Trump uses fight against terrorism as ploy to get elected: Analyst

US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is using the fight against terrorism as a ploy to get elected, and his foreign policy is simply “a thinly veiled return to gunboat diplomacy and unbridled US imperialism,” says Professor Dennis Etler, a political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday while commenting on a statement by Trump in which he accused President Barack Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton of founding the Daesh terrorist group in the Middle East region.

“In his presidential campaign Republican Party nominee Donald J. Trump is first and foremost a US politician. That means you cannot believe or trust a word he says. His rhetoric is meant to do one thing and one thing alone, discredit his opponent and inflate his own credentials,” Professor Etler said.

“Anyone with a modicum of intelligence knows that Daesh is a creation of US imperialism, in collaboration with the Zionist regime and the Takfiri House of Saud,” he stated.

“For Trump to blame its existence solely on Obama and Clinton is disingenuous at best,” he added.

The analyst said the “foundation for both al-Qaeda and Daesh can be traced back to the Carter administration and has been augmented ever since by successive US administrations.”

“Trump is merely trying to lay blame on his political opponents, not telling the truth about how the US and its allies have trained, funded and supported terrorists throughout the world, long before 9/11 and ever since,” Professor Etler said.

“Is Trump somehow any different from his predecessors? Of course not. All US politicians avow that they will combat terrorism and defeat first al-Qaeda and now Daesh. This is nothing but a smokescreen to try and bamboozle and befuddle the woefully ignorant US electorate,” he said.

“Trump's promise to destroy Daesh is not worth the IOUs with which he has stiffed his creditors,” the pundit argued.

Trump, a Svengali whose words drip with venom

“Anyone who thinks that Muslim-hating, Iran-bashing Trump is some sort of savior really needs their heads examined.  Trump is just one in a long line of demagogic US politicians. He is an opportunist and charlatan, a Svengali whose words drip with venom and innuendo,” Professor Etler said.

“What is Trump's real track record? He is an ardent Zionist who supports the Israeli settler state 110%. His daughter Ivanka is married to a millionaire Zionist hedge-fund operator, as is Hillary Clinton's daughter Chelsea,” he pointed out.  

“In fact the two travel in the same circles and are good friends. One of Trump's main financial backers, to the tune of $100 million, is arch-Zionist casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Trump is also an admirer of the war criminal Netanyahu. He disparages Iran and vehemently opposes the nuclear agreements it has negotiated in good faith,” the academic continued.  

 “So what is there about Trump that leads some to believe that he is different than mainstream US politicians?” Professor Etler asked.

“He presents himself as the anti-establishment candidate who mistrusts the leadership of the both the Democratic and Republican Parties. He berates the foreign policies of both Republican neo-cons and Democratic neo-liberals and eschews the interventionist regime change policies of both. He supports the likes of both deposed strong-arm leaders such as Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, who were killed by US surrogates, as well as the democratically elected Bashar al-Assad, insofar as they fight terrorism,” he stated.

What ‘Make America Great Again’ means 

Professor Etler said Trump’s “refusal to unconditionally support traditional Western allies and to conditionally support traditional adversaries is taken as a breadth of fresh air and a turn away from the war-mongering, militarist policies of the Bushes, Obama and Clintons.”

“But belying these apparently isolationist positions is Trump's insistence that the US military has been weakened under previous administrations and must now be strengthened. Hence he proposes to increase military spending regardless of the costs incurred,” he added.  

“But to what effect? Such a policy of increased military spending will not enhance homeland security. The US, protected by two oceans and secure borders is not threatened by invasion. The only credible threat is a nuclear strike which no country would initiate as it would lead to their total retaliatory destruction,” the commentator observed.  

“What then does the slogan, ‘Make America Great Again,’ mean? It simply means that the US must have such a degree of military superiority that it can impose its will on others nations, allowing Trump to make deals that cannot be refused. Is Trump sincere in his critique of previous US policies? Or does he want to impose US hegemony more directly without recourse to ‘terrorism?’” he wondered.

“Trump's foreign policy is a thinly veiled return to gunboat diplomacy and unbridled US imperialism. If you kowtow to Trump's ‘America,’ you're safe, otherwise resistance will be futile. As long as a nation does the bidding of the US all will be fine. Otherwise be prepared to feel the wrath of Trump,” Professor Etler concluded. 

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