Trump's Saudi blind spot

The presidents failed Iran policy threatens chaos in the Middle East

President Trump.
(Image credit: Illustrated | MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images, Library of Congress, EvgVect/iStock)

Last weekend, Saudi oil installations were attacked, allegedly by Iran, knocking about half the country's oil production offline and triggering an immediate spike in global prices. President Trump then issued (what else?) an impulsive tweet that managed to be both emptily bombastic ("locked and loaded") and pathetically subservient ("waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!"). And while he has so far made the right choice by not plunging the United States into war, his Iran policy is still an ugly mess that threatens even more chaos in the region.

Instead of the military strike urged by some advisers, the president announced new sanctions on Iran, though it remains unclear what entities could possibly still be outside the ambit of existing restrictions, let alone whether they could achieve anything. And while sanctions and military action are not mutually exclusive, the president gave other indications that war is not imminent. "That was an attack on Saudi Arabia, and that wasn't an attack on us," he told reporters on Tuesday, before concluding with his ever-reassuring "We'll see what happens."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
David Faris

David Faris is an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. He is a frequent contributor to Informed Comment, and his work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Indy Week.