorist problem simply with force actually strengthen the terrorist’s cause, by pushing more young men to the cause. Thus, Trump’s blank check to do whatever it takes to “drive them out” will actually make things worse.
Rather than abandoning American values in the name of “Principled Realism,” Trump could have said that the way to take the air out of the radical movements is to provide room in Islamic societies for diversity, freedom of expression, and participation in government. Torture, jailing, censorship of Western media and autocratic control feed radical extremism. He need not have, as George W. Bush did, espouse rapid movement to democratic governments. Many Islamic nations today do lack the ingredients for an immediate and viable democracy along North American or European lines. Nonetheless, a credible path in that direction is essential to let the next generation believe that it has a stake in the society.
Trump might also have stressed the importance of a subject about which he talks a lot in the US, jobs. Challenging employment options and the free and effective public education systems to develop a trained workforce are perhaps the best counter-weight to the siren song of Al Qaeda and Daesh (ISIS).
Instead, the American President condescendingly lectured far more experienced leaders than himself on the undesirability of terrorist groups in their region. They have all actually figured that out a long time ago. Leaders of Islamic governments are the targets of Daesh an ISIS. They are in no doubt about the threat. Nor are they ignorant of the facts that non-Islamic majority nations deserve some of the blame for the rise and strength of the terrorist groups.
Most of the leaders in Trump’s audience have been around long enough to have watched America stoke the fires of the terrorist movement by invading Iraq under George W. Bush. They remember too Barack Obama’s reluctance to counter the Assad government and the incipient Daesh movement when U.S. action could have had a positive effect and perhaps shortened the profound tragedy that is the Syrian Civil War. There was no recognition from Trump about these American contributions to terrorism.
Also unmentioned in Trump’s Terrorism 101 lecture was the role of European governments in creating circumstances in which Daesh terrorists developed. Many of the terrorist fighting in Syria today and most of those who have committed terrorist attacks in Europe were born in the nations of the European Union. Their anger is in large measure a product of the discrimination, isolation, and lack of economic opportunity that European societies have imposed on their Islamic citizens.
Whatever the U.S. pundits may say about the Trump address in Riyadh, the truth is that most of the leaders of 50 Islamic nations there likely thought Trump’s analysis of terrorism sophomoric. Worse yet, some of them heard encouragement for the kind of crackdowns that are at best counter-productive. “Drive them out” campaigns may end up driving many young Islamic men in those nations into the hands of Islamist terrorists.
Clarke, a senior White House counterterrorism official for Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, is author of the new book, “Warnings.”