Letters for May 25: Trump missed an opportunity in speech in Saudi Arabia

Trump’s message

I was pleasantly surprised at President Donald Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia — he did not slip off message and make a fool of himself or us (“Trump urges Muslims to fight extremism,” May 22).

Actually, he delivered it quite well, considering the domestic trouble he is in back home.

Immediately after the conclusion of that speech, many praised it as a good beginning to addressing the global terrorism problem. However, I feel he missed a great opportunity. We know that his audience did not include Iran, the Shi’ite part of Islam. He said he was not there to preach, but he took the opportunity to criticize Iran at length for supporting world terrorism, as if that was mostly an Iranian-only enterprise.

Since he found it OK to level those accusations at length at a country not represented in that audience, and praised the Saudis at length, he could have mentioned the Saudi practice of the madrasses, those schools for boys that indoctrinate them in Islam’s most orthodox version, the most extreme form of sharia. The Saudis also support terrorism, reportedly spending even more dollars than Iran does.

Trump’s message would relate that all of Islam has been responsible for the current situation, that all must take steps to stop terrorism, that it will stop only if both money support and mandatory ideological support for terrorism stops. All of the three Abrahamic religions have engaged in terrorism at times in the 2,000 years they have existed. It is time to stop it. I really think that Trump could get away with that more aggressive tactic just because everyone on the planet knows this guy’s modus operandi.

Finally, Trump could have worked in a more aggressive hint that the world outside of the Middle East will not let the current situation stand, should the Middle East governments not take this speech seriously.

Bob Krowas

Franklin

Better use for money

The publicized settlement with the family of Dontre Hamilton serves no good purpose (“Deal near on Hamilton case,” May 10).

It will enrich lawyers and the family, but will do little to prevent a re-occurrence of the incident.

Instead, give the family $100,000 and use the remainder for treatment of individuals with mental health problems and for police training to cope with individuals such as Hamilton.

Genie Deutsch

Fox Point

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