Trump didn't campaign on policing Lebanon, protecting shipping lanes for countries that refuse to protect themselves, or getting dragged back into another endless Middle East conflict.
He campaigned for NO MORE WARS.
The same foreign policy establishment that told America Iraq would be quick, Afghanistan would be worth it, Libya would become a democracy, and Ukraine could weaken Russia indefinitely is now telling Trump that one more push, one more deployment, one more round of pressure will finally solve Iran.
Joe's warning is that he's heard this story before.
He spent years inside the national security apparatus watching Washington promise that every new intervention would be the last one.
It never was.
Joe believes Trump knows the American people are exhausted, knows the Iran campaign failed to deliver the decisive victory many promised, and knows the country wants to move on.
The problem, he argues, is that every time Trump tries to step back, the same forces pull him back in.
The military offers another plan, the foreign policy establishment says victory is just one more strike away, and Israel argues the job isn't finished.
That's the trap Joe kept coming back to.
Not that Trump has changed, but that Washington is trying to change him.
Because once you accept the logic that America has to stay just a little longer, spend just a little more, and escalate just one more time, you've already accepted the logic that kept the U.S. stuck in the Middle East for a generation.
@joekent16jan19
