Trump’s Iraq Visit Alone Won’t Undo Damage He Did Last Week
Announcing withdrawals from Syria and Afghanistan undermines his former agenda. But other U.S. officials can help to keep up pressure on Iran.
More difficult diplomacy will be required, but it’s a start.
Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP, via Getty Images
The move of President Donald Trump to visit Baghdad on Wednesday is a small, good one, amid a week of calamitous decisions. The press will understandably highlight the time that Trump spends with U.S. troops. Yet a key objective of the trip will have been to shore up the new Iraqi government's confidence in the U.S., as Iraqi officials must be high on the list of those shocked by the president’s recent decisions to rapidly withdraw U.S. forces from Syria and Afghanistan. Perhaps the president has realized that his administration has some hard work to do if there is any hope of keeping his latest determinations from dramatically strengthening Iran.
The Middle East is a complicated place, where generations of American presidents and policymakers have struggled to prioritize competing interests, balance delicate relationships and manage inevitable trade-offs. Yet Trump’s actions and words — at least until last week — made it clear that his highest priority was on containing and punishing Iran in an effort to get Tehran to the negotiating table to reach a new, sweeping agreement on both its nuclear program and its other destabilizing behavior in the region.