Thread by @shadihamid

With the benefit of hindsight, I ask @adesnik who had a "less bad" foreign policy—Trump or Obama? Listen to his answer here:

Full episode: wisdomofcrowds.live/was-trumps-for…

Whether Trump or Obama was worse on the Middle East isn't a question with an obvious answer. My view is that Trump's was worse in intent but Obama's was worse in effect, mostly because Obama had to respond to the Arab Spring where Trump didn't.

If Trump was in charge during Arab Spring, he would have been terrible. He likely would have doubled down on dictators, but perhaps that would've still been better than what Obama did, which was the worst of both worlds, telling Arabs he was with them and then betraying them.

When Trump became president, the Middle East had already reverted to its prior authoritarian order, largely because of several key Obama decisions, including legitimizing Sissi and MBS. Trump only extended what was already there.

Trump enthusiastically backed the Saudi-led Yemen war. But that didn't start under his watch. It started with Obama's green light and military support. Yes, I'm sure Obama was morally conflicted and reluctant as he always is. But that makes little difference to those who died.

Obama's moral preening had the effect of making liberals feel better about the ongoing destruction of the Middle East. It was happening, but at least we were virtuous enough to feel bad about it. All the while, Obama's conscious policy choices were exacerbating the suffering.

To put it simply, Obama's Middle East policy was morally indefensible in a way that Trump's wasn't. And you'd probably be hard pressed finding an Egyptian or Syrian dissident to disagree.