How the US airstrike killing Iran’s Soleimani could affect the 2020 race

The US military strike in Baghdad that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani rippled instantly through the Democratic presidential primary Friday, forcing national security issues to the fore of a race dominated so far by domestic policy and perhaps stirring debates among Democrats over matters of war and peace.

>>Alexander BurnsThe New York Times
Published : 3 Jan 2020, 06:40 PM
Updated : 3 Jan 2020, 06:40 PM

The party’s presidential candidates reacted to the strike with a measure of unity, at least on the surface level, with expressions of concern about what they called the Trump administration’s penchant for reckless action and the possibility of all-out war. While several deplored Soleimani’s role in directing violence against Americans, the Democrats expressed anxiety rather than jubilation over the circumstances of his demise.

Former Vice President Joe Biden said President Donald Trump had “tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox,” while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., warned that the attack “brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East.”

“Our priority must be to avoid another costly war,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote on Twitter.

But there were also distinctions in how the leading Democrats responded, pointing the way toward a larger debate in the party about foreign wars and the US presence in the Middle East. Sanders, for instance, notably used the word “assassination” to describe the killing of the Iranian commander — a term with serious legal and diplomatic implications — and pointed out that he had opposed the 2002 resolution authorising war in Iraq, leaving unsaid that Biden had supported it.

The degree to which military matters come to dominate the primary in the remaining month before the Iowa caucuses will likely depend on events in the Middle East and how severe and visible any ensuing clash with Iran turns out to be. Foreign affairs have played a strictly limited role so far in the Democratic race. There have been major debate-stage duels over health care, taxation, immigration, criminal justice and gun control but only glancing disagreements about the role of the United States abroad and the proper way to resolve US military engagements in the Middle East and Central Asia.

A photo released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's Press Office shows the burning wreckage of a vehicle following an American drone strike outside the Baghdad airport early on Friday, Jan. 3, 2020. Qasem Soleimani, the powerful and shadowy spymaster at the head of Iran’s security machinery, was killed in the drone strike. (Iraqi Prime Minister's Press Office via The New York Times)

In 2020, the possibility of a new and protracted conflict abroad could well reshape the general election, even beyond the Democratic race. Trump ran for president on a pledge to pull back the United States from foreign wars, drawing support from unconventional quarters for a Republican because of the perception that he would pursue an “America First” policy of relative isolationism and national self-interest.

But Trump had already drawn criticism from his Democratic rivals and even within his own party for presiding over a chaotic pullback from Syria, and the eruption of large-scale violence in Iran and Iraq could profoundly complicate his aim to seek a second term on a message of peace and prosperity.

In the Democratic primary, foreign policy experience has largely been regarded as an asset of Biden, given his global stature as a former vice president and his background as chairman of the foreign relations committee in the Senate. He has made restoring US alliances around the world a central theme of his campaign and criticised Trump for turning the United States into a punchline at gatherings of global leaders.

An intensifying debate over foreign policy could have the effect of both spotlighting Biden’s extensive résumé and also subjecting his track record in the region to new scrutiny. There have been signs in recent days that several of the leading Democratic candidates were angling for a foreign policy debate with Biden even before the outbreak of violence in Iraq and the Soleimani killing came to dominate the news.

Sanders has campaigned consistently on his anti-war record, and he has repeatedly highlighted Biden’s past support for the Iraq War, warning Democrats that Trump would use that record against the former vice president in a general election. On Friday morning, an aide to Sanders posted images on Twitter showing the progressive lawmaker speaking out against war in Iraq in 1991, 1998, 2002 and 2014.

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has attempted to counter questions about his own relative inexperience by pointing to Biden’s stances on Iraq as an example of how experience was not always an asset in campaigning or governing.

“He supported the worst foreign policy decision made by the United States in my lifetime, which was the decision to invade Iraq,” Buttigieg said in an Iowa television interview.

Warren, too, has indicated in the past that she takes a sceptical view of US military involvement in the Middle East and declared in one of the fall debates that the United States should remove its combat troops from the region. That stance could become a dividing line in the primary, separating progressives like her and Sanders from Biden and others.

For now, much of the Democratic field was proceeding with — and recommending — caution. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York released a statement questioning whether the president had fully considered “the grave risks involved,” while Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., called on the administration to consult with Congress about a “strategy for preventing a wider conflict.”

There is some precedent for events overseas reshaping US primary elections, usually to the benefit of a candidate regarded as a figure of experience. In December 2003, the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq formed a backdrop for the final phase of a Democratic presidential primary that yielded the quick nomination of John Kerry, a Vietnam veteran who served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Four years later, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, in December 2007, pushed national security to the centre of an unsettled Republican primary that ended with the nomination of John McCain, the war hero whose campaign focused overwhelmingly on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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