Jared Kushner Is In Iraq, Should Solve Middle East By Brunch On Thursday

 
 He has that vaguely inbred look of the aristocracy already...

First Son-in-Law Jared Kushner has been dispatched to Iraq for some reason, although it's anybody's guess why. Kushner just appeared in Baghdad Monday, explaining he was there to let the Iraqi government know that the Trump administration stands behind them 100%, which considering the Trump administration's track record of standing behind people 100 percent, ought to have the Iraqis deeply worried.

Kushner, who has no diplomatic or military experience but is liked bigly by his father-in-law, was invited to Iraq by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. Maybe Trump just wanted Jared out from underfoot for a few days. Dunford's spokesperson, Navy Capt. Greg Hicks, explained Kushner, the general, and Trump's homeland security adviser Thomas Bossert would be meeting Iraqi and coalition officials to find out how the war against ISIS is going:

Mr. Kushner is “traveling on behalf of the president to express the president’s support and commitment to the government of Iraq and U.S. personnel currently engaged in the campaign” against the Islamic State, Captain Hicks added.

So it looks like some kind of Spring Break thing. Maybe the Kushner family has some hotel business to do in Iraq, too. Just going to Iraq proves that Kushner is the administration's top guy for foreign policy, which is usually the sort of thing the Secretary of State might handle, but Rex Tillerson is too busy napping.

Dunford offered this compelling explanation of why Kushner was tagging along:

“I said, ‘Hey, next time I go to Iraq, if you’re interested, come and it’d be good,” Dunford said, adding he extended the invitation weeks ago.

That kind of ground-level awareness of the war helps inform strategic decisions, Dunford said, adding it was the same reason he regularly leaves Washington to visit Iraq.

“The more appreciation you could have for what’s actually happening on the ground, the more informed you are when you start talking about the strategic issues,” Dunford said.

So it's a very educational ride-along for Jared! We wonder if they'll let him play with some trucks while he's there. The Trumpers just love trucks!

Now, in a normal presidency, you might actually have people in the State Department who already know stuff about Iraq, because State would be fully staffed. That's simply not the Trump Way. You want expertise in Middle East policy, what you do is get your completely inexperienced son-in-law to personally look at the country, then come back to the USA and show you where Iraq is on a map. And maybe while he's in the country he can figure out a way to take the oil, because taking the oil is one of Donald Trump's longest, most-cherished dreams, even though it would be a war crime. 

Now that Kushner has had a chance to see Iraq -- for a few hours at least -- we bet he'll be as ready as anyone in TrumpWorld to figure out how to bring an end to the Israel-Palestine conflict, which of course is another of the jobs the SILOTUS has been tasked with.

Remember when Trump said he'd hire "all the best people"? Turns out they're all Jared Kushner. When they're not Ivanka.

[ NYT / Reuters ]