The US is still embroiled in Middle Eastern wars – so why were they absent from the presidential debates?

Joe Biden and Donald Trump sparred over Russian and Chinese interference, but ignored countries like Turkey, Qatar and Israel, which use surrogates and cash to shape policy, writes Borzou Daragahi

Among the issues debated by Trump and Biden were racism, Covid and the climate crisis (AFP/Getty)

During two debates and two separate town halls, the candidates for the United States presidency have discussed the coronavirus pandemic, the US economy and immigration policy. 

But other than a few mentions of relations with foreign autocrats and each other’s real and imagined foreign business interests, there was minimal substantive discussion between Joe Biden and Donald Trump about the broader Middle East, which not only continues to be a hotspot, but is growing ever more complicated and messy.  

While there was some discussion about how to respond to the rising challenge of China, there was no mention of the rise of Turkey’s ambitions, the crisis developing in the eastern Mediterranean and the ongoing war in Libya.  

While the two discussed approaches to North Korea’s nuclear programme, there was no discussion of the merits of returning to or staying out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal signed by Iran and other world powers before it was abandoned by Trump.

Nor was there any talk of the ongoing war on Islamist militants, even as US airstrikes continue in far-flung places such as Somalia. There was no talk about ongoing armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Iraq either.  

“It was kind of extraordinary that we had a debate about foreign policy and something that didn’t come up was the wars,” said Ben Friedman, policy director at Defence Priorities, a Washington think tank. “It shows that the US public has checked out, and we can continue to have policies that were unpopular but not so popular that people care.”

Trump, famously boastful about his achievements, real or imagined, didn’t even bring up his administration’s historic talks with Afghanistan’s Taliban, or the peace deal he helped forge between Israel and two tiny Arabian Peninsula autocracies.  

Trump talks a lot about reducing the US footprint in the Middle East, including in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. But the numbers of troops remain about the same as when he took office. Would Biden continue to draw them down? Would he bolster numbers? Where? And what do the candidates plan to do about Syria? There was no discussion.

Yes, people are tired of armed conflicts and endless layers and rivalry in the Middle East. But it is a region that has consumed nearly every single presidency for the last 40 years, even those determined to pivot away from the vortex of the Middle East.  

It began with Jimmy Carter when the 1979 revolution and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran upended his presidency and likely cost him re-election. Ronald Reagan’s presidency was badly scorched twice by the Middle East, with the bombing of the US embassy and barracks in Lebanon and in the Iran-Contra scandal in which his deputies secretly sold weapons to Tehran to bankroll death squads in Central America.  

The first war against Iraq over its annexation of Kuwait sucked much of the bandwidth in the final stretch of the administration of George HW Bush, while the flawed and ultimately failed peace accords between Palestinians and Israelis gobbled up the attention of his successor, Bill Clinton.

George W Bush’s presidency was shaped by 11 September and the ensuing invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, entanglements which continue in some form to this day. Barack Obama sought to pivot towards Asia, but was drawn into the Middle East over the Arab Spring uprisings as well as the Iranian nuclear deal.  

Trump, despite his vow to “end endless wars”, escalated drone and airstrike attacks across the region during his years in office and found himself drawn into major policy dilemmas over Syria, Turkey, Israel, Iran and Afghanistan.  

Biden and Trump have sparred over allegations of Russian or Chinese interference in election campaigns. But there was no mention of the corrupt meddling matters by countries like the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Qatar, which use surrogates and cash to shape US policy.

“There’s this regular entry of those countries and their politics,” said Friedman. “There’s a lot of unregistered lobbying going on for those countries, and the amount of money they’re ploughing into think tanks is not irrelevant to some of the positions they take.”

In recent weeks, there were signs of new and unexpected challenges for any future administration, including a war in the Caucasus pitting Azerbaijan against Armenia, which has drawn in not only Russia but Iran and Turkey too, and could destabilise the flow of energy into Europe.  

In addition, none of the major wars that have been ignited in the Middle East in recent years have drawn to a close. From Yemen to Afghanistan to Syria and Iraq, armed conflicts continue to fester and burn, generating misery and refugee flows.  

The US, to various extents, continues to be embroiled in all of them. Despite his limited grasp of the issues, Trump seems to instinctively grasp that Americans are exasperated and want out. But neither he nor Biden are eager to talk about how they hope to do it.