Bill Carmichael: Banning Trump would be madness

In George Orwell’s novel 1984 a demented, unhinged mob subject the state’s number one enemy, Emmanuel Goldstein, to two minutes of shrieking, cathartic hate.

Today, we are seeing something spookily similar directed against 
Donald Trump – only the hate has so far lasted a full two weeks with no sign of slowing down, and everyone from the swivel-eyed left to sober suited Conservatives have joined in the insane screeching.

The latest cause of outrage is Trump’s decision to temporarily ban citizens from seven Muslim majority countries from entering the US.

Of course the saintly figure of Barack Obama would never dream of doing such a thing would he? Only, in fact, he did precisely that.

In 2011 Obama banned Iraqi refugees from entering the US for six months – twice as long as Trump’s current ban.

Funny, but I don’t recall over excited demonstrators calling the blessed Barack a racist. Maybe I missed them?

But the hypocrisy gets much worse. Obama was one of the most hawkish, war mongering US presidents of recent times, waging numerous conflicts throughout his presidency.

In 2016 alone US forces under his command dropped more than 26,000 bombs – that’s three bombs for every hour in every day for the entire year.

And where did Obama drop those bombs? Ahem … on Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Yemen and Pakistan – which last time I looked were all Muslim majority countries.

So we are in the bizarre situation where killing thousands of innocent Muslims – as Obama undoubtedly did – wins you the Nobel Peace Prize, whereas temporarily banning people from travel – as Trump has – elicits comparisons with Hitler.

This is utterly insane. Are the demonstrators seriously suggesting that stopping people from travelling to the US for a few weeks is worse than killing them?

There is more hypocrisy in evidence in the petition, signed by more than 1.6 million people, to ban Donald Trump from a state visit to the UK.

Again, I don’t recall 1.6 million people objecting to previous visits, state or otherwise, to the UK from blood-soaked dictators such as Assad, Putin, Xi Jinping, Mugabe, Ceausecu and Suharto who all met the Queen. Is anyone seriously suggesting that Trump – in power for just two weeks – is worse than all of them?

And, don’t forget, the US isn’t the only country to issue travel bans. Sixteen Muslim countries ban Israelis from visiting, and in some cases anyone with an Israeli stamp in their passport. There have been no demonstrations about that either.

There’s plenty of confected outrage about, but it is all entirely selective and without any logic and therefore, I am afraid, should not be taken seriously.

I am not a Trump supporter, although his uncanny knack of upsetting the right sort of people means I am rapidly warming to him. And I reckon nothing is more certain to guarantee him a second term in office than the out-of-control toddler tantrums we have seen from his opponents.

But he won the US election fair and square, garnering almost 63 million votes largely on the promise of keeping Americans safe from jihadi lunatics who wish them harm.

And he is a businessman, rather than a regular politician, so it has come as a bit of a shock to some people that he seems determined to deliver on his campaign promises. “What! You are really going to do what you said you’d do?”

I suspect grieving relatives of recent terrorist atrocities in France, Belgium, Germany and elsewhere wish their own leaders had shown such robust good sense.

As for the UK, the United States is our most steadfast and powerful ally, and the Anglophile Trump should prove to be an important diplomatic and trading partner as we finally regain our independence from the EU.

Rolling out the red carpet for President Trump and treating him to tea with the Queen is a very small price to pay for American help and support.

Banning Trump from the UK would be self-defeating madness.