A Rare Bipartisan Consensus in US Politics: The Iran Deal was a Bad Idea

Iranayatollahs, cc Flickr modified, american_rugbler, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

More than likely President Obama had good intentions when it came to the Iran deal.  He didn’t want another Middle East quagmire, and possibly thought it could achieve Sunni Muslim and Israeli dialogue.  That has been achieved, as the hatred Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates have for Iran after the United States’ (US) nuclear deal has been unprecedented.  Dialogue and open relations are now the norm between former enemies.

What if that is what the president and former Secretary Clinton, and Secretary Kerry wanted all along. A balance of power strategy, based upon realist foreign policy that ties former enemies together based upon a mutually agreed upon threat. The way we now see the Asian nations led by Japan and South Korea united against a more formidable China that negates international tribunal rulings over threatened waters in the South China Sea.

But agreements like this which the US takes the lead on have consequences. President Obama was warned by former secretaries of state on the Right about the disastrous consequences of formulating a quasi-treaty with Iran. And now Salon.com, a leading intellectual site for the Left, has agreed with the Right and Congressional Republicans – this is a bad deal for America and the world. In our hyper-partisan environment to have a leading Democratic-friendly site refer to the agreement as a “travesty,” we know this is an unfavorable deal.

This wasn’t The National Review, The Weekly Standard, or right-leaning talk radio making this hyperbolic statement – this was Salon.com. That the president of the United States has the mendacity to scoff away concerns about airlifting $400 million in hard currency to the Iranians for American hostages means we are no longer in the best of times, but the worst of times.

Americans of good conscious should want our Presidents to succeed – whether Democrat or Republican – but when agreements with the largest sponsor of terrorism in the world are negotiated, and then undone, President Obama, Secretary Kerry, and Democratic nominee Clinton should answer for their policy decisions. To never consider Iranian history, ideological positions, or rogue behavior is naïve bordering on narcissistic national suicide.

Did the President have America’s best in mind, or was he only thinking about his presidential legacy? I never begrudge a president taking vacations, golfing, or spending every weekend at Camp David – but with the Wall Street Journal’s revelation about the US paying Iran money for hostages – maybe the president needs to cut his Martha’s Vineyard vacation short. The left and the right both agree that the President has possibly broken the law, or at the very least endangered Americans worldwide with his actions on Iran.

And this is our supposed partner for a new Middle East, with Ayatollah Khomeini now flouting his disregard for negotiating with the US. He now says he can’t trust the US, and because of Iranian actions, other center-left foreign policy elites are now urging the US to stay tough on Iranian sanctions. Do the president and deputy national security advisor, Ben Rhodes, who pushed, coddled, and basically lied this deal through Congress have any idea?

The Iranians seem to have an idea where this deal is headed, and for them it more and more seems about money. Money for their oil infrastructure, and more missiles for their proxy – Hezbollah – to fire at Israeli cities while not considering the consequences of the Arab League, OPEC, and Israel’s new friends. Saudi Arabia isn’t going to sit back and do nothing the next time Hezbollah attacks Israel through Lebanon. Too much is at stake for these countries where self-interest rightly understood is at stake, and now Egypt has even more of the leverage it needs to oppress its citizenry, all in the name of killing ISIS terrorists in the Sinai.

The Council on Foreign Relations makes clear Iran has not changed its behavior, while multi-national banks still won’t do business with the regime. Hundreds of billions of new loans, fees, and revenue are at stake, but still they keep the Iranian regime at arm’s length. Though President Obama and Secretary Kerry have made numerous concessions attempting to integrate Iran into the world community, Iran is still a malignant force in actively pursuing regional aggression, money laundering, weapons proliferation, and making its continued threats against Israel.

That Salon.com article is now actively quoting the futility of this deal:

It subsidizes Iran’s hegemonic ambitions, and demonstrates the nuclear deal has merely emboldened Iran to further provoke America, secure in the knowledge the White House will do almost anything to protect its signature foreign policy achievement,” according to Tzvi Kahn, Senior Policy Analyst at the Foreign Policy Initiative.

The frightening irony is leading Democrats realize the destructive policies regarding Iran by the Obama Administration, yet President Obama, Secretary Kerry, and Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton don’t seem to want to address the issue.

 

The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the authors are theirs alone and don’t reflect any official position of Geopoliticalmonitor.com.

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