America should follow its own advice
During his recent trip to the Arab-Islamic-American summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, President Trump urged the leaders of 55 nations to drive terrorists out of our communities and our places of worship.
In a candid interview with CNN on October 25, 2015, Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the Iraq war helped give rise to ISIS. Meanwhile Hillary Clinton, in a debate with Bernie Sanders during the US presidential campaign of 2016, said that it had been the wrong decision for her country to go to war with Iraq. The then Bush administration ignored the resolutions proposed by the UN; the resulting war killed hundreds of thousands of people, and forced millions of Iraqis to add to the staggering number of refugees fleeing to Europe and other neigbouring countries.
Similarly, recently, US-led air strikes on Syria from September 2014 to May 23, 2017, have killed 1,481 innocent people, among whom 319 were children. More than 10,000 civilians were killed by Saudi-led airstrikes supported by the USA and Britain. The recent arms deal between USA and Saudi Arabia worth USD 110 billion is going to take effect immediately, and God knows how many innocent people are going to be killed in Yemen in the coming days. Instead of blaming Muslim countries for their lack of initiative in weeding out terrorism, USA should first refrain from invading Middle Eastern countries and arming rebel groups.
Md. Jonny Hossain
Dhaka
