While the list of nations probably doesn't mean that calamity will come to them in that specific order, to me it clearly states (even if what is states is incorrect) that the calamity comes first to Jerusalem (begins at Jerusalem). I don't see the distinction you and some others make between the use of the word "beginning" (or "begin") and the word "starting" or "first" at Jeremiah 25:29"Beginning to bring" or "starting to bring" evil / destruction onto the city (starting thr process described, and to some extent already in progress) isn't the same thing as having it happen to Jerusalem first, as an order of operations.
An example: Let's say I make a list of things I want to accomplish over the weekend. Half way through the weekend you read the list. I say "I'm beginning to plant my flowers." You can't infer its the first thing I did, maybe it is. But maybe not. It doesn't have to be, and that's the point here. The language doesn't *require* it. And that allows the Bible to agree with history quite well.
I know you are taking the perspective that the phrase in v18 is a later edition. Could be - granted. But I'm meeting scholar at his level - his fallback. We can show, just by letting the verses speak for themselves, that his escape route from the hard evidence for 587, mainly "Bible good - secular bad", even that doesn't work.