US president Donald Trump gestures after being sworn in as President on 20 January, 2017 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Photo: AFP
US president Donald Trump placed the battle against Islamic extremism at the heart of his foreign policy as he took office on Friday, vowing to work with allies to destroy the jihadist threat.
“We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth,” he declared.
Trump’s predecessors George W Bush—who invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban regime—and Barack Obama—who ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden—also fought extremism.
But Trump has gome further than both in his use of language suggesting that he sees the fight as a civilizational battle between America and a threat springing from the Islamic faith itself.
And, in an inaugural address otherwise very thin on policy specifics, his vow to form new alliances against terror suggests that he intends to work with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Moscow has deployed forces to Syria to protect Bashar al-Assad’s regime from Islamist rebels, but Obama’s administration has argued their brutal tactics alienate moderates and only boost support for the extremist Islamic State group.
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