By Bob Schneider, Chicagonow
As of this year, I have been in politics for four decades, three and a half decades of that time working in foreign policy and foreign relations. Taking off my partisan cap and donning my policy hat while reading the Iran deal, I think I found the fatal flaw that makes the agreement so bad that Donald Trump feels justified in abrogating the treaty.
It is not as one-sided as Donald Trump wants us to think. The Iranians agreed to give up their fuel, and agree to inspections in exchange to them getting their own money that we had seized. The agreement made it easier to monitor Iran’s nuclear activity, and that judgment is not mine alone. A report by the CIA under Mike Pompeo drew that conclusion as well. That does not seem too one-sided to me.
The agreement did allow Tehran to continue nuclear development for peaceful means. That would lead one to surmise that Trump judged the Iranians by his own moral compass and figured they were lying because that is what he does.
There is one fatal flaw in the agreement, and it is an unrecoverable error in the view of Donald Trump. Barack Obama forged the deal. Therefore, it must be wrong.
That has been the focus of his Presidency, wipe out every achievement of the previous administration. The deal with Iran was the showcase work of Barack Obama’s foreign policy, his legacy, and Donald Trump wants to destroy the agreement.
What does the President have in mind, another war perhaps? He is taking the first step on that road by reinstituting sanctions against Tehran, and sanctions against Banks and Businesses that do business with Iran. That takes a swipe at some of America’s closest allies, like Germany, France, and the U.K.
In his statement, Mr. Trump who has an unusually orange hue these days said the U.S. would sanction any nation who helps Iran achieve their nuclear ambitions. He has sent no signals that the bromance between himself and Vladimir Putin is on the rocks. Is the threat more hollow rhetoric from Trump? Time will tell, it always does.
The screen grab on the left is a Tweet on Trump’s personal twitter account announcing his intentions. There is no way Donald Trump wrote that tweet. It is way too literate for the likes of him. I have read many memos and reports in my day from John Bolton, and this tweet reeks of his stench. The words are the first beat of a war drum.
Remember the false rhetoric and fear mongering about Sadam Hussein’s non-existent “on the cusp” nuclear activities that were used by Mr. Bolton and the Bush Administration to lead America into the war in Iraq? This tweet is a page out of that same playbook.
Not all our allies are unhappy. The Saudis who are at war with Iran’s surrogates in Yemen, and Israel, who is at war with Iran’s proxies in Gaza, welcomed the news. Iran has not made it a secret that they hate the Saudis and think Iran is a better caretaker for Islam’s holiest sites than the House of Saud.
Iran repeatedly speaks about wiping Israel off of the face of the earth and supplies the terrorist Hamas with weapons and the other means to carry out terrorism against civilians in Israel.
Israel’s Mossad came up with compelling evidence that Iran is moving forward with a bomb. Many on the American left are sneering at the findings because of their disdain for Benjamin Netanyahu.
I am not a Netanyahu cheerleader myself. I feel he is destroying Israel’s standing in the world just as Trump is destroying ours. However, I have known Mossad most of my career, and they are the best Intelligence Agency in the world. If they say it, then it is true, and they are not subject to the whims of the Prime Minister.
Here is the real rub. I understand the Saudis, and the Israelis want to strike Iran before Iran can hit them with a nuclear blow. If I were in their shoes, I would feel the same way most probably. However, the treaty did allow engagement, and as we saw with China, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union before them, open dialogue brings changes to nations. We are not giving peaceful means a chance to work.
The sanctions that the U.S.A. leveled against Iran in 1979 that stayed on until the deal forged by Obama were not successful. These new sanctions will not work either. They will raise tensions in the region and could lead to another war in the Middle East.
There is another player who is happy with Trump’s decision, Vladimir Putin. It is now full steam ahead for his client-state Iran to buy his nuclear technology and weapons to defend themselves against a hostile America.
With this new policy, we can now clearly define The Trump Doctrine, “Throw a temper tantrum and endanger the world.” Donald Trump’s actions of yesterday will fail. It is predictable, and the unfortunate consequence is Iran may not trust another American Government for two more generations.
The carpet bombing has begun, underneath the bombs is American Foreign Policy. Iran is just one of the targets.
