White House official: The United States has learned tough lessons in the region.
A White House official said in an interview that the United States has learned hard lessons in West Asia and that Washington’s policies toward the region are returning to normal.
Brett McGurk, the White House’s West Asia Coordinator, claimed on Thursday that US policy in the region was going back to basics.
“If you look at the last twenty years, the George W. Bush administration had ‘regional transformation’ on its agenda, and the invasion of Iraq was part of that democratization and nationalization and big investment,” McGurk told the National. “It happened and I witnessed it closely and it cost a lot.”
“The Obama administration took a different tactic, but after the Arab Spring, similarly ambitious goals were formed, which included policies of regime change,” he said. “Interestingly, President Trump said he did not intend to spend his time in this direction, but the policies pursued during his time in Iran and other countries were more than extravagant, so they inevitably led to unintended consequences.”
McGork said the previous administration’s extravagant goals were to the detriment of US interests, leading to “hard lessons”. He claimed that the current government was focusing on “the foundations of building, maintaining and strengthening partnerships and alliances here (West Asia)”, describing these alliances as “a unique comparative advantage”.
