President Trump’s sweeping ban on travelers from seven majority Muslim countries (including Iraq) from entering the United States was intended to protect the homeland from a vanishingly small threat of terrorism. But U.S. diplomats stationed on the front lines in the battle against arguably the world’s most notoriously violent and sadistic group of Islamist extremists—ISIS—say the president’s plan is both morally and strategically misguided.
According to a memo sent by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to the State Department, the travel ban risks the U.S. losing critical support from the Iraqi government, military, and the militias which the U.S. continues to support as they collectively try to retake territory occupied by ISIS for the past three years. The Wall Street Journal reports the memo reveals the diplomats in Baghdad were “blindsided” by Trump’s executive order and are worried that the fallout could irreparably damage relations between the two countries, which are nominally “close allies.”
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