Why instinct and ideology tell Trump to get out of the Middle EastWhy instinct and ideology tell Trump to get out of the Middle EastThe crisis triggered by Donald Trump’s assassination of General Qassem Suleimani has crystallised Iran’s official thinking around a single, overriding demand: that American military forces should pack up their weapons, close their bases, and leave the Middle East for ever. The US president has repeatedly argued in favour of reducing the American troop presence around the Middle East. Middle East supply-lines no longer matter so much. If the US is no longer seen as a reliable defender of its friends, and if it no longer needs or wants to be in the Middle East – then surely it is time to leave. And it could force dictatorships such as Egypt’s, underwritten by Washington, to change their ways – to the undoubted benefit of all the peoples of the Middle East.

Source: The Guardian January 11, 2020 12:00 UTC