Leftists wasted no time slamming President Donald Trump over his decision to use military force to protect Americans from terrorists in Iraq.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who hopes to oust Trump from the White House, is one of Trump’s critics. She tweeted:
Trump’s reckless decisions to walk away from the Iran Deal and now to launch airstrikes in Iraq without Iraqi government consent have brought us closer to war and endangered U.S. troops and diplomats. We should end the forever wars, not start new ones.
Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) also tweeted about the president’s Iran policy:
Really hard to overstate how badly Trump has bungled things in the Middle East. One of the only good things going – anti-Iran street protests in Iraq – have now morphed into anti-U.S. protests thanks to Trump’s mishandling of Iran policy.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who was a failed vice presidential candidate alongside Hillary Clinton, also weighed in on social media:
The US conducted airstrikes in Iraq over the objections of the Iraqi government. Now Iraqi protesters broke into the US Embassy. Trump’s malpractice in the region is making us less safe. Time for Congress to stop this foolish rush to war.
Others on the left, including former Obama officials, slammed Trump. Robert Malley was a “coordinator” for former President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy.
“Events could quickly spin out of control and provoke the US-Iran military confrontation neither side wants — but to which both sides’ actions seem to be inexorably leading,” Malley tweeted.
Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Advisor to Obama, also called Trump’s policies a “total failure.”
“It’s hard to overstate what a total failure Trump’s Iran policy has been. Nuclear program resumed. Regional provocations escalated. US isolated,” Rhodes tweeted.
Joe Cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation, and who teaches at Georgetown in Washington, DC, called Trump’s Iran policy “disasterous .”
“Today chaos in Iraq caused by a disasterous policy towards Iran is a case in point. “President Donald Trump inherited substantial nuclear threats. But his administration has made them worse,” Cirincione tweeted.
New York Times columnist Nick Kristof blames Trump for Iran’s unabated nuclear weapons ambitions.
“The attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad reflects the incoherence of Trump policy to Iran. Trump policy has already led Iran to resume its nuclear program, and now the US has rescued Iran from much-deserved criticism it was getting in Iraq. And escalations may continue to spiral,” Kristof tweeted.
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