Opinion

Obama And Iran: Let’s Make A Deal At Any Cost

James Zumwalt Author, 'Bare Feet, Iron Will'
Font Size:

Just as Academy Award Oscar nominees have prepared remarks should their name be called, President Obama had his ready to go announcing a nuclear deal (albeit a framework one) with Iran. The major difference: while uncertainty remains for nominees until the envelope is opened, not so for Obama who knew a deal was never in doubt.

So eager to make a deal, Obama started on it before he was first elected. Presidential candidate Obama sent an emissary to Iran in 2008 advising the mullahs he would be elected and be a much kinder negotiator on a nuclear deal. (Unsurprisingly, Team Obama failed to mention this Logan Act violation while leveling accusations of treason against the 47 GOP senators who wrote an open letter to the mullahs warning any Obama deal may not survive his presidency.)

Two developments concerning what he calls a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” are disturbing.

First, it is not a bad deal — it is a terrible one. Any agreement placing nuclear weapons in the hands of Armageddon-minded mullahs bent on creating the global chaos deemed necessary to expedite a messianic leader’s descent from an occulted state to establish Islam as the world’s religion should cause us worry. Yet Obama gives these madmen the bomb.

Second, while this is only a deal to make a deal later, polls already credit Obama with a major accomplishment. This suggests Americans fail to understand Obama has violated repeated assurances Iran would never have nuclear weapons.

Sometimes polls tell less about substantive issues and more about public ignorance.

During the U.S./USSR SALT II arms control negotiations, poll results revealed most Americans favored such a deal capping the number of missiles each side could have. But a follow up poll revealed respondents failed to understand SALT II would do that at levels giving the Soviet Union a larger numerical missile advantage — which respondents then rejected. They favored SALT II, until they realized what was in it.

This mindset is reminiscent of Nancy Pelosi’s incredulous statement on Obamacare legislation she had never read — i.e., “we have to pass it to find out what’s in it.” Such an approach with Iran will prove fatal.

How bad did Obama want this deal? So bad our negotiators capitulated on 80 percent of Iran’s demands. Nothing would deter Obama from such an agreement — not even international provocations days before a framework deal was announced.

With negotiations ongoing, a U.S. Navy helicopter over the Persian Gulf was buzzed by an Iranian military jet — the incident kept quiet so as not to upset the Iranians with a protest.

Obama negotiators also remained silent last month when the commander of Iran’s Basij militia, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, declared Israel’s destruction “non-negotiable.” Yet despite this, we negotiate a deal giving Tehran access to nukes!

Also ignored by U.S. negotiators was evidence Iran’s nuclear program is for military purposes, refusing to confront the mullahs on an Iranian document describing an electro-magnetic pulse (i.e., nuclear) weapon attack against the U.S.

A good sign one side has fallen under the spell of the other in negotiations is the latter using the former’s language. When asked at one point by a Westerner if a deal was possible, Secretary of State John Kerry’s “Inshallah” (God willing) response suggested as much.

Other recent developments quite telling about Iranian intentions also were ignored.

Obama refuses to hold Tehran accountable for its terrorist acts but U.S. courts do. Last month, a civil court ordered Iran pay $75 million to the family of a sailor lost in the October 2000 USS Cole suicide attack. Awards by other courts totaling billions recognize Iranian involvement in numerous attacks including the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing and 9/11.

It appears our “tough” negotiators failed to win promises Iran stop such terrorist activity, release Americans being held, stop threats against the West or otherwise act as a responsible member of the international community.

Iran’s terrorist proxy group Hezbollah understands far better than Americans what this deal contains — calling it a victory making Tehran “a member of the nuclear club.” It is chilling to have a terrorist organization say such words about a terrorist state.

Usually a supporter of Obama’s policies, the Washington Post is very critical of the deal for failing to shut down any of Iran’s nuclear facilities or dismantle any of the 19,000 centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Additionally, while the existing enriched uranium stockpile is to be reduced, no demand (after Tehran rescinded willingness to do so) is made it be shipped outside the country. The deal leaves Iran’s nuclear infrastructure intact — theoretically freeze-dried for a decade — before claiming nuclear club membership. But this foolishly assumes a nation yet to honor any arms control agreement signed will do so now.

One expert, Joe Cirincione, head of the American anti-nuclear proliferation group the Ploughshares Fund, finds the deal so bad it will enable Iran to reduce its “breakout” time should it make a run for the bomb. This is because it allows installation of improved centrifuge technology shortening breakout from several months to three weeks.

Although U.S. law requires the topic of Iran’s suspected warhead research be addressed before sanctions are lifted, the deal is silent on this.

The U.S. negotiating trend throughout has been one of unwillingness to discuss critical issues — definitive of Iranian intentions — for fear of disrupting talks. That gave the Iranians an enormous negotiating advantage.

America’s Arab allies describe the agreement as “Obama’s bad and dangerous deal” — resulting from U.S. “weakness” that feeds Iranian “expansionist” plans. Ironically, this deal will trigger an arms race, completely defeating Obama’s declared policy during his first year to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia is closely working with Pakistan on acquiring one as well.

U.S. law requires lobbyists representing foreign governments register as such. Obama’s ‘let’s make a deal at any price’ strategy with Iran represents a complete capitulation of U.S. interests. No lobbying firm could have better represented a client. Perhaps we should check — Obama’s name may well be on the registry.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel