Has Biden’s choice for National Security Adviser been outspoken in his criticism of US interventions in the Middle East?
Jake Sullivan, President-elect Biden’s choice as national security adviser, has been openly critical of several Middle East interventions that were either begun or sustained in the Obama administration, when he served in staff roles under Biden and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Last year he urged Congress to halt U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, noting that initial Obama support for the effort turned into a “blank check” under President Trump with a “staggering” moral and human cost.
In a 2019 essay in the Atlantic he argued for winding down the war in Afghanistan and for “stricter limits” on military engagement elsewhere in the region. The invasion of Iraq was “one of the most catastrophic decisions in American history,” he wrote, calling interventions in Somalia and Libya “tragedies.”
