The first and only time I met Ambassador Martin Indyk was in February 2020, at the offices of The National Interest, a magazine I worked for after graduating college. Indyk was there to give a talk related to his recent Wall Street Journal article, "The Middle East Isn't Worth It Anymore." Unlike many who believe that U.S. interventionism in the region has been destructive and wasteful, Indyk argued that Washington has basically gotten what it wanted—and could now leave the region alone.
Indyk would know. The former White House official and diplomat, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 73, was one of the architects of U.S. policy in the Middle East in the 1990s, when Washington was first starting to flex its dominance over the region. Indyk's most (in)famous contribution was announcing the "dual containment" policy, which committed the U.S. to a virtually endless struggle against Iran and Iraq at the same time. Later in life, he became a skeptic of continuing those commitments.
