Obama’s no-win situation
Iran’s release from captivity of five Americans demonstrates the value of diplomatic relations with even a hostile regime, says a proudly pleased White House. So, too, the nuclear deal that President Obama plainly expects will be a long-lauded foreign policy accomplishment.
If only all of this were so, because the glow of welcoming home fellow U.S. citizens obscures the imbalance between the costs and benefits of Obama’s trading with the mullahs.
Described by the President as closing off Iran’s every path to a bomb, the nuclear pact, in fact, extended the regime’s so-called breakout time to build an atomic device only from a few months to a year. Of greater importance, the administration says, is that international inspectors will know if Iran starts to go nuclear.
On the other side of the ledger, the end of sanctions will pour $100 billion into the economy of a radical Islamist, terror-exporting leadership that has sworn to wipe Israel off the map.
Still more, each dollar will also bolster Iran as a regional power to the disadvantage not only of Israel but of America’s Middle Eastern allies, including Saudi Arabia.
Then, too, the nuclear deal handcuffs Iran for just a decade. Obama imagines that within 10 years the mullahs will be members in good standing of the world community, having left behind diplomacy by hostage taking, as well as support of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah.
Early signs are anything but promising. Iran is reinforcing Syrian President Bashar Assad in bar- baric warfare on his own people. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has disqualified 99% of the reformist candidates who tried to register for coming elections. And an Iranian-backed Shiite militia has seized three U.S. citizens in Iraq.
Although the administration says it has no evidence of direct Iranian involvement, Secretary of State John Kerry’s ability to get his Iranian counterpart on the phone may again be useful in bartering with kidnappers to secure yet another White House win.
Obama marked it a win when America pardoned seven Iranians convicted of criminally violating a U.S. trade embargo and lifted sanctions on 14 others — several actively involved exporting terror — in exchange for release of the innocent American five.
When Iran held American sailors captive, and released propaganda shots of them on their knees, that, too, was a victory, since Kerry could plead directly for their return.
When Iran illegally fired two ballistic missiles and the U.S. held off on minor sanctions until after the nuclear deal was implemented, that, too, was a win, since it proved the U.S. will go through the motions of holding Iran to account, even if no one in either country is fooled by the exercise.
Obama has led the world into a new era of Western relations with Iran. The mullahs are closer to regional domination than before all of the President’s wins, while America’s purportedly warmer relations with the rogue nation have won for the U.S. the right phone number to call when ransom needs paying.