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A couple of comments on the Trump administration’s walking
away from the Iran nuclear deal.
First, have you noticed that Europe’s leaders, May, Macron
and Merkel (Europe's own MMM) have been reduced in stature? They seem like Lilliputians snipping
at Trump’s heels. For those who voted for Trump because he would restore
America’s stature and would not bow down to European leaders, score one.
Second, defenders of the deal are bemoaning the fact that
America had given its word to the world and now Trump is going back on that
word. On the other hand, Trump’s supporters have argued that Trump had vowed to scrap the deal and
now he was keeping his word to his voters.
In truth, we might argue about what it means when a country
gives its word in signing a treaty, but since the Obama administration never
submitted the deal to the Senate for ratification, it was Barack Obama, in an
imperious, authoritarian gesture, who signed the deal. America’s word was not
directly in play. If it were, Trump could not have walked out on it.
Third, the Wall Street Journal summed it up well in the
opening paragraph of its news story:
The
U.S. is pulling out of the Iranian nuclear accord, President Donald Trump said,
dismantling his predecessor’s most prominent foreign-policy initiative and
bucking the wishes of some of America’s closest allies.
From President Obama on down, supporters of the deal and of
the Obama presidency are in terminal anguish today. They are seeing their
signature foreign policy achievement dismissed as one colossal mistake. Whether
it is or is not, they will never admit it. Their arrogance is such that what makes it a good thing is that they did it. Such is the mind of Obama and of
his satraps and flunkies.
Now, they are hoping against hope that something very, very
bad will happen. Because if it does not, then Trump will appear to have been right. Then, they will look to have been overly submissive to Europe’s weak leaders and to
the ayatollahs in Iran.
Fourth, naturally, fellow travelers like Roger Cohen and
Peter Beinart have declared that scrapping the deal is bad for Israel. In
Israel, politicians from all sides of the political spectrum disagree. From Prime Minister Netanyahu to Ehud Barak, they have applauded Trump. One notes that while Europe’s Lilliputian leaders whine and moan, the leaders
of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates support Donald Trump.
They know, as the American left does not, that they need to
stop Iran before it is too late. They know that they, with the help of American
troops, must stop the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and that they, with
the help of Israel must stop the Iranian move into Syria.
Either we are going to fight some small wars against the
Islamic Republic of Iran or we are going to fight a large war. Now, the Trump
administration—once it figures out what it is going to do about Syria—seems moving
toward small wars. Those who live in the region and who are not cowards support
the Trump withdrawal from the deal.
3 comments:
One wonders why Obama did not make this part of a treaty where Congress could have approved of it? Oh most of the Democrats were agains't it for very good reasons and said so. It is humorous to see some of them acting like they did not have serious reservations about this deal from its inception. The only problem with a "pen and a phone, is that someone else will ultimately wield that sam "pen and phone."
Let me posit that I believe what one is seeing is a little bit of "good cop bad cop" in play. Thus giving our allies the chance to change this deal and cover a number of the things that should have be addressed before hand. John Kerry , I would suggest, in his desire to take center stage, did exactly what Trump wanted him to do and kept Iran in the deal so that the allies could make substantive changes that would meet Trump's objections. It is not surprising that those who suffer from TDS are easily played. Hatred almost always stops logical thinking.
This allows the Israelis to do what they deem necessary without Obama telling the Syrians, the Iranians, et al what they were going to do and when. Actually there will be far more pressure on the Mullahs given a very shaky economy and the requirement for enough domestic spending to forgo a revolution which of course Trump addressed in his speech.
And now Trump manages to get three Americans released from NOKOs and may accomplish denuclearization. Crazy like a fox.
Trump is indeed keeping his promise to end it and Obama made it easy to cancel for a new president, so it was both expected, and the exact sort of promise a new president likes - ending something with the stroke of a pen and calling it "mission accomplished". But this is the beginning not the end, with new sanctions going up, and not just against Iran, but any countries or companies that do business with Iran. So we're asking the world to take sides, and with any other president, it would be a no-brainer which side to choose, but if others defy new sanctions and encourage Iran to continue with its promises and inspections, we're the ones who look bad.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/09/europe-trump-wreck-iran-nuclear-deal-cancel-visit-sanctions
So far the only governments in support are Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain, and we can presume they're not really worried about nuclear weapons, but about state sponsored terrorism. So the "trap" here seems to be to hopefully provoke Iran to declare its intention to produce nuclear weapons and that will justify a military response.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_withdrawal_from_the_Joint_Comprehensive_Plan_of_Action#Reactions
Maybe good-cop, bad-cop really can make the world a safer place. Hopefully Trump's military is more prepared than Obama's and our ships will stop running into things while we puff ourselves up.
May, Macron, and Merkel aren't actually smaller (they were never "large"), but Trump is definitely BIGGER. Because he has done big things.
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