Trump using al-Baghdadi’s death to further predatory policy of US imperialism: Scholar

US President Donald Trump is using Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s purported death to further the predatory policy of American imperialism in the Middle East, says Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

Talking to reporters at the White House on Sunday, Trump claimed al-Baghdadi blew himself up, dying "like a dog," and "like a coward" after US forces trapped him inside a dead-end tunnel.

"Last night the United States brought the world's number one terrorist leader to justice," Trump said.

He said the Daesh chief detonated his suicide vest while “crying and whimping” during an overnight raid by American special ops forces in Syria.

He said the explosion was so strong that al-Bghdadi’s body was “mutilated” and the tunnel was destroyed but forensics teams were able to identify his remains.

Then a photograph in which Trump and his advisers were said to be monitoring the operation of killing al-Baghdadi was released. However, a former White House photographer puts into question the shooting time of the photo.

Pete Souza, the chief official White House photographer for former presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, tweeted that the photo released by the White House of Trump in the Situation Room alongside US military top brass monitoring the raid did not match up with the reported time of the raid.

In an interview with Press TV on Monday, Etler, a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, said, “The assassination of Daesh kingpin Baghdadi sounds more and more like a ‘just so’ story. Whether the tall tale of his demise as reiterated by Trump actually took place as stated is immaterial. There is and never will be any corroborative evidence of such. It’s merely based on Trump’s word which is notoriously suspect. But, the particulars of Baghdadi’s death are not what’s important, it’s how his purported death is being utilized politically by Trump to further the predatory policy of US imperialism in the Middle East.”

“The US Middle East policy is faced with a conundrum, how to maintain its presence after it has suffered ignominious defeats in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen. In all these cases the US-supported forces, meant to overthrow its adversaries and install regimes of its own liking that support US objectives in the region, including the protection of its surrogates Israel and Saudi Arabia, have failed. Long-term US policy has been to facilitate the projection of Israeli and Saudi power in order to surround and isolate Iran and secure US regional hegemony throughout the Middle East,” he stated.

“This effort has been derailed by the defeat of US proxies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria and the inability to contain the conflict in Yemen which has become an existential threat to Saudi Arabia. This has necessitated a reevaluation of US strategy. It has now shifted from regime change wars to the military occupation of key strategic assets that will impede national reconstruction in the targeted countries and thwart the influence of both China and Russia in those efforts,” he said.

“The aborted US troop withdrawal from Syria must be seen in this light. It was another charade conducted by the charlatan-in-chief, who by a sleight of hand ensconced US troops in Syria's most valuable asset, its oil fields. The betrayal of the Kurds, the acquiescence to Turkish deployments in Syrian territory along the border and the operation against Baghdadi, all serve as a cover for the US deployment of troops in sovereign Syrian territory,” he said.

PressTV-Trump: Al-Baghdadi blew himself up, died 'like a dog'

President Trump says Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi "died like a dog" after blowing himself and three children up inside a tunnel.

“No matter what Trump’s rhetoric may be, the US does not need to seize the oil for itself. Nor is it simply to deprive the Islamic State access. The real reason is to maintain a US presence on Syrian territory and prevent the Syrian people from using their own resources to rebuild their country. In true imperialist fashion as far as Trump is concerned the oil is his to allocate as he sees fit. Better to hand the oil fields over to Exxon-Mobil than allow Chinese national oil companies (NOCs) taking the lion’s share of contracts to help Syria develop them,” he noted.

“In addition, Trump has curried favor with Turkey's President Erdogan by sacrificing the Kurds, who are now considered a liability rather than an asset for securing US hegemony in the region,” he said.

“But, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry and the US position in the Middle East, South Asia and elsewhere is more tenuous than ever,” he concluded.

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