Thread

With peace breaking out across the Middle East, I figured it would be a good time to revisit all of the people who told us confidently that @realDonaldTrump was leading us to disaster.

I think some apologies are in order. What say you, @SamanthaJPower?

You see, there were many, many Democratic politicians who assured us the world would be ending before our eyes, and that it would be @realDonaldTrump’s fault.

That includes presidential nominee @JoeBiden and his functional head of policy, @ewarren.

They weren’t alone. I wonder if we’ll be getting any follow up to this one from @SenSchumer?

Or perhaps @BernieSanders would like to follow up on this?

Maybe we can get some sort of comment from @repmarkpocan?

Their friends across the pond didn’t fair much better. You all surely remember @jeremycorbyn?

And, well, yeah. @khamenei_ir, not so much on this one. Credit for @Reuters for getting his perspective though.

They also managed to hear what Hezbollah had to say about American foreign policy.

The rest of the media wasn’t far behind. My two favorite come from the alchemic field of “media analysis” at @CNN.

Also, heaven forbid that third frame should happen!

@NewYorker really went in on this one.

Tough couple of weeks for @TheAtlantic.

I’ll pause here to note that I did a whole separate thread specific to the Jerusalem embassy move.

Many of the same voices (go figure) but also a special shout out to @JohnKerry. https://twitter.com/drewholden360/status/1294004953686712332

Anyway, back to the media. Here we’ve got @AP.

The condescending smart people magazines got in on the mix too.

Here’s @ForeignPolicy and @EconUS.

@guardian went in really hard on this one.

So too did... @VanityFair?

Yeah, I’m as confused as you are.

Running low on patience, space, and mental well-being, so to close out the media - and get to the REAL stars of the show - we have:

@lawfareblog (?)
@business
@NBCNews
@SkyNews (wtf?)

But the real winners here are the bluechecks. Perhaps no one has been as consistently wrong as our cadre of Middle East “experts” in recent memory.

Here’s an illustrative example from @aarondmiller2.

You had to know that Obama’s favorite MFA @brhodes was gonna have some bad takes on this one.

He didn’t disappoint.

And speaking of Obama bros with bad opinions, here’s @TVietor08 with a commendable four-box entry of his own.

Speaking of four box entries, here’s your obligatory @sethabramson mention.

Just VINTAGE @JRubinBlogger here.

“Doomed” was apparently the world of the day on this one. In retrospect, that isn’t exactly looking spot on.

Here we have:
@CNASdc
@ilangoldenberg
@nahaltoosi
@rulajebreal

Oh and pity the think tanks, they’ve had a tough go on this one. Here are @amprog, @BrookingsInst, and @IPS_DC.

You couldn’t have thought that @MaxBoot, who’s never seen a Middle Eastern war he isn’t interested in, wouldn’t find a way onto this list.

But did you expect the entire @washingtonpost editorial board to make it? Oh, you did?

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll have to say it again. All of these people have gotten an enormous number of calls & predictions wrong, time and again, for generations.

Maybe it’s time we stopped to think about what that should mean for our trust in their future ideas?