Trump's 'Shift' From Middle East: Another PR Miracle
Donald Trump's team is touting a new national security strategy, pledging to 'shift away' from the Middle East. This remarkable pivot, however, rings hollow given his administration's track record of escalating tensions with Iran, assassinating General Soleimani in Iraq in 2020, and overseeing the Abraham Accords which effectively greenlit annexation and ignored Palestinian rights. This 'shift'
sounds suspiciously like the 'ending endless wars' rhetoric that precedes every new escalation. Remember 2016? 'America First' meant pulling back. What we got was moving the US embassy to Jerusalem—a move costing significant diplomatic capital and inflaming regional tensions, directly contradicting any notion of disengagement. One might wonder if 'shifting away' just means outsourcing conflict
management to regional proxies while still supplying the bombs. How many 'shifts' does it take before we question the direction of travel?