And on the Subject of Iran

Listening to the first Republican Presidential debates, it struck me (although it did not surprise me) how completely and uncompromisingly opposed to the Iran Nuclear Deal these sixteen gentlemen and lone lady are. I understand the opposition: the Republicans are vehemently opposed to anything Democratic President Obama does or tries to do. Do not confuse these folks with facts. They will just state categorically the opposite as if it was the truth instead. It is disconcerting to read that even members of the President’s own party are rallying in opposition. Iran is a hot button issue, so much so that certain members of Congress and others interested in the Executive Office are clamoring for all out war. It amazes that these same, supposedly intelligent and considered individuals choose to believe that not only has our President bought a bill of goods, so have China, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. So has the entire Security Council of the United Nations. These same individuals, on both sides of the aisle, seem to believe that an Iran unchecked and unmonitored is less dangerous than one which is carefully checked and monitored. They seem to believe that lifting sanctions as an incentive for expected behavior means those sanctions will not be imposed again if Iran fails to live up to its side of the bargain. They further seem to believe that our President has gone to bed with the hardliners in Iran who oppose the deal themselves. It is a quagmire of convenient thinking, a battlefield for idiots. Have they even read the document? Either these men and women are stupid, or something else is motivating their supposed angst, and they would have you and me as terrified of Iran as we once were told to be of Iraq. The passions run high. These men and women want war. They want huge conventional fighting forces that can mobilize at a moment’s notice. They have no idea of what the real world is like now, even after the mixed results of the past dozen years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. They think they can fight yesterday’s wars tomorrow. In the bargain, the United States, still by far the most powerful military force on the planet, looks less and less like a leader and more and more like a bully. The supreme irony would be if the United States Congress managed to stonewall this carefully negotiated deal or scuttle it altogether. At that point the Rogue Nation in the world would be us.