Osama bin Laden Understood Trump's Supporters Better than We Do

Is Donald Trump a Fascist?

Yes, of course America is a democracy.  But a fascist strain, fuelled by xenophobia, bigotry and militarism, has always threaded its way through our politics. It was aided and abetted by the legacy of slavery and today rests within the GOP's right-wing base.  This is our shadow.  Enemies of the United States define us by it, while we pretend it doesn't exist.  Well, actually we did pretend until Donald Trump's run for the presidency has now flung it in our faces.   In that regard, he may even have done the country a favor, if we can see what is at stake more clearly now, given Trump's campaign promise to close our borders to all Muslims.

In orchestrating 9/11, Osama bin Laden wanted to expose that shadow of ours to the Islamic world. In short he outsmarted George Bush.  In retaliation for that terrorist attack, we marched into Baghdad,  and proceeded to kill 100,000 Iraqi civilians because we couldn't bother to differentiate the religious fanatics from their secular enemies.  In the process, we also create a failed state and the ISIS death cult.  Yes, bin Laden knew how the Bush Administration would react to a terrorist attack and that was his goal.  Fomenting chaos and bitter antagonism between the West and the Islamic world really was the point, the only point.  Al-Qaeda and the new kid on the block, ISIS, want for us to expel the Muslims from our midst in a blind rage, so that they'll become disillusioned and embittered with the West and join its holy war.  

 While this scenario leaves us little to be grateful for, at least our Commander in Chief is smart.  President Obama knows the game being played.  But he may not have the power to stop the fascist wing of American politics led by Donald Trump and embraced by all the GOP presidential candidates, from playing into terrorist hands.