The Detrimental Repercussions of Trump's Foreign Policy
From the beginning of his time in office, President Trump has demonstrated his ignorance of foreign policy. While his ignorance has been ever-present, his recent actions in the Middle East has shed light onto the state he’s putting our country in.
A new book called “A Very Stable Genius,” describes an interaction on July 20, 2017, where Trump is pictured delivering a shocking tirade to his Joint Chiefs of Staff and civilian foreign policy advisors. He reportedly failed to understand how his impulsive decisions could threaten the fragile stability of the Middle East. Over the course of 90 minutes, Former United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Former United States Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, and Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn took turns trying to explain how the structures and alliances set in place since World War II worked together to help ensure U.S. economic and national security. According to The Washington Post, the President constantly interrupted, making increasingly angry and inappropriate comments, going so far as to call his new team “dopes and babies.”
At one point in the book, Trump is reported to have demanded an exit from the Iran Nuclear Agreement, calling it “the worst deal in history!” Keep in mind, this is the deal that John Kerry, Obama’s Secretary of State, and many of our allies worked together to carefully craft in order to halt Iran from continuing to make nuclear weapons. Many conservatives have dismissed the deal’s value because it only lasts 10 years. But that is 10 years without Iranian nuclear progress, 10 years for diplomacy to try to avoid a devastating war. But war/regime change is exactly what many neoconservative critics want. As for the argument that Iran couldn’t be trusted to keep their end of the deal, it ended up being Donald Trump who broke the formal arms control agreement, defying the wishes of our allies. Ironically, Iran kept their side of the bargain.
In May of 2018, Trump followed through with the threat and ordered the US to back out of the Iran Nuclear Agreement. Iran responded by announcing a possible return to the development of nuclear weapons. This isn’t just allowing a country with malign influence in the Middle East to make nukes. By doing this, President Trump let our allies know that the US can no longer be trusted to keep its word. Even with the knowledge that Trump believes the deal is worthless, it’s unclear why he was so eager to cancel it. Maybe he is too easily influenced by outsiders. Or maybe he just wants to dismantle all of President Obama’s accomplishments. Whatever the reason, Trump’s rash actions have left the US isolated on a world stage.
This all culminated this January, when President Trump ordered an airstrike on the 2nd most powerful figure in Iran, Major General Qassim Soleimani. Almost all US officials believed that Soleimani was a very bad actor, but this strike was both a strategic and tactical error that risked starting a much greater conflict. It’s equivalent to if Iran were to order an airstrike on our Secretary of State.
The following are just some of the numerous reasons the President has dug himself into another foreign policy hole with Soleimani’s killing:
The US executed a beloved Iranian leader. This silenced Iranian dissidents and led them to rally against what the US instead of fighting against the governmental repression in their own country.
The President failed to notify Congress of his plan, a violation of long-agreed protocol between the two branches of government. He also did not notify the ‘’Gang of 8,'’ the Congressional leaders who deal with foreign intelligence decisions, suggesting that they might leak information. They have never been accused of leaking classified information before now.
The President’s justification for avoiding proper procedures was that an attack on Americans was “imminent.” This was quickly proven to have been a blatant lie. Since then, the Administration has continued to refuse to give a proper intelligence briefing to Congress.
It is a violation of international law (article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) to assassinate high Government officials in the absence of a declaration of war.
Both George Bush and Barack Obama did not take the opportunities they had to kill Soleimani because they believed that the risks greatly outweighed the benefits.
The US failed to notify our allies that had their own troops potentially in harm’s way on Iraqi soil. And when Iraq retaliated by firing missiles into a US base, the American people were told that no US troops were hurt. In reality, eleven people were injured.
The US killed Soleimani on Iraqi soil without notifying our host country. This too is a violation of international law. Outraged, the Iraqi Parliament and President demanded discussions for the removal of US troops from their country. So far, the US has refused to even consider such discussions. The position the Trump administration wants is the ability to stay in the territory for as long as we please regardless of the Iraqi government’s wishes. Pushed to the limit, the US militant position could turn our Iraqi ally into an illegally occupied country.
Nowadays, these astonishing actions are considered “business as usual” in Trump’s America. The President is essentially working alone, ignoring and even vilifying those who questions his actions, making decisions that impact not just American citizens but citizens of foreign countries as well. It seems clear that Trump’s ignorance and rash decision-making regarding foreign policy is leaving detrimental repercussions on this country that will be difficult to reverse.