Two of President Trump’s national security initiatives have far greater strategic import than many realize.  If I am reading the tea leaves correctly, the U.S. may again ride to the rescue of Europe, although in an indirect fashion.  Here’s why.

First, the CinC’s order to the Pentagon to develop a plan within 30 days to defeat ISIS is a dose of common sense we haven’t seen in over a decade.  Obama had placed ISIS headquarters and logistics off limits to U.S. raids, leading me to believe he was an ally of the terrorists rather than their enemy.  ISIS will quickly go into the dustbin of history once the full power of the U.S. military is unleashed.  So, step one, get rid of the threat.

Step two, stop the refugee flow.  Trump’s plan to establish safe zones in Syria and Yemen with the support of Egyptian president Fattah Abdel El-Sisi and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman will not only benefit the Syrian and Yemeni people by keeping them in a safe environment in their own country, but provide the obvious boost to U.S. security by reducing or eliminating refugee flow to our country.  But the unexamined aspect is the plan also provides an “out” to tone-deaf European leaders unable or unwilling to acknowledge and act on the violent crime and terrorism perpetrated against their own citizens.

(Establishment of the safe zone will not be a simple task, as was the no-fly zone over Kurdish territory after the Persian Gulf War.  The Kurds had a functioning, dedicated military force to stop incursions onto their lands with the help of coalition air power.  Undoubtedly, U.S. and allied ground troops are the key for maintaining wide area security for the zone in the Syrian milieu.)

For example, Norway (very different from Sweden in that it is more nationalistic and has a fraction of the refugees that Sweden does) has struggled with the U.N. and world opinion on deporting refugees.  Over two years ago, Somalia refused to accept its own countrymen deported from Norway because they were “forced” deportations.  Most recently, Norway began deporting so-called “biking refugees” coming from Russia on their shared Arctic Circle border.  More than 5,000 have made their way across, including Syrians and Iraqis.  The U.N. has criticized Norway because in its view, Russia does not provide a safe environment for these refugees (no doubt), and they have nowhere else to go.

So, U.N. officials, where exactly do these people go when a nation exercises its right to deny entry or to deport those denied asylum?  Trump has the answer: send them to safe zones in their own country.  The Norway example aside, the elephant in the room is the horrendous situation in both France and Germany having huge refugee populations from Muslim states with a significant number of embedded terrorists and criminals.  If Trump’s plan succeeds, German and French leaders will no longer have the excuse to oppose their own constituent citizens objecting to keeping them in their countries to cause ever more death and mayhem.

And perhaps in a few years, Trump can call up Hollande and Merkel and say, “You’re welcome.”

John Smith is the pen name of a former U.S. intelligence officer.