Daily Times

Donald Trump must be a happy man. The US Supreme Court has just upheld his Muslim travel ban; a controversial move undertaken just one week into the White House.

Naturally, the decision by the top court in the land has prompted a not unreasonable backlash within the country. Advocacy groups have expressed dismay, while cautioning against the legitimising of religious bigotry by state institutions. And they are right. This is certainly a dangerous path for this land of immigrants to tread.

Yet they are wrong about the true nature of the ban. After all, it is not aimed at Muslims, per se. This has nothing to do with North Korea and certain Venezuelan officials being subject to it. But it does have everything to do with those five nations that have effectively been blacklisted.

Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. The first has been the object of blatant American belligerence under this administration that has veered towards outright warmongering. As for the others, Libya is in chaos because of the NATO war agenda in that country. The same goes for Syria, which stands where it is today largely due to the internationalisation of the conflict. The Obama White House saw Washington wage a clandestine war in Somalia in the battle against Al Qaeda. The same administration conducted a parallel drone programme in Yemen; run by Special Operation forces (JSOC) and the CIA, respectively, towards the same ends. Presently, the US tacitly supports the Saudi-led aggression against Sana’a, which, in reality, is but a proxy war between Tehran and Riyadh.

Trump Town has been keen to stress how the ban is needed to keep out those who provide insufficient information that is conducive to extensive background checks. The priority, Washington says, is to safeguard the American homeland. And there may indeed be some truth in this. Indeed, this is the lesson of Britain’s misguided “open door policy” on Libya that saw Downing Street send expatriates from that country — including those on the intelligence agencies radar for having suspected terrorist links — over there to take up arms and actively support the so-called anti-Gaddafi rebels. In return, these government-sponsored mercenaries would be welcomed back; no questions asked.

Yet what this picture ignores is how, in the aftermath of 9/11, the US, along with various sidekicks, has pursued a foolhardy path of aggression that has succeeded in taking the battle to the Muslim world. It is one that has also contributed to this region’s fragile security situation. That is, at the risk of repeating ourselves, it was the war of aggression on Iraq that unleashed Al Qaeda in the Middle East and North Arica. And today, other groups such as ISIS hold parts of Libya and Syria.

Thus all those who are protesting the SC’s decision vis-à-vis the Muslim travel are right to do so. Yet to them we say: also dissent against the wanton violence that successive American administrations have unleashed in this part of the world. If, that is, justice is really to be done.  *

Published in Daily Times, June 28^th 2018.