News, Opinion, & Multimedia for Tamalpais High School

The Tam News

News, Opinion, & Multimedia for Tamalpais High School

The Tam News

News, Opinion, & Multimedia for Tamalpais High School

The Tam News


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Featured Opinions: Foreign Policy

Graphic+by%3A+Emma+Blackburn
Graphic by: Emma Blackburn

Donald Trump, as of January 20, 2017, will be sworn into the White House as the 45th President of the United States of America. In office, he will have to make decisions for our county regarding not only the public, but also our allies and our foreign policies. What is it that Mr. Trump will do in regards to foreign policy in the United States?

I must start by saying that my standards for his policies are not high. They are the bare minimum. Mr. Trump has been quoted to say that his foreign policy is mainly focused on “Making America Safe Again” by eradicating Islamic terror groups, as well as stop the nuclear deal the USA had with Iran. Trump has vowed to his supporters that America will stop the Obama-Clinton practice of apologizing to enemies at the same time as maintaining our allies. However, the issue I see with these promises is that they are far more complicated than the extent to which they are seen to be. Furthermore, there is the blatant question still standing: how? How would Trump accomplish all this, as if it is so easy?

I wish I could say the answer was simple- perhaps as simple as Trump makes it sound. However, Trump is saying that he wants to kill off Islamic terror groups (mainly ISIS) at the same time as maintaining our allies in the Middle East, but that is essentially impossible. ISIS is allies with some of our allies, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Eradicating ISIS would be eradicating an ally of one of our own, therefore upsetting our allies, thus not maintaining peace. Trump, in a speech on February 26, 2016, said, “there’s nothing I would rather do than bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, generally. I think it serves no purpose to say you have a good guy and a bad guy.” That is an issue. There is no way the United States can “bring peace to Israel and its neighbors” without completely upsetting many of our allies at the same time.

Of course, there are so many other foreign policy ideas that Mr. Trump has in store for the United States- all to keep the USA safe. As Trump put it in his book Time to Get Tough, published in 2011, “I love America. And when you love something, you protect it passionately–fiercely, even.” Let’s hope for the United States’ sake, that maybe in this case, love will Trump hate.

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    josiah bartletDec 27, 2016 at 4:31 pm

    Hey Mary,

    I recently stumbled upon this and felt compelled to comment as a former student and Tam newsy. Turkey and Saudi Arabia are absolutely not allies with the Islamic State. ISIS focuses on eliminating idolatry, also known as “shirk” in Arabic, and affirming God’s position as the one true authority in the world. ISIS is unique because of the priority they put on targeting Muslims and the rulers of Arab states. According to the group, the heads of state in every Muslim nation deserve to die because they have created man-made law above Sharia (Quranic law) by running for office or enforcing rules that were not imposed by God. ISIS has routinely launched attacks in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. While they recruit from these two countries, they are certainly not aligned with their governments in any way.

    Turkey allows the US-led coalition to use their bases to launch air strikes and other operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, sometimes participating in such attacks themselves. In the case of Saudi Arabia, they are also part of the US-led coalition against ISIS and view the jihadi group as a threat to their monarchy. The Saudi government has put considerable resources into the fight against the ISIS. In addition, the kingdom has created extensive domestic programs to counter terrorism and extremism.

    While foreign policy regarding ISIS is indeed complicated, it is not because ISIS is allies with our allies. I just wanted to clear that up and I apologize is this seemed condescending.

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