US Political Exploitation After Brussels Attacks

Screenshot / McGregor Show / Youtube

In the midst of the US primaries, the attacks in Belgium could well put the terror threat rhetoric at the center of the political debate. 

“The deadly terror attacks in Brussels abruptly refocused the agenda of the presidential race Tuesday, jolting the dwindling group of candidates into a renewed debate over who was best-equipped to protect America”, comments the Walt Street Journal.

A tragedy to shine

While Belgium was living a dark day, the presidential race kept on going on the other side of the Atlantic, with polls taking place in Arizona, Utah, and Idaho for a Democrat caucus. On that day, the New York Daily News denounces :

Within hours, American conservatives, particularly Donald Trump, saw it as an opportunity for political exploitation. […] Writing tweets and appearing on any news program that would have him, Trump — who for years fired business amateurs on reality television and slapped Vince McMahon at Wrestlemania — now speaks as if he’s a national security expert.

 

Indeed on the Today Show program on Tuesday, Trump renewed his ideas of torture use to extract information from terrorists, and to threaten them through their families. 

 

Other Republican candidate Ted Cruz had is fair share as well : the Walt Street Journal mentions his tweet published hours after the bombings, reading “Radical Islam is at war with us. For over 7 years we have had a president who refuses to acknowledge this reality”, before smoothly adding “That ends on January 20, 2017, when I am sworn in as president”.

The third Republican candidate, the sometimes forgotten John Kasich, was much more sensible, and underlined the need for “rededicate ourselves to [...] values of freedom and human rights”.

Beware the anti-Islam discourse

The Washington Post points out: 
 

Kasich's tone — build alliances, but don't demonize Islam itself — has been consistent as the Republican primary field has shrunk. He repeatedly criticized Trump when the front-runner called for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration, and used a January forum organized by Jack Kemp's son to criticize anti-Muslim sentiment at a Trump rally 

 

On Trump's Muslim ban, the Los Angeles Times conveys Ted Cruz's similar declarations. According to him, the United States should “immediately halt the flow of refugees from countries with a significant Al Qaeda or ISIS presence,” adding: “We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.”

The California-based newspaper reminds its readers that the jihadist threat, while existing, is much less important in the US than it is in Europe, and that these two Republican candidates' discourse “sends the message that Muslims are strangers to this country — the same message that Islamic State is propagating.”

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, who respectively won Arizona and Utah on Tuesday, are unfortunately not likely to tone down on their rhetoric ahead of the 26 March polls in the states of Washington, Alaska and Hawaii.

This article appeared (in French) on
Courrier International