Is There a Method to Trump's Qatar Madness?

Peace through strength on steroids

Qatar???

Yes, Qatar.

Qatar, the country that donated $6.3 billion with a b— more than any other nation, more even than communist China or the Saudis—to America’s terminally woke universities since such things were recorded (1986)?

Yes, Qatar.

Qatar, that oil-and-natural gas-rich potentate that has long treated their foreign employees like virtual slaves and human trafficking victims and, even now, after supposed reforms, works their domestic employees 14 hours a day, half of them for an incredible 18 hours, at ridiculously low salaries, their passports confiscated to prevent escaping, according to Amnesty International?

Yes, Qatar

You mean Qatar, the country Donald Trump once called (2017) a nation that has “historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level” and whose former leader multi-billionaire Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani (aka HBJ) just donated his used 787 to Trump as if it were his personal Kars for Kids? That same HBJ sheltered 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, is the bagman behind $30 million monthly payments to Hamas in Gaza and is said to be the major funder of the Oct. 7 massacre. Not inconsequentially, he apparently doesn’t care for Jews.

Yes, Qatar— the place about which Louisiana senator John Kennedy opined “I trust Qatar, like I trust a rest stop bathroom.”

So what’s going on?

I could say “beats me” or refer people to Eli Lake’s analysis at The Free Press—”Trump’s Serenity Prayer for the Middle East”—but there is a method to Trump’s seeming madnes . Not parenthetically Mr. Trump has also been making nice with the Syria’s new president and former al Qaeda terrorist with a $10m bounty on his head, Ahmed al-Sharaa, offering to lift sanctions on his country and urging him to recognize Israel and join the Abraham Accords.

What Trump is doing, clearly, is trying a whole new approach to the Middle East, emphasizing peaceful economic relations and positivity, almost like a latter-day Norman. Vincent Peale. Our president is abjuring the attempts at ideological rectification inherent in the Iraq War and in the policies of both Clintons, both Bushes, both Cheneys, Obama, Biden and practically our entire body politic—in other words those who are now tarred with the epithet neocons, perhaps unfairly since virtually everyone in both parties (except, intermittently, Trump himself) favored that war at that time and only learned subsequently how difficult it was to to turn Iraq into Denmark.

In Trump’s new—it might even be called revolutionary—approach, we may not agree with the Islamic world about the role of women, personal freedom and a host of other matters, but we can still be friends and trade together. We do not need to change you. You’re capable of making your own decisions and building your own societies. Look at the magnificence of Riyadh and Doha. You did that. Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) is a great leader and so forth

Trump even extended his hand, made a similar offer, in a more tentative way but we can be sure they got it, to Iran (whether will listen or want to is another matter).

Could this approach work? At first I gasped. Anybody who knows the region, has been there multiple times, has read Memri.org that translates Arab videos and news articles verbatim as assiduously as I have would have reason to be skeptical in the extreme. As recently as late this March, Memri had this item from Qatar’s Al Jazeera— “Trump Is A Terrorist Who Seeks To Destroy The World Order And Foment Chaos; He Presents Himself As A Hero But Isn't One.”

Oh, well. Whoever said it would be smooth sailing?

Neither of the Sinwar brothers, alive or dead, many of their ilk high and low, are likely to give up anti-Western, anti-Israel, anti Sunni or Shiite (deepening on which side they are on) frequently violent quasi-religious passions that have been dominating their culture pretty much unceasingly since the Seventh Century.

And yet, what other approach has worked? None, obviously. We all know that. We can assume Trump does too. So he has set out on another course as he has in so many areas. The man is truly remarkable and courageous for that. We have never had a president who has tried to do so much while being so roundly, and often irrationally, condemned for it, and then, almost miraculously, seeming to get positive results.

That does not mean he cannot be wrong. But the rest of us—politicians, pundits and citizens—have our own choice in this matter. We can support this initiative for Middle Eastern policy reform or not. The more of us who vocally support it, the more likely it is to succeed, to be heard across oceans. We are the American equivalent of the Arab Street.

At its best, Trump’s approach will bring about change more rapidly in the Islamic world than all the hectoring, lectures, sanctions or bombs could achieve. That’s how human behavior usually operates—the bird flies to the open hand and all that.

Unfortunately, it’s been tried a few times before in the Middle East and failed. This time, however, there is more behind it, the power of the United States and its president.

And if that fails, he, and we, can always change our minds and act differently. That happens pretty quickly nowadays.

Two final things: Not to be ignored in Trump’sMiddle East initiative, but for some reason missing from the many analyses I have seen, is that the president is about to enact the first trillion dollar defense budget, by far the largest in U. S. and world history and over three times the size of China’s.

This is peace through strength on steroids. Een though pundits may ignore it, the Emir of Kuwait, MBS, etc. certainly do not.

Two: As he landed in Qatar, President Trump said the following regarding concern for Israel that he skipped on this trip: “My visit to the Middle East does not sideline Israel; it benefits Israel,” and further noted, “This is good for Israel, having a relationship like I have with these countries.”

Probably so, but as always, trust but verify… and verify again.