Trump can only see Saudi petro dollars

For the first time since he walked into the White House, President Trump demonstrated in Riyadh that he can do more than just flap his hands. He also demonstrated that he is not a political mannequin and can tap dance as well as anybody else in the terror swamp.

Nagged by domestic woes and not wanting to play Russian roulette back home, Trump did what American presidents excel at – showcased himself before a global audience – in a concerted attempt to deflect and deceive.

He also reverted to a theme that had catapulted him into the White House in the first place – Islamic terror – but the narrative abruptly changed in Riyadh.

It was a coy Trump who engaged in semantics, desisted from talking about 'radical Islamic terrorism,' and instead served a milder, less lethal cocktail of 'Islamic extremism' to his captive audience of 55 world leaders.

The military orders worth billions under his belt and the fervent desire not to offend the sensibilities of his Saudi hosts should explain that, at least partially.

These lucrative deals will keep the rusting military-industry behemoth back home in good shape.

The world had expected an 'incorrigible' Trump to be a little more blunt with his hosts and remind them that 9 of the 13 9/11 hijackers were Saudis.

But Trump has already concluded in his wisdom that the fountainhead of terror is none other than Iran, even though from all accounts the terror strikes in Europe, India, the US and recently in Manchester had their genesis elsewhere. In almost a similar fashion President Ronald Reagan had demonised the erstwhile USSR, describing it as an evil empire.

"From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms and trains terrorists, militias and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region," Trump told the Arab summiteers, professing to know the region better than them.

Disregarding the Shia-Sunni fault lines in the Islamic world, he even offered an out-of-the box solution – 'Until the Iranian regime is willing to play along, all nations with a conscience must work in tandem to isolate it!'

Likewise, when it came to radicalisation of Islam, the US president changed gears with consummate ease and turned a potent debate on terrorism into a biblical sermon on conflict between good and evil.

Sample this: ''If you choose the path of terror, your life will be empty, your life will be brief, and your soul will be fully condemned.''

As Trump dropped more such nuggets of wisdom, it seemed at least for a day the US president had swapped places with the Pope. That he had chosen to pontificate in a country that is known to be the cradle of Wahabbi terrorism was an act any performing flea in a circus would be proud of. That the export of terror is a corollary of Saudi policy of religious imperialism in the region -- with rival Iran at the other end of the spectrum – is again a matter that was conveniently shrugged off.

That the Saudis are trying to bomb the Islamic State out of their pocket boroughs in Syria and Iraq, even as they are abetting the Jihadists in Yemen is a petty matter between Trump and his conscience, now.

Nor did the Riyadh-led air strikes in Yemen, which have maimed hundreds of children, find a mention even in the postscript when Trump signed the Faustian pact with the Saudis.

In the annexure to the arms deal, Trump has scribbled in blood that US will step up the war against Iran backed Houthis in Yemen, a matter on which Barack Obama had taken an about-turn.

Trump also excused himself from taking up Human Rights issues – more people are stoned and executed in Saudi than any other Arab country. ''We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship," Trump told his hosts, who were more than pleased at the outcome.

As Trump cajoled the Muslim leaders to ''scare would-be terrorists into submission'' he also told them that this was their fight, and the onus was entirely on them to 'drive out' terrorists from every corner of their lives, especially mosques, making it clear that the big fight could not be outsourced to the US.

But Trump may be making all the wrong assumptions: one of them being that all Middle East countries will heed his call and there will be a mad scramble to drive out terrorists.

It was only when the details of the Riyadh declaration were unveiled at the end of the summit that it became apparent the big idea is to raise a dedicated joint force for combating terrorism in Syria and Iraq, which may be funded in-house by the participating nations.

According to one media report, the declaration talks of 'Iran and terrorism in the same breath', which would suggest that all pretence about waging a proxy war against Iran are being dropped.

So, this essentially is the grand blueprint Trump has tucked up his sleeve for stamping out the IS?

At the summit, for once, the US president took great care not to shout himself hoarse or wring his hands. He weighed each word as he spoke: If this was a command performance, necessitated by exigencies of nagging troubles back home, he did a terrific job.

But the president forgot momentarily that the world was listening to him with rapt attention, that he was expected to take on the scourge of terror with the kind of resoluteness he had exhibited in the presidential polls. But this was not even the demagogue Trump, it was a cherubic third world leader sharing his hackneyed world view.

It was apparent the shrill rhetoric of the presidential campaign had meandered in the world of petro dollars, losing its bite and sting, reinforcing the notion that the businessman in Trump does not have the grit and America the wherewithal to take the terror bull by the horns. Another demagogue has fallen by the wayside and so have his promises.

The author is a former editor of The Free Press Journal