Tulsi Gabbard Calls out Trump’s Troubling Double Standard on Al-Qaeda

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard marked 9/11 by pointing out that Donald Trump paid tribute to the victims of Al-Qaeda even while protecting the terrorist group’s last stronghold in Syria – sparking a range of responses online, according to RT.

In a tweet written on the seventeenth anniversary of the tragic terrorist attacks, Gabbard noted that “while President Trump and VP Pence give 9/11 speeches about how much they care about the victims of al-Qaeda’s attack on our country, they are simultaneously acting as protectors of AQ in Syria/Idlib, threatening Russia and Syria that if they attack al-Qaeda, we will punish them.”

 The tweet sparked a dizzying range of responses, with some praising the Democratic congresswoman and others resorting to all-caps-lock condemnations.

“At least one person in Congress gets it. I am a libertarian and wouldn’t mind seeing Tulsi Gabbard run for the White House in 2020. A refreshing breath of fresh air,” one Twitter user wrote. “Thank you Tulsi. You are a genuine beacon of hope and change in Washington,” said another.

“Hello Americans, hello, did you understand this? Reread it and think on it. Get it yet?” one seemingly impatient Twitter user asked.

Gabbard may have been the only lawmaker to draw attention to the troubling contradiction, but similar observations found fertile ground across social media.

“I’ll never reconcile how the biggest post-9/11 hawks turned into the biggest boosters of the ‘jihad’ in Syria,” professor Max Abrahms noted in his own tweet marking the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

Others highlighted how western media outlets, following the example of the US government, had rebranded Al-Qaeda as “rebels” under siege in Syria. The New York Times went so far as to praise the terrorist group as “a de facto governmental authority, facilitating trade across the long border with Turkey and organizing aid deliveries.”

H.M