Iran US Asia
FILE - Iranian pro-government demonstrators burn the U.S. and Israeli flags as one of them holds a picture of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei during a gathering after announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the war with the Unites States and Israel at the Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, Square in Tehran, Iran, April 8, 2026.
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President Barack Obama in 2011 declared it was time to leave behind the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and “pivot” to Asia to counter China's rise. Fifteen years later, the U.S. finds itself still at war in the Middle East and pulling military assets from Asia. The Iran war also caused President Donald Trump to delay his highly anticipated trip to China. This has deepened worries that the U.S. is once again getting distracted at the cost of its strategic interests in Asia, where Beijing seeks to unseat the U.S. as the regional leader. Some defend the president's approach, arguing that his forceful steps elsewhere, including in Venezuela and Iran, serve to counter China globally.
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