“I was elected to end wars, not start them.” — Barack Obama
“The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.” — George Orwell
A question has hung in the air since Barack Obama first moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and began his “fundamental transformation” of this country: Did he intend harm, or was he merely so blinded by ideology that he could not see the damage his policies were creating? The Iran deal provides an answer.
At his news conference, our duplicitous leader chose to call black white and claim that the deal does the opposite of what it does — allow Iran to get nuclear weapons, albeit after a decent interval. We are deep into Orwellian territory now. “War is peace. Ignorance is strength.” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is crowing that Iran achieved all of its objectives and the U.S. none.
The bombproof facility in the mountain at Fordow — which, until recently, the U.S. had demanded be shuttered and locked — will now have an “international presence” so that attempts to thwart its progress even by sabotage will be effectively blocked. This is permission masquerading as prevention. It’s of a piece with the administration’s pressure on Israel to refrain from military action, which was rewarded with Obama aides calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “chicken” and crowing that his chance had passed.
Permission masquerading as prevention sums up the whole deal. The U.S. had demanded anywhere/anytime inspections and negotiated to lift sanctions only after evidence of Iranian compliance. Now, the inspections regime is a joke: Iran gets 24 days’ notice and sits on the committee that decides whether inspections are necessary. The sanctions are lifted immediately, handing the world’s chief sponsor of terror a $100 billion windfall. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, who was captured on videotape in April saying anytime/anywhere inspections would be required, now denies the U.S. ever made that a condition.
While the administration claimed it couldn’t negotiate for the release of four Americans held unlawfully in Iranian prisons because that was outside the scope of nuclear negotiations, they did agree to lift the embargo on conventional arms and intercontinental ballistic missiles, which were also outside the compass of nuclear concerns. Why? Because “Iran demanded it.” Well, OK then.
Obama’s news conference was a spectacle of bad faith. A virtuoso of lip service — see his sympathy for Israel — and endless conjurer of straw men, he took few questions but silkily implied he had answered all objections. “There is no scenario in which a U.S. president is not in a stronger position 12, 13, 15 years from now if, in fact, Iran decided at that point they still wanted to get a nuclear weapon.”
What? In 12 to 15 years, Iran will be an immensely wealthier, better-armed and more powerful country than it is today. It will be, to quote Obama, “a very successful regional power” and then some. It will have acquired advanced anti-aircraft weapons and ballistic missiles and, doubtless, a much-improved air force.
From his first inaugural address onward, Obama both secretly and openly wooed the Iranian regime. In the process, he repeatedly lied to Congress, our allies and the American people, settling, to my satisfaction at least, that he is inflicting this potential catastrophe wittingly.
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