Anthony Cordesman: OPINION: Trump gets it right in Saudi Arabia

When it came to the core of his speech — the fight against terrorism — the president’s choice in words really mattered. He avoided phrases like “Islamic extremism,” but repeatedly made it clear that the U.S. would focus on the threats posed by “terrorists and extremists.” He carefully avoided the financial aspects of burden sharing — something all too necessary in a Saudi Arabia spending something like three times the percent of its GDP on defense as the U.S. and nearly six times the percentage of the average NATO ally.

But, he was perfectly clear about what he expected from the countries present when he said, “There can be no coexistence with this violence. There can be no tolerating it, no accepting it, no excusing it, and no ignoring it ... America is prepared to stand with you in pursuit of shared interests and common security ... But the nations of the Middle East cannot wait for American power to crush this enemy for them. The nations of the Middle East will have to decide what kind of future they want for themselves, for their countries, and for their children.”

He went on and said, “A better future is only possible if your nations drive out the terrorists and extremists. Drive them out. Drive them of your places of worship. Drive them out of your communities. Drive them out of your holy land. And drive them out of this earth ... That means honestly confronting the crisis of Islamist extremism and the Islamist terror groups it inspires ... It means standing together against the murder of innocent Muslims, the oppression of women, the persecution of Jews, and the slaughter of Christians ... . Religious leaders must make this absolutely clear ...

You got it wrong.

There has already been Islamic Reformation as Islam has evolved along with the modernization/change in the civilized world since say the end of WW II. That reformation or change has produced what are moderates relative to the radical fundamentalists. The reformation is far from uniform across the Islamic world.

Those who seek as you say to return to the 7th century are in fact a counter reformation. They find the change, the de facto reforms if you will, completely intolerable. That is complicated by the Sunni/Shia schism in that there are actually two strongly different views.

What you say is true but what Trump is doing is forcing the muslim world into two camps.

Trump knows that there are an almost infinite number of muslim sects and interpretations of islam.

That said, Trump is forcing the muslim world into one of HIS two camps...those who are with us (the modernists) and those who are against us (the fundamentalists). Those who are undecided and those who are practicing taqiyyah will be forced into an eventual choice.

The muslim world can figure out how they want to define themselves in their world. As Trump has said, he wants no part of that (he is "not here to preach")

He knows the muslim world is infinitely more complicated but he is playing dumb.

I think many of those listening to his speech knew exactly what Trump was doing.

It was Trump being Trump.

Negotiating.

What’s interesting and compelling is you can put your finger on the seminal event that stopped the modern development/accommodation of Islam with the modern world. Look at pictures of students from American university of Cairo & Beirut even Afghanistan’s national university from the 1960s to late 1970s. You will see pictures of young people of both sexes together. The young women are stylishly but somewhat modestly dressed as young European women would be of that era. In fact in the 1960s - 1970s Afghanistan was an exotic vacation spot for the adventurer who didn’t mind “roughing it a bit”!

What’s the seminal event, the success of the Iranian Revolution. The cowardly USG & western response to it even though it was Shiite emboldened radical Sunni. Continued Western cowardice vs-a-vs Israel & the Palestinians further emboldened them. Saudi Arabia who prior to all this was basically indifferent to Israel felt they had to jump in and get in the “game”.

After the Iranian Revolution etc., go back and look class pictures from those institutions again. It’s like watching a movie run backwards. The young women go over time from modern dress to walking laundry bags with eye slits.

Maybe the Trump reception and the seemingly seamless acceptance of the glamorous new FLOTUS may reverse that. Maybe send Islam back onto a path of accommodation and acceptance of the modern world and by extension Israel.

OK, I’ll buy that. I should not have said that you are wrong, rather that there is a different way of looking at Islamic evolution, Islamic reformation.

In my context, Trump is separating those that have modernized, that live in the large cities, be they Sunni or Shia, from those that can’t tolerate the modern world in the Islamic context. The Trump message is that the radicals must come to accept the evolutionary reformed Islam or die.

I know that FReepers will have a terrible tantrum when I say it, but from my personal experience with ordinary day to day Arab Moslems, there is a lot of common ground between ordinary Christians and ordinary Muslims. They live moral lives. They place very strong value on family living. They value living is what is considered peace, security, freedom to go about their workaday lives.

There is a common bond in what is and is not sin. Sin is shunned although everybody sins. The framework of Christianity and Islam provides specific guidance on how to live in families in harmony. To be civilized. In America, the liberal framework is to live in sin, to cast out that which is moral and have no boundaries.

I find all this talk of taqiyyah comical. Here it has been taken up as a great revelation into the Islamic mind. I would argue that there is no difference in an Arab sheik with taqiyyah on his mind and a common ordinary county commissioner scheming to lie about grabbing up property in the path of a real estate development. Although Barack Obama might be a closet Muslim, he is the text book example of lying and deceit. Taqiiyyah is just pretty much ordinary human behavior.

So too is all the Koranic talk of Jihad and killing infidels and such. All that is just ignored by common ordinary Muslims. It upsets their peaceful applecart, their ordinary lives

Folks here have no real clue about ordinary Islam or perhaps the change in process as wealth and jobs and cities transform the Islamic nations. There is a lot of angst over woment in saudi Arabia having no freedom. While that is true, change is coming. The largest business in the Kingdom, the Olean Group, has a woman as the CEO (or at least it did) She is the grand daughter of the founder. Olean has extremely close contacts with American business.

In my experience, the thing Arabs like best is to do business, to make deals. I used to get frustrated in dealing with them because it took so long. I finally realized that it was not the end result they sought and liked, but rather the meantime, the dealing, the bargaining, the intimate process of negotiating.

Then here comes Donald Trump. He is the wheeler Dealer..... right up their alley.

Lastly, there are tons of young Arabs coming up. They will accept or reject the decisions of those now in power based not on religion so much as living comfortably in the most peaceful condition that can be obtained. The young women will be a driving force that must be accommodated. The same is true in China

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