The Trump Recalibration: First act As President should be asking Congress to declare war on ISIS

By Steven Kurlander

steven@stevenkurlander.com

January 1, 2017 - Harris, NY

In case you missed it, the US has been fighting an unconstitutional, undeclared war against Islamic terrorist enemies around the globe since 9/11.

It’s cost has been bleeding the American treasury and has depreciated the influence of America as the believable leader of the free world.

When he takes office, Donald Trump’s first act as president should be to legitimize the prosecution of this war on Islamic terrorism by heading down Pennsylvania Avenue and asking Congress to legally declare war against ISIS.

Trump’s mandate from the American electorate was premised in part on using unrestrained American military power to defeat ISIS and making “American Great Again” by building back and expanding US military capabilities and reach around the world.

At the same time, Trump also has promised to bring a more restrained use of American interventionism.

"We wanna strengthen all friendships and seek out new friendships," Trump said at a post-election rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. "Rather than a rigid dogma, we're guided by the lessons of history, and a desire to promote stability all over and strength in our land. This destructive cycle of intervention and chaos must finally, folks, come to an end."

By asking for a declaration of war against ISIS and al Qaeda , President Trump would deliver on his promise not only to allow the United States to use the power and military might necessary to defeat these Islamic terror groups, but to actually illustrate that he is willing to restrain his presidential power to act alone in prosecuting and defining this war.

Trump would also set a mission to actually end what has been an unwinnable war.

This “War on Terror” as it stands today is an endless, illegal war, one whose mission, goals and objectives have never been truly defined with a declaration of war mandated both by the US Constitution and the War Powers Act. It has been an undemonstrative series of military actions in a number of different nations of no true definition or ideology to measure victory or defeat.  

Both our soldiers and their generals have been severely restrained by the Obama Administration's adoption of a military strategy based on weak internationalist doctrine and coalitions, political correctness defined by leftist elites and journalists, and an irrational obsession with restricting civilian casualties that rule out the extreme force necessary to carry out the destruction of enemy-and its supporters too.

It’s been a half assed, stupid way of fighting a war.

At the same time, Americans have become too accustomed, even complacent, to this eternal state of war.

After 9/11, we were all riled up in a very patriotic way, told to be ready and observant.

But after years of fighting that has accomplished little in terms of beating the enemy that is not allowed to be defined in real terms, our government now discounts the true threat to the American people and to diminish the significance and true costs of this state of war.

Sadly, while we send drones and the USAF to bomb targets in the Middle East, we have deferred to the Russians, the Saudis, and the Iranians to directly deal with ISIS, to sort out the messes in Syria and Yemen.

Even worse, at home, terrorist attacks such as the shootings at Fort Hood in 2009, the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 and the San Bernardino attack in 2015 and the recent bombing in Manhattan in September are incorrectly termed as criminal matters. Couched cynically as acts by psychological demented individuals acting alone, these acts of war by international terrorists quickly disappear from the news cycle and the consciousness of a nation.

By definitively defining the enemy, an unrestrained scope of waging war, and the cost in blood and coin Americans need to suffer to eliminate a true threat to world stability and American Democracy, a declaration of war would be both a defining moment for a new Trump Administration and a needed recalibration of how our nation is governed and addresses this threat.

It would be a truly significant first step in making “America Great Again.

By Steven Kurlander

kurlyskommentary@gmail.com

HARRIS NY - November 30, 2016

So far, if you were to sum up the Trump team transition, it’s pretty disappointing in terms of delivering important changes in how Washington works that the president-elect promised during the campaign.

For the most part, the present transition period is dominated by insiders from the Grand OLD Party, threatening the promise of a freethinking Trump White House and the promised change that America yearns for.

Trump’s victory was rooted in a hope for true change in not only in the way Washington governs, but also in terms of changing the political system to be more responsive and representative of the true majority of American people.

That included remaking and revitalizing a stratified and lethargic Republican Party that not only did everything possible to thwart his candidacy, but has proven incapable of truly connecting with a majority of Americans nationwide.

If one thing is certainly obvious, it’s that President-elect Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election by putting together a truly grassroots populist campaign that won the hearts and minds of disillusioned Americans.

These voters, many of whom had never voted or stopped voting, came to the polls to vote for Trump, or against Hillary.  

What defined this Trump swing group? These were the voters that both the Democratic and Republican parties had forsaken or taken for granted over the last two decades.

Trump and his loyal, core staff ran a brilliant guerilla-style campaign, using unorthodox messaging and strategies that reached a 21st century silent majority.

Nowhere was this more true than in the make-or-break battleground of Florida.

There, they fought with limited financial resources a victorious three front war against both the Democrats and Republican parties as well as the mainstream press, too.

In fact, Florida was ground zero in that regard for Trump, whose team lead by seasoned political operative Karen Giorno and self funded by the candidate not only knocked out former Florida Governor Jeb Bush prior to March 15th, but leveled Senator Marco Rubio in his home state primary by winning 66 of 67 counties in the GOP primary.

The agile, lean and mean Florida methodology crafted by Giorno became the populist Trump blueprint for victory in November as she was elevated to national coalitions and grassroots operatives, as well as the Director of Women's Engagement and took the show on the road to North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

It worked, carrying these states for Trump on November 8th and gaining unheard of percentages in Democratic strongholds like Palm Beach County.

"Karen Giorno understood how to win Florida for Mr. Trump and she did just that.  Then she took that playbook to the other battlegrounds states.  She’s a winner,” said former Hialeah Mayor Julio Martinez, who strongly supported Trump.

But after such a brilliant victories in Florida and other states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, the fear of the new Trump coalition has the GOP striking back-and leaving Trump loyalists like Giorno scratching their heads wondering how the RNC is taking credit for a victory they had very little if nothing to do with.

Instead, the GOP that Trump conquered is now getting an undeserved second lease on life.  They are also now rewriting the election narrative to claim sole credit for his win, especially in Florida.

More troubling? you don’t hear anything at all about making changes to the Republican Party.

In order for the GOP to survive, the achievement by Trump’s campaign of fusing the GOP faithful with independents and disenfranchised Democrats must be taken further to move the nation forward with a durable coalition.

In addition to delivering on his campaign promises on trade, immigration and job creation, Trump also must “shake up” the present GOP party apparatus by bringing his original campaign and populist political philosophy into a new, rebuilt populist Republican Party.

More importantly, unless Trump remakes a “Grand New Party” as his own brand of new American political reality, and includes members of his original “Trump” team from the campaign, he will quickly lose the goodwill of those that elected him to office.

What looks right now like a “Bush-league” GOP domination of a Trump Administration certainly won’t result in making American Great Again, much less than insuring a doomed presidency from the start.