The Iran deal is dead, at least for now. And we can only hope the arrogant worldview that brought it about is gone as well.
Matthew Continetti:
The worldview Trump opposes privileges therapy and dialogue over realism and hard decisions. It imagines that the Iranian theocracy is a reliable or trustworthy hedge against Sunni power and will liberalize gradually as the arc of justice progresses. These are the ideas that motivated the presidency of Barack Obama. The Iran deal was the signature achievement of Obama's second term, and it is now gone. In truth, though, Obama's legacy was disappearing long before Trump made his announcement. Obama's legacy, like much of his self-presentation, was a mirage, a pleasing and attractive image that, upon closer inspection, loses coherence.
You didn't have to inspect it that closely, actually. There's more:
Because he governed so extensively through executive order and administrative fiat, because he was so contemptuous of criticism and had a "my way or the highway" approach to negotiations with Republicans (though not with Iranians), the longevity of Obama's agenda depended heavily on his party winning a third consecutive term in the White House. As Tom Cotton warned the Iranians years ago, an agreement entered into by a president and not submitted to the Senate as a treaty can be abrogated by the next man who holds the office. Hillary Clinton's failure doomed the Iran deal and the reputations it had established. It was Barack Obama and John Kerry who allowed Donald Trump to exit the deal by rejecting longstanding procedure. Perhaps it was knowledge of this fact that inspired Kerry in his desperate attempt to preserve the agreement.
For all the claims we hear about his autocratic ways, Donald Trump isn't a tenth as imperious as his predecessor. And the timing of getting out of this deal is good, too. Iran took the money it received from Obama and used it on the battlefield in Syria. That hasn't worked out so well. There has always been plenty of unrest in the country, too. While no one loved the Shah, life was, in the main, better for a lot of Iranians back then. Consider this image from Tehran University in the early 1970s:
 |
| Could just as easily be the U.S. |
These women, assuming they still are alive, would be approaching the age of 70 today. I'm guessing the life they had then would look pretty good now. Watch what happens.
3 comments:
Kerry was no doubt concerned that he was going to have to give back the commission he earned for brokering the deal. I'm sure the Iranian government wouldn't have a problem with sending Amir and Farhad to help Mr. Kerry find his checkbook.
Good riddance to the Iran deal, or to Obama and Kerry? :^)
Seriously, the thing that bothers me most about the Obama "agreement" is the consistent pretense that there was no way to monitor compliance. They're a signer of the NPT. Just work to enforce that, no? Plus, Iranian support of terrorism seems to be a great reason to "bring the lessons home" to them, along the lines of Bismarck's alleged response to the Reichstag when members were concerned that the French would attack German colonies in Cameroon. His response: "If they want war, they will get it...on the Rhine." No sense in attacking them in Syria when there are SAM batteries around Teheran to be taken out.
Israel makes the first step and flattens Iranian installations in Syria. Good start.
Regarding the women, I'm guessing many of them got out in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The fact that they're dressed that way places them in the upper classes, and what I've seen here is a tremendous number of them who saw the writing on the wall and got out of Dodge, er, Teheran.
Post a Comment