https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/01/13/opinions/trump-iran-strategy-self-defeating-biden/index.html
Our embassies and people are less safe. More than 18,000 additional troops have been deployed to the Middle East in the past year. Worsening relations with NATO allies under Trump make it harder to accomplish any of our vital interests in the region, including Trump’s request for our allies to carry more of the burden in the Middle East, while Russia and China are quietly reveling in the prospect that the United States may once more be bogged down in another major conflict in the Middle East, leaving them room to pursue their own agendas.
Yet, instead of offering the country reassurance and a clear path forward in his public statements, Trump is trying to mislead the country about the Obama-Biden record and blame President Barack Obama for the consequences of his own failed policies.
Trump has no strategy here. No endgame. The only way out of this crisis is through diplomacy — clear-eyed, hard-nosed diplomacy grounded in strategy, that’s not about one-off decisions or one-upmanship. We need diplomacy that is designed to de-escalate the crisis, protect our people and secure our regional interests — including our counter-ISIS campaign.
The best way to start, of course, would be for Trump to rejoin the Iran deal and build on it — if Iran also moves back into compliance with its obligations — re-establishing international consensus about how to confront the threats from Iran.
No one wants war. But it’s going to take hard work to make sure we don’t end up there by accident.
