Bob Kagan

Because, you know, if you go back to the original America first approach to the world, which was conducted pretty much in the 1920s and 30s after World War I and the disillusionment of World War I, you know,

we had no involvement in the Middle East, none whatsoever.

And our involvement in the Middle East was entirely a consequence of the decision, which we partly forced into and partly undertook ourselves to engage in World War II, which then during World War II, the Middle East was a vital region for those we were trying to defend against those we were trying to fight, you know, control of

North Africa was a big deal.

That was the fact that Germany was threatening to control that, control the Suez Canal, et cetera.

So we fought in World War II in the Middle East to secure it for those whom we were trying to save from Nazi tyranny.

Then during the Cold War, it was a critical region in the struggle against the Soviet Union.

We'll get to Israel in a second.

But it was not because we needed the oil.

At that particular time, and I think in the immediate wake of World War II, the United States produced something like 50% of all the oil in the world.

I mean, we were not dependent on Middle East oil.

It was our allies who were dependent on it.

So basically, it was a project of defending the world order.

And particularly, and I'm not in an abstract sense, but in a really concrete sense, that the allies we were defending in Europe and in Asia depended on access to that energy resource.

The region was also strategically important.

It was a constant sort of crossroads of great empires, etc.

So...

But it was secondary to our interests.

And no one in the region, including Iraq in 2003 or Iran today, ever posed a direct threat to the security of the American homeland.

And of course, in Trump's national security strategy, which was released, I don't know, it must have been all of like four months ago, they deliberately downgraded