For whatever other foreign policy faux pas his critics wish to disdain, there’s no question that President Trump’s successful slaughter of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi was not just a bipartisan victory but one on behalf of the entire Western world.
Trump has wisely begun to campaign on this signature achievement, as his predecessor did before him, using his best instincts to boast about the raid in detail.
“The monstrous animal known as al Baghdadi is dead. And the man that took his place is dead also,” Trump proclaimed at a Kentucky rally Monday night, ahead of today’s election. “American special forces gave the world’s number one terrorist a one-way ticket to hell. No enemy on Earth stands a chance against the awesome power of the United States military, which is now stronger than ever before. We’ve rebuilt it, and it was all made in America.”
If Trump’s botched Syria withdrawal and public obeisance to dictators exemplify the worst of his foreign policy instincts, his Baghdadi pitch represents the very best. ISIS, in Trump’s correct view, is not the J.V. team but a violent and formidable pack of thugs deserving of an ignominious ending at the hands of a military emboldened by his administration.
A careful critic would note that the destruction of ISIS was only made possible by since-ousted hawks former Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser John Bolton. A stupid critic would clutch his pearls over Trump’s audacity to celebrate the demise of the world’s most wanted terrorist, who literally died blowing up his own children.
Trump bragging about killing is ghoulish pic.twitter.com/zwwWh4JR1G
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 5, 2019
Unfortunately, major players in cable and print news are in on this game as well, fact-checking Trump not for the other dozens of actual lies he tells in a day, but for whether or not Baghdadi — who, again, killed himself while fleeing a dog — was literally crying like a dog when he died.
Trump repeats his claim that Baghdadi spent his final moments “trembling” and “crying.” The NYT just posted a story about how defense officials haven’t seen any evidence of this — no video or audio, no after-action reports, nothing. https://t.co/P4wD006ez3
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 2, 2019
All the available evidence indicates that Trump invented his claims about al-Baghdadi “whimpering” and “crying.” We shouldn’t get used to this… pic.twitter.com/YlsNKPCsTi
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 3, 2019
It seems increasingly likely that Trump tried to extort Ukraine into digging up dirt on his domestic political foe. He is on the hook for a potentially impeachable offense. But how can anyone take media coverage of the impeachment proceeding seriously, or believe that there is even a scintilla of good faith or intellectual honesty involved in it, when entire cable news segments are being put together to undermine Trump on the question of whether Baghdadi died exactly how he deserved to?
Trump strikes a chord when he talks about the sniveling, cowardly way in which Baghdadi died. Until the media understands that, they’ll only keep helping him.
