Obama and Trump Fighting Terrorism

Piers Morgan is not the only commentator who compared the different reactions to the assassination of Osama bin Laden with the suicide of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Yet, his comments were succinct, and to the point.

When bin Laden died the world rejoiced. All Americans rejoiced. When Baghdadi died Democrats and their media enablers fell over themselves to denounce Donald Trump. America’s divisions have rarely been as stark.

You might say that Trump is the more divisive figure, but Republicans afforded President Obama a degree of respect that Obama’s supporters have never offered to President Trump.

Morgan begins:

I was in New York on the night President Barack Obama announced Navy SEALs had killed Osama bin Laden.

Obama was intensely disliked by Republicans at the time, but partisan rivalry was set aside for a moment of true, unified joy at the death of the world’s most wanted terrorist.

People of all political leanings took to the streets to chant ‘USA! USA!’ as they celebrated the wicked Al Qaeda leader’s grisly demise in a Pakistan shoot-out.

It didn’t matter how you voted, what mattered was that the man who masterminded 9/11 had finally been made to pay for his despicable crimes.

It was a great day for America, and for the world.

As though we need the reminder— though we probably do— Morgan offers a list of the horrors committed by Baghdadi.

For five years, after declaring Islamic State as a worldwide caliphate, Baghdadi presided over one of the most brutal, evil periods of unconscionable terrorist activity in modern history.

His followers burned victims alive in cages or slowly drowned them. They threw gay people off rooftops, and beheaded others on videos they then broadcast online.

They executed 13 teenage boys in Iraq with machine guns because they were watching a football match on TV.

They shot, suicide-bombed and massacred any rival Shia Muslims they could find in a relentless frenzied attempt to ethnically cleanse them off the face of the planet.

They murdered anyone who tried to leave their caliphate, or those they deemed ‘ineffective in battle’.

They kidnapped thousands of women, especially Kurds or Yazidis, and either sold them as sex slaves or forced them to marry ISIS fighters and be their sex slaves. Many were tortured, or killed themselves to escape the torment.

They trafficked human organs they ripped from living captives and hostages, including children.

They used brainwashed kids as young as six to be front line shields.

It was not limited to the Middle East:

As Baghdadi’s terrible tentacles spread ever further around the world, fueled by constant ISIS propaganda on the internet, the scale and ferocity of attacks against civilians worsened.

In January 2015, ISIS terrorists armed with assault rifles stormed the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people.

A few months later, ISIS carried out coordinated attacks in the same city at a football stadium, cafes and the Bataclan concert hall – killing 130 people and wounding 350.

In 2016, ISIS claimed responsibility when a man in a large truck drove through a crowd in Nice, France on Bastille Day, murdering 84 and injuring 330.

A year later, an ISIS-inspired suicide bomber attacked an Ariana Grande pop concert in Manchester, England, killing 22 predominantly young girls and wounding another 59.

All of this was conducted on Baghdadi’s watch.

He was the boss, the driving force, the brains behind the barbarism.

So yesterday was a truly great day for America and the world.

As it happened, much of it was conducted on Barack Obama's watch. About that people have very little to say.

And yet, the American left seems incapable of anything but the most partisan warfare:

Last night was a time for America to put aside its insanely vicious partisan feuding and just celebrate the demise of the worst person on Planet Earth.

That’s not, as some of his enemies would have you believe, Donald Trump.

It was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

His death is a massive boost for American in its war on terror.

It cuts the head off ISIS at the precise moment its entire existence is teetering on the brink of collapse.

It’s no exaggeration to say this might hasten the end of ISIS altogether, though we can certainly expect some form of reprisal attacks in the wake of Baghdadi’s death as the few remaining ISIS fighters desperately try to rally support.

So regardless of your view of Trump, and I’ve been as critical of him in recent weeks as anyone, this was a moment to praise him for taking the bold, courageous decision to order a dangerous mission that successfully took out the leader of ISIS.

And then there were the fans at the World Series game in Washington. These fans stood up to boo the president of the United States. Most likely they were government employees and lobbyists, people who live off the government. One assumes that they were Democrats and fervid Obama supporters.

As noted here yesterday Morgan calls them out for their manifestly unpatriotic gesture:

Yes, I know Trump’s encourages his own supporters to do this to Hillary Clinton at all his base rallies.

But just because he’s wrong to do that, which he is, it doesn’t make it right to do it to him on such an important day.

In fact, it makes it unpatriotic and shameful.

When bin Laden was killed, the images of Americans coming together in joy went round the world and were a powerful symbol of unity.

Today, the only images people will see are of Americans booing their president for helping to kill the leader of ISIS.

Yes, it was a bad look for Trump.

But it’s a far worse look for America.

Trump has also been denounced for not showing sufficient respect to the dead terrorist. Compare his remarks with the Obama presidency’s dealing with Osama bin Laden’s remains. That administration gave to bin Laden the full dignity of an Islamic burial:

Traditional procedures for Islamic burial was followed... The deceased's body was washed (ablution) then placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag. A military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat board, tipped up, whereupon the deceased's body slid into the sea.

Whereas Trump declared that al-Baghdadi had died whimpering and cowering like a dog, Obama showed respect toward the world’s leading terrorist. For those who believe that Islamist terrorism is an aberration, not a true part of the religion of peace, the Obama administration was saying otherwise. Don't you think that the gesture of respect showed the world that terrorists deserve our respect?

As was his wont Obama was also showing a cowardly and submissive reverence for Islam, even for Islamist terrorists. Apparently, Obama was terrified that if he said or did anything to offend Muslim sensibilities he would be inciting terrorism. Islamists considered him weak and cowardly… and invitation to act with impunity. On his watch ISIS metastasized, largely unimpeded.