Iowa Democratic Debate 2020: Sanders, Warren want US troops back from Middle East, Biden says he'd keep some
Six Democratic presidential candidates stood on the podium at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, to debate foreign policy in the seventh party debate. It is a key debate for it is the final time the candidates get an opportunity to present their respective stands to voters ahead of the Iowa caucuses on February 3.
It was supposed to be a comparatively comfortable situation for the Democratic candidates as all had a common stand to show their anti-war avatar in the wake of the snowballing Iran crisis. But the six contenders managed to find a point of disagreement and it was over keeping US troops in the Middle East, a region that has remained a thorn in the flesh for successive administrations in Washington.
While all the candidates agreed that America’s wars abroad were only bleeding its economy, they could not reach a consensus on how Washington should view the volatile Middle East militarily. Should it keep all its troops there? Or keep some and remove the rest?
While Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wanted the troops to come home, former Vice-President Joe Biden and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar argued for partial retainment of the troops in the region.
“The American people are sick and tired of endless wars which have cost us trillions of dollars,” Sanders said. Warren, who said the US was going in circles in the Middle East, sought pulling out of the combat troops.
Biden, who has served in the administration in the past, said it was impossible to remove all the troops and Klobuchar supported it, saying some troops should remain in the Middle East. "I think it's a mistake to pull out the small number of troops that are there now to deal with ISIS," CNN quoted Biden as saying.
"We're in a situation where our allies in Europe are making a comparison between the United States and Iran, saying both ought to stand down, making a moral equivalence. We have lost our standing in the region. We have lost the support of our allies. The next president has to be able to pull those folks back together, re-establish our alliances and insist that Iran go back into the agreement, which I believe with the pressure applied as we put on before, we can get done," he said.
Former South End mayor Pete Buttigieg, the only candidate among the six to have served in the military, had another viewpoint. He said Washington “can continue to remain engaged without having an endless commitment of ground troops.”
Buttigieg then slammed the President, saying Donald Trump, who called for the end to “endless war”, has “more troops going to the Middle East.”