The Global War on Terror (GWOT) declared by United States President George W. Bush in 2001 has been a bonanza for the military-industrial complex and foreign intervention supporters over the last two and a half decades. It has also been the bringer of poverty, destruction, and death in parts of the world targeted by the sanctions, drone strikes, all-out wars and other interventions the US government has pursued in the name of advancing the imperial enterprise.
It looks like a new US imperial enterprise of spending, killing, and destruction may be in the works at the administration of President Donald Trump. It does not have a moniker yet, but it could end up being called the Global War for Christians, or GWFC.
On Saturday, Trump posted at his Truth Social page a message announcing that the US may go to war in Nigeria in response to Christians being killed there. Wrote Trump:
If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, “guns-a-blazing,” to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities. I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!
Later that day, a post from Trump’s War Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the following response:
Yes sir.
The killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria — and anywhere — must end immediately. The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.
There you have it — a new justification from the Trump administration to pursue intervention, including war, abroad. Further, indicated Hegseth, the intervention may not be just in Nigeria. Instead, it could be “anywhere” in the name of protecting Christians.
So, how extensive geographically might this intervention excuse stretch? An answer was suggested Monday by US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz during an interview at Fox News’s Fox & Friends that was focused on Waltz’s support for the Trump administration’s move to intervene in Nigeria to protect Christians. In the interview, Waltz volunteered that persecution of Christians with which the US government should be concerned extends much beyond Nigeria. It spans “78 countries, 330 million Christians being persecuted around the world.” Continuing, Waltz declared that Christianity “is the most persecuted religion across the Middle East and Africa and elsewhere.”
Is this all just bluster, or is the Trump administration about to start an open-ended “Global War for Christians” that could surpass the Global War on Terror in the spending it racks up in America and the destruction it brings abroad?
