Candidates pose on stage before the Democratic primary debate hosted by NBC News, Wednesday, June 26, 2019, in Miami.

Candidates pose on stage before the Democratic primary debate hosted by NBC News, Wednesday, June 26, 2019, in Miami. AP Photo/Brynn Anderson

Top Diplomat Slams ‘Endless War’ Cries of Campaign Trail as ‘the Echo of the 1930s’

“I get terribly worried. Because this shows total ignorance of what’s going on in the world today,” Ambassador Jim Jeffrey says.

BRUSSELS — Pounding the table quite literally, the United States’ top envoy to the Middle East rejected Democratic candidates’ calls to withdraw from "endless wars.”

“I get terribly worried. Because this shows total ignorance of what’s going on in the world today,” said Ambassador Jim Jeffrey, in an exclusive interview with Defense One

Jeffrey, the 73-year old U.S. special representative for Syria engagement and special envoy to the Global Coalition To Defeat ISIS, is known as a blunt-talking diplomat. He holds the rank of career ambassador and previously has served as U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Turkey, and Albania, and spent five years as a U.S. Army infantry officer. 

In the past week, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont called for an end to “endless wars” in an article in Foreign Affairs; while two of his rivals, Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, and former HUD Secretary Julian Castro joined him and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in signing a pledge to end “forever wars.” South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, closed his performance at the second Democratic presidential debate, by saying, “I want to be able to look back on these years and say my generation delivered climate solutions, racial equality and an end to endless war.” 

In the same debate, Sen. Kristen Gillibrand of New York said she would “make sure we do not start an unwanted never-ending war” with Iran. Even former Vice President Joe Biden, who voted for the initial invasion of Iraq, boasted that he was tasked by President Barack Obama with pulling 150,000 U.S. troops out of the country. (In fact, the Iraqi government voted to let American troops authorization expire, effectively kicking the U.S. out of Iraq, which critics say the Obama administration willfully allowed to occur.) Bided added, “I also think we should not have combat troops in Afghanistan. It’s long overdue. It should end.”

In the interview, Jeffrey stressed that he was talking about the term “endless wars,” not about any particular candidate. He was careful to say the American voters will decide on the political messages. 

“All of those candidates, in fact to a degree even more than most presidential candidates, embrace American values such as democracy, rule of law, divided government, free press, all of these great things. But let me tell you what I’ve learned in 50 years of experience. All those democratic values that we have done a great deal as a country to promote and to support around the world – and that’s a good thing, was a good thing – rest on a foundation. That foundation is an American-led global collective security system to fend off the predators that want to tear the system apart. Not just the military coalition, but the values that stand behind it.

“I don’t need to name the names of those countries — they’re in the president’s National Security Strategy — but those countries are on the move and there’s no way that they’re going to be stopped without the United States supporting engagements around the world,” he said, referring implicitly to China, Russia, and Iran.

Related: ‘End Forever Wars’ is a Sound Bite, Not a Security Policy

“This word ‘war’ — I’ll tell you what war to me means, at least since — in the context of post-World War II. It means endless commitments of hundreds of thousands of American troops, specifically in Korea, during the Korean War — and that’s only a limited example, but the big examples are Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, to try to change societies in the midst of internal conflicts, something that is very, very hard to do and the American people understandably have little stomach for it. That is far different than what we did in the Gulf War in 1991. That’s far different than our airbridge of weapons to Israel to have it win the Yom Kippur War in 1973. That’s very different than our campaign to maintain a no-fly-zone over Northern and Southern Iraq” after 1991, Jefferey said, growing louder.  

“I could go on literally for 20 minutes with literally scores and scores of American military operations that have undergird this global security regime and thus undergird the American and Western and UN values system. You start pulling the threads on that by claiming that every single time we threaten to fire a Tomahawk missile we are getting another Vietnam or another Iraq — please indicate that I’m stamping my fist on the table as I’m doing this — we are asking to go back to the 1930s. That’s the echo of what I hear in these comments, the 1930s.” 

The diplomat ended with a disclaimer. “I felt it was legitimate for me as a government official and a career Foreign Service Officer to answer that first part because you were asking – because while you were drawing the context of what political candidates are saying, thus in a political context, you were making a specific question as to whether I see these things as ‘endless wars’ and I gave an answer.”

“I cannot comment on why people are using the term ‘endless wars’ or how we should evaluate that, that’s the role of the American citizenry in listening to people run for office. That’s a political process and I have to stay away from it. I’m just a technical advisor to the American people.” 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.