Thread by @OzKaterji

The absolute zero moral quandry that an American feels about choices that could have lasting & devastating consequences for Iraqi and Afghan civilians. Who cares about stabilisation, de-mining etc when people like Vincent can't sleep at night because of a 2,500 troop deployment.

It's almost as if, actions in foreign policy have consequences, and actually trying to mitigate or avoid those consequences is incredibly difficult and not just a game for western pundits to invent meaningless terms and erase decades of political violence with sassy tweets.

For those at the back, Washington *has* been trying to withdraw from Iraq & Afghanistan for years, that's why they only hold such small numbers of US troops now. The rise of ISIS happened during Obama's term as he was trying to withdraw troops from Iraq.

That literally happened within the last few years. Total troop withdrawal will have consequences. The decision depends on whether you care about those consequences or not, or think the US has a lasting responsibility in countries it has caused active harm to.

So your sassy tweet doesn't tell me that you're pro-peace and want all the troops home immediately because of that longstanding commitment to said peace, it just tells me you don't give a damn what happens in the aftermath, even if it ends up, as it did with ISIS, in genocide.

The long term peace and stability of Iraq and Afghanistan will take decades of work from invested partners and allies. Keeping 2,500 troops there with no other policy is not a solution to that, but neither is withdrawing them with no policy, in fact, that could make things worse.

The question, from the starting point for the Biden administration, is "how do we stop making things worse". Everything follows from there. Unilateral & immediate troop withdrawal would be a HUGE domestic vote-winner for Joe Biden, these deployments are massively unpopular.

There's a reason why populism is so dangerous in foreign policy, and that's precisely because making decisions that impact the lives of people in other countries based solely upon the wishes & opinions of those at home isn't putting the needs of the right people first.