Print this article After nearly 20 years, the last U.S. troops have finally left Bagram Airfield, America’s hub of operations in Afghanistan. President Joe Biden was right to bring our troops home — the war in Afghanistan no longer served our core interests and was opposed by the vast majority of Americans. As we end America’s longest war and consider our deployments elsewhere during the Global Force Posture Review, the president should recognize the declining importance of the Middle East to American interests and scale back our military presence. Despite the $6.4 trillion we’ve spent in the Middle East in the past two decades and the more than 7,000 U.S. service members we’ve lost, America has few vital interests in the region. These include preventing major disruptions to global energy supplies, preventing the rise of a regional hegemon, and countering terrorism. None of these objectives require us to continue our mission in Iraq or to keep tens of thousands of troops on bases across the Middle East. In some cases, our large troop presence undermines those interests.