President Donald Trump, what have you done? Well, I guess everything you said you would!
When Trump started the process of building his version of Hadrian's Wall between the US and Mexico (though I must say Mexican cuisine does indeed trump haggis), everyone screamed blue bloody murder...why? Isn't that exactly what he said he would do?
When he decided to bring back the Mexico City policy, everyone wrung their hands in dismay...why? Isn't that what he said he'd do?
Now when he's banned Muslim citizens from Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, and Syrian refugees from entering the US, everyone's calling him a tyrant...why? Isn't that what he said he'd do? Well yes, and yet he's not quite gone far enough.
There's an in intrinsic problem with Donald Trump's current decision to ban the entry of citizens from the aforementioned countries. He claims he wants to stop Islamic terrorists from coming on to US soil and carrying out their murderous agenda. OK, fair enough, then why stop short of banning nationals from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Pakistan, etc?
This is where Trump's decision looks more like the kneejerk reaction of an ignorant man, rather than that of a President who's making all the uncomfortable decisions to keep his people safe.
It's almost as if Trump has looked at the map of the Islamic world, stuck pins in all the countries riven with either poverty, conflict, or are at the other end of the ideological spectrum from the US and said: "Avast! Ye vile beasts!"
Saudi Arabia (9/11, anyone?) allows no other religion, apart from Islam, to build a structure of worship, and who allegedly, along with Qatar, are the chief financial backers of ISIS. So why not ban their nationals?
It would seem clichéd to mention defense and oil contracts, but if the cliché fits....
If Donald Trump is going to make decisions that will divide a nation, if not the world, then he has to make sure he follows through completely; otherwise he's just going to emerge looking like an iconoclast, who's replaced icons with baby rattles. And now they're all out of the pram.
As it stands, Trump now resembles an Islamophobe, who doesn't mind anatagonzing parts of a religion, as long as it doesn't interfere with money coming into the country.
Targeting refugees and genuine asylum-seekers, while letting the real peddlers of religious factionism and destroyers of human rights walk away with smug grins, is nothing short of bullying.
Trump is reviled by a majority of the American population, and certainly most of the world. He needs to use that animosity to his advantage...when your approval ratings are so low anyway, who cares about a few more points.
If Trump truly believes that a ban on Muslims entering the the US will prevent terrorists from carrying out attacks on US soil then he's entitled to make these decisions, unpopular and prejudiced though they may be.
But President Trump, if you're planning on being the big man on campus, then at least have the cajones to take everyone on, not just impoverished families fleeing war zones, and men and women who have given up everything to fight for that little slice of freedom that got you elected into the White House.
You may find it unable to grow up, but you must find it in yourself to be a man!
