Major American news media and the usual gang of Washington beltway clerks have tried to ignore into oblivion the Trump administration's diplomatic achievements in the Middle East.
Their collective pay-no-heed is crooked and vile on so many levels.
First and foremost, their corrupt collective silence sets conditions for more war, violence and death in the next four years.
In the longer term, their corrupt silence is an information darkness that not only does a deep disservice to the American people but is also the dirty brush of dishonest history.
American journalists once proclaimed their daily reports were the "first rough draft of history," the best effort working stiffs could produce before the print deadline.
After the last four years, you have to wonder whether that self-serving tout was ever true.
We now know the Russia-collusion tale that enthralled The New York Times and CNN for three years was a total lie concocted by Hillary Clinton's campaign.
And it is a verifiable, documented fact the Trump administration fostered astonishing diplomatic progress in the Middle East that has changed political conditions and, if pursued by the next administration, would diminish conflict and promote peace -- in other words, save human lives.
Based on the regional results as of November 2020, President Donald Trump himself deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.
"Horror! Madness!" major media and the beltway clerks scream in social media unison. My long-run shrug: Barack Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize for doing absolutely nothing. Ipso facto, the Peace Prize has become a dishonest credential.
Allow me one more aside, but one that illustrates the significance of the Trump administration's Middle East achievements.
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Consider this nickname: The Land of War.
The sobriquet, used by more than a few veterans, goes well beyond Israel and its neighbors. The idiom refers to predominantly Muslim lands, from Mali in West Africa across Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Over the last three decades, violent conflict has mauled all of these countries. Insiders -- soldiers and diplomats informed by honest history, which still gets written, thank God -- knew the slang jihadi term for non-Muslim territories: the "dar al-harb," the place of war where Islam did not yet rule but would once others were subdued by jihadi swords.
9/11 was a jihadi sword strike. It brought on a lot of war -- in Muslim lands.
Which leads to Trump administration achievements. Years ago, Egypt and Jordan recognized Israel. Often, the peace was cold. However, the Egyptian, Jordanian and Israeli business communities said cold peace beat war.
The major media and beltway clerks said the Palestinian state issue was an intractable problem. The Trump administration, an un-beltway creature, didn't buy the narrative.
The Trump administration attacked the chief source of violence in the Middle East: Iran.
Since 1984, Iran has been on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. The ayatollah dictatorship engages in what some analysts refer to as "violent meddling operations." Iranian intelligence operatives and its Quds Force (special operations section) stir violence in vulnerable, impoverished countries throughout the world.
Iran uses Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon as puppets in a war on Israel. Iran wages covert war on Bahrain, Iraq and Kuwait. It wages overt war on Saudi Arabia through Yemen and via drone attacks.
The Trump administration says the blunt truth. Arabs and Israelis had a common enemy: ayatollah Iran. For that matter, the ayatollah regime is an enemy of the Iranian people.
Which U.S. administration propped up Iran? Answer: the Nobel Peace Prize Obama administration.
Obama's deceitfully named Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action rewarded the corrupt ayatollahs with billions of dollars in cash and sanctions relief, which the regime used to make war.
Thanks to the Trump administration's calculated diplomacy, this year, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to normalize relations with Israel.
Sudan -- so recently off the State Department's State Sponsor of Terrorism list -- is considering establishing diplomatic relations. Or at least it was prior to the presidential election.
Who was Obama's vice president?
To paraphrase the great Roman general Scipio Africanus, if you want Middle East peace, you want a very detailed ballot recount.
Give me a break; I'm a military historian. Scipio beat Hannibal, so he knew something.
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