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Financial Times
CommentaryFariborz S. Fatemi February 19, 2017Former Professional Staff MemberHouse Foreign Affairs CommitteeSenate Foreign Relations Committee
There he goes again. Lies, more lies, and things made up. After a monthin office, reality and common sense speak volumes about Trump, Putin’s “usefulidiot,” and the sycophants who surround him. Some examples: “To be honest, I inherited a mess;” Trump is reallyconfused, he must be talking about the Obama/Biden Administration thatinherited a mess from Bush/Cheney. Thereality and common sense is, what Trump inherited is a roaring economy with lowunemployment that was saved from a near depression and a strong, vibrantcountry. “This administration is runninglike a fine-tuned machine.” His “fine-tuned machine” produced the amateurishexecutive order on immigration, creating chaos across the US, and stopped by thecourts. A lesson for Trump and those around him about the Constitution andseparation of powers. An executive order that named Iran instead of the real countriesresponsible for terrorism. Such as Saudi Arabia, a country that has spread a bastardizedversion of Islam, Wahabbism and Salafism inflaming the region and provided mostof the 9-11 terrorists who were Saudi citizens. A country that along with theGulf States, the US Treasury and the Kurds, have said are the “epi-center ofterrorism funding.” Afghanistan and Pakistan both harbored Bin-Laden, filledwith terrorists but were not named. Iranis supposed to be the heavy in the Middle East. It is surrounded by nuclear powers, Russia, Pakistan, Israel and the USin the Gulf. Iran is a country that is amajor force fighting ISIL and a country that has not attacked anyone in threecenturies. Unlike Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States bombing Yemen, killing womenand children for several years. Could it be that these countries were not namedbecause of Trump’s business interests? The reality and common sense is if youare ignorant of the facts and the real enemy, how are you going to fight thereal terrorists? The press is “the enemyof the American people.” This is totalignorance of the First Amendment of the Constitution and history. The realityand common sense is the press is one of the guarantors of a free America. “I havenothing to do with Russia.” The realityand common sense is Trump is lying. As early as last September, there werereports about his campaign’s contacts with Soviet intelligence. Further, he publicly called on Putin to hackSecretary Clinton. Also his sons havespoken publicly about numerous business dealings with Russia and investments.Trump calls Flynn, his former national security advisor, “a fine person.” Thereality and common sense is Flynn lied to the FBI about his Russian contactsand resigned. What do the Russians hold over Trump that he is so benevolenttowards them? They are behaving aggressively. Trump’s reaction? None. In themeantime, Trump continues his mindless and useless tweets and statements,insulting the intelligence community, the federal workforce, the judiciary andthe press, all pillars needed for a successful administration. How very sad.
A version in the Boston Globe.