By Sajjad Shaukat
US new President Donald Trump confused the Swedes and Pakistanis
in particular and the people of other countries of the world in general by
confusing the terror attack in Pakistan’s town of Sehwan with Sweden.
Sehwan is a
historic town located in Jamshoro District of Sindh province in Pakistan. It
stands on the west bank of the Indus, 80 miles
(130 km) northwest of Hyderabad which is provincial capital of Sindh.
In
Sehwan, at least 88 people were martyred and 343 were injured on February 16,
this year when a suicide bomber attacked the crowed Sufi Shrine of Lal Shahbaz
Qalandar.
But,
addressing a crowed rally in Melbourne, Florida on
Saturday night (February 18, 2017), the puzzled President Trump said “We’ve got
to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at
what’s happening last night [February 17] in Sweden…who would
believe this?”
Echoing his
anti-Muslim approach—the earlier statements like a ban on Muslims, entering the
United States and a visa-ban on the seven Islamic countries, Trump elaborated
by arguing that European countries were facing terrorists under the disguise of
refugees. He stated, “Sweden…they took in large numbers. They’re having
problems like the never thought possible. You look what’s happening in
Brussels. You look at what’s happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice.
Take a look at Paris.”
High officials
and media of the Sweden pointed out the non-existent of any terror attack in
their country, as mentioned by the President Trump.
Sweden’s foreign
ministry spokeswoman, Catarina Axelsson said that the Swedish embassy in
Washington also contacted the State Department to request clarification of
Trump’s remarks and was waiting for an answer.
Former Swedish
Prime Minister Carl Bildt has asked “what has Donald
Trump been smoking?” after the
President alluded to a mystery recent attack in the country.
Besides, Swedish people have expressed their bewilderment on
the social media over President Donald Trump’s allusion to a terror attack in
their country, which did not actually happen. Some people remarked that Trump
is a crazy man; some wrote that Trump is a mad man and some opined that Trump
gave these remarks under the influence of drugs or he was over-drunk.
In
Pakistan too, various media analysts, including people on social media declared
the US President Donald Trump as the confused personality, who has confused the
terror assault in Pakistan’s town of Sehwan with Sweden. Some of them have
called him a fool or joke. They have raised the questions as to how a perplexed
person has become the president of the US and as to how he would run the
country.
In this regard,
a blogger in the website (www.vice.com) wrote, “Many have theorized that the
President Trump has a tendency to make public remarks based on what he’s seen
on television on any given day.
Given this, a school librarian
who runs one of Sweden’s official Twitter accounts, wondered whether his comments were inspired by
an interview aired Friday
evening on Fox News with documentary-maker Ami Horowitz, whose recent film
argues that there is a relationship between Sweden’s new refugee population and
high crime rates…Trump was alluding to terror
attacks in Europe to justify his frustration that a federal court two weeks ago
blocked the implementation of a controversial executive order
which temporarily banned foreigners from seven Muslim-majority countries
from entering the United States.”
However,
US President Donald Trump has gone so ahead in manipulating and equating the
so-called threat of the Islamic militants and terrorism with all the Muslims
that its seems, perhaps, he also sees Muslims in the daydreaming.
Here,
it is also notable that western politicians and media always show discrimination
in relation to the terror attacks which take place in the US and Europe and the
Islamic countries. In this respect, when any terrorism-related incident occurs
in the US or Europe, especially their media give a larger coverage and give
various developments in this connection for several days. But when such a
terror assault takes place in a Muslim country, it has very little coverage. In
this regard, various kinds of terror attacks which occurred in Syria, Iraq,
Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and particularly Pakistan could not get
appropriate coverage as compared to those ones which took place in the US and
Europe, while, lives of the peoples of the Islamic nations are as important as
those of the white people. Hence, question arises as to why this discriminatory
treatment?
Nevertheless,
people all over the world expect that American president should be a wise
person, having statesmanship-like qualities such as diplomatic skill, farsightedness, sobriety, good decision-making power etc., while
working under pressure, during a crisis.
Quite contrarily,
body language and way of speaking of the impulsive Donald Trump show that he is
guided by ungoverned temper, and he lacks leadership qualities like
farsightedness, wisdom, crisis-management, diplomatic skill etc. He cannot work
in pressure, as he has been puzzled over continued duress of his criticism in
wake of perennial protest-marches and rallies in America, Europe and elsewhere
in the world—people are raising the slogans that Trump as the president is
unacceptable. In fact, he is neither a
politician nor a statesman, as his contradictory statements and anti-Muslim rhetoric
display.
Famous thinker
of international relations, Hans Morgenthau opines that external policy of a
country should be moulded in accordance “with the exigencies and circumstances
of time and place” otherwise, there will be “failure of the foreign policy.” It
is quite true in case of the pro-Israeli and pro-Indian Trump who makes
decisions in accordance with his personal liking and disliking, favoritism and
disfavortism instead of the exigencies of circumstances and the concerned
country, is likely to commit many follies in the near future, which will
further thwart the American foreign policy goals, because, he does not have
political wisdom.
Hence,
question also arises, as to how President Donald Trump would made good
decisions on the major issues which at present, America is facing internally
and externally.
In this context,
the most dangerous point is that being the commander in chief of the US armed
forces, President
Trump can issue order of nuclear attack on any rival major power like China and
Russia or any small country like Iran, Yemen, Syria and Pakistan, which would envelop
the entire world.
Sajjad Shaukat
writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic
Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email:
sajjad_logic_pak@hotmail.com
Courtesy Veterans Today
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