A Stranger At The White House
In the long and storied history of the United States Presidency, we've never seen anything like what happened last week. A young man was being feted in the Oval Office. In his well-coiffed beard and expensive business suit, he looked for all the world like the many diplomats and politicians who come to the White House each week.
After the usual pleasantries and diplomatic niceties, Donald Trump is handed a golden atomizer that he exclaims is his latest cologne, from which he promptly spritzes behind the stranger's ear. A "blessing" that the President then repeats with the translator. Both men look incredibly puzzled and bemused.
Like a merchant at the kasbah, Donald Trump then goes on to extol the virtues of this particular perfume. It's his latest item for the well-groomed man. Something that I'm sure will soon appear on QVC, Amazon, and at other retail outlets—the perfect compliment for the stranger that Trump has just met.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CdQ-2SVJMY
If there is one thing that Trump has mastered, it is the importance of appearance, something that the stranger has also learned. In a world that cares little about background, how one dresses can mean everything.
Unfortunately, that kind of superficial judgment seems to have infected this White House. For the man who stands with the President is none other than the Tyrant of Syria, the most prominent representative of those "terrorists" who brought down the Twin Towers in New York 24 years ago. The very personification against whom we fought in the Global War on Terror, Abu Mohammad al-Julani.
While the United States mobilized for battle against Iraq, al-Julani, as a young man, journeyed to that nation specifically to fight the Americans. A man of many loyalties, he has served beside many different rebels, but always in opposition to the "infidel," otherwise known as the United States of America.
Born Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, he has recently adopted the al-Julani moniker, at least in part to downplay his "colorful" past. While in Iraq, al-Julani rose to prominence as a leader in al-Qaeda, with the Economist recently reporting that Iraqi intelligence believes that he was the number two in that rebel group.
Al-Julani has been able to survive, and even excel, in the violent and volatile world of Jihad extremism. He was only 21 years old when the Iraq War began, yet he was able to survive and even rise to leadership as a young man. Along the way, he matured into one of the most aggressive and violent leaders in Suni Salafi-jihadism - the effort to create a global caliphate.
The chief characteristic of al-Julani's rise to fame has been his brutality. Wherever he has gone, he has brought brutality, beheadings, and torture in the pursuit of his enemies, be they Shia Muslims, Alawites, Christians, or especially American soldiers.
In late 2011, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, sent the now 29-year-old al-Julani to Syria to join in the civil war. Al-Julani quickly assembled his rebel fighters into what David Ignatius at the Washington Post called "the most aggressive and successful of the rebel forces."
Named Jabhat al-Nusra, or Jabhat Fatah al Sham, al-Julani's new rebel group was immediately labeled as a "Terrorist Organization" by the US State Department, its highest designation.
Al-Julani had arrived. From that beginning in late 2011, he would fight an endless war of terror and destruction against the Syrian Army and the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad.
In 2017, al-Julani's al-Nusra group merged with other jihadists in Syria, gaining new fighters and new strength to carry on their all-out war against the US-backed Assad regime. The new group is called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, or just HTS. At this point, the US State Department placed a $10 million bounty for information leading to the identification or location of al-Julani.
https://2017-2021.state.gov/rewards-for-justice-reward-offer-for-information-on-al-nusrah-front-leader-muhammad-al-jawlani/
Late last year (2024), the struggle for Syria reached its climax. For 13 long years, al-Julani had fought the Syrian Army, and it had taken its toll on the Assad forces. The country was broke, its military tired and stretched thin. Incursions by Israel and constant terror from the Jihadists had weakened Syria to a point that defeat was inevitable.
Al-Julani sensed his moment was at hand. In November 2024, he orders his forces to attack a group of 11 towns and villages in the Aleppo region in what he calls Operation Deterrence of Aggression. In days, all the towns fall, and HTS moves onto Aleppo, the regional capital. On December 4, 2024, Aleppo falls, and HTS is on a historic roll. The next day, the city of Hama falls to HTS, and it's on to Damascus.
In the Syrian Capital, Damascus, al-Julani's forces would be joined by other Jihadists as the tide of war was clearly on the rebels' side. Damascus fell in just two days, while President Assad fled to Russia.
And just like that, the war, which for al-Julani began in 2011, was now over; his HTS fighters had won. To the outside world, it appeared to be a swift victory for the Jihadists. But to al-Julani, it must have seemed to be the end of more than a decade of battle.
Al-Julani quickly consolidated his power, first with what remained of the country's civil authorities, all of whom accepted him as the new leader. And later, he quashed any rebellion from the Alawites or Christians who resisted his claim to power. Rumors persist that his forces used the same tactics of terror, ethnic cleansing, and repression against any resistance.
So it was that one of the most feared, unrepentant jihadists of them all became the Tyrant of Syria—the unelected conqueror who took over this ancient Middle Eastern nation by force and terror.
Regrettably, none of this seemed to matter to a US President last week who was anxious to show off his latest perfume. It appears that our transactional leader is more concerned about the latest "deal" than any distressing history that might get in the buyer's way. Tell us once again how many "deals" we've done, and how wealthy we'll become.
Oh, and one final note: that golden flask that President Trump gave to al-Julani was appropriately named VICTORY.
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