
By John F. Di Leo -
Reflections on the War on Terror, in light of the Manchester Arena Bombing
On Sunday, May 22, 2017, President Trump and King Salman of Saudi Arabia addressed a gathering of the political leadership of some 50 muslim-majority nations… and on Monday, May 23, an ISIS-inspired jihadist detonated a nail bomb in Manchester, England after a concert, killing over twenty innocents, injuring sixty more.
Whether intended to be a response or not, this terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena must be directly assessed in light of King Salman's speech yesterday in Saudi Arabia… because it hammers home the special challenge of this war.
In a pointed and well-received speech, the king of Saudi Arabia – a leader in the Arab world – called for an end to the use of terrorism as a religious tool, essentially repeating the order of General al-Sisi’s famous New Year's Day speech in Egypt two years ago. The king's speech was directed at politicians; the general's speech was directed to clerics. The general's speech fell on deaf ears; the king's was apparently accepted by the politicians.