Launching a bold mission to vaporize elusive Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi today, 73-year-old President made good on his promise to end the his five-year reign of terror. Al-Baghdadi declared his caliphate June 29, 1914, claiming to be the leader of all Muslims, using the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s leftover military to seize control of 30% of Iraq and Syria. Al-Baghadadi seized the moment, after former President Barack Obama celebrated the death of Osama bin Laden May 2, 2011, the mastermind of Sept. 11, killing nearly 2997 U.S. citizens. Al Baghdadi took Islamic terror to a new level, actually seizing territory from sovereign powers, something Bin Laden avoided. Like Al Qaeda, Bin Laden’s terror organization, al-Baghdadi inspired, recruited and ordered terror attacks all over the globe, concentrating on Western targets in the U.S. and Europe.
Today’s successful mission ordered by Trump and carried out by U.S. Special Forces in Syria was bad news for Democrats hoping to keep the public focused on impeachment hearings, not Trump’s foreign policy accomplishments. Getting al-Badhdadi was a major accomplishment to silence critics over Trump’s Syria policy where he announced Oct. 13 he would withdraw U.S. Special Forces from Syria where Turkey announced Oct. 9 a military operation to clear its border region of Kurdish encroachment. Trump’s withdrawal announcement prompted criticism from both sides of aisle, insisting the Trump betrayed its ISIS-fighting Kurdish forces AKA Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF]. Trump’s mission to kill al-Baghdadi was so secretive that no one at the New York Times and Washington Post got wind of it, prompting Trump to tout the fact that there were not leaks.
Al-Baghdadi inherited Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Islamic State of Iraq and Levant [ISIL] organization when al-Zarqawi was killed by U.S. Delta Force June 8, 2006. Flying under the radar until declaring the ISIS caliphate June 29, 2014, al-Baghdad became the FBI’s most dangerous terrorist, putting a $25 million bounty on his head, the same amount for Bin Laden and his successor 68-year-old Ayman al-Zawahiri, still hiding in the Waziristan region of Southwestern Pakistan. Al-Zawahiri no doubt sees himself among the world’s most deadly terrorists as the last man standing. Since al-Baghdai’s ascendance with ISIS, al-Zawahiri has played a backseat role to ISIS. ISIS grew in more prominence after seizing 46,000 square miles of Iraq and Syria, only to watch its caliphate crumble with an international effort led by the U.S. to end al-Baghdadi’s five-year reign of terror.
Al-Baghdadi’s prominence grew as ISIS recruited lone-wolf terror attacks around the globe, inspiring mayhem in Europe and in the U.S. When the U.S. army helicopters flew to al-Baghdadi’s compound in Barsiha village, Idlib province Syria, it staged a flawless operation eventually chasing down al-Baghdadi in escape tunnels underneath his complex. Trump said that al-Baghdadi was “whimpering” before his death, died “as a coward, running and crying.” Trump wanted to world to see al-Baghdadi for what he was, a phony terrorist, exploiting young, wayward, desperate recruits to carry out his diabolical ambitions. Killing Baghdadi, no matter how it happened, is a blow to the ISIS terror group, no longer with its spiritual master, capable of motivating recruits in the Middle East and around the globs. Trump said al-Baghdadi was mutilated after detonating a suicide vest confronted by U.S. troops.
Trump spared no details of al-Baghdadi’s final breaths, letting the world see the cowardly terrorist. “The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent is last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified by American forces bearing down on him,” Trump said today at the White House. Drawing a comparison between situations rooms with Trump today and May 2, 2011 when U.S. Special Forces killed Osama bin Laden, the Associated Press [AP], implied that Trump played to the cameras, unlike Obama who showed more authenticity with Bin Laden’s death. Media outlets don’t want to give Trump any credit for approving and launching the mission that took down al-Baghdadi. Whether they like it or not, al-Baghdadi’s death makes the media look foolish for criticizing Trump approach in Syria. Trump made clear he wouldn’t take his eye off the mission to get rid of ISIS.
Killing al-Baghdadi was touted by world leaders today as a positive step in the war on terror. Saying al-Baghdadi’s death “marked a turning point in our joint fight against terrorism,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan let the world know where he stands. His operation against the Kurds in Northwestern Syria drew criticism from Republican and Democrats on Capitol Hill. Iran’s information minister Javad Azari Jahromi conveyed Iran’s sour grapes. “Not a big deal. You just killed your creature,” blaming the U.S. for creating ISIS. Iran takes shots at the U.S. whenever it can, railing against Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran’s proxy war against Saudi Arabia. “I congratulate our American allies for this operation. My thoughts today are more all the victims of the madness of Baghdadi and the criminals who have followed him,” said French President Emanuel Macron.
