The Iran Nuclear Agreement is
a historic victory for American foreign policy, for 2 reasons:
1. It is extraordinarily
hard, if not impossible, for the United States to absolutely prevent a nation from
building a nuclear bomb.
- 2006. President George W. Bush was unable to stop North Korea.
- 1998. President Bill Clinton was unable to stop Pakistan.
- 1994. President Richard Nixon was unable to stop India.
- 1964. President Lyndon Johnson was unable to stop China.
The only iron-clad path to
prevention is invasion, a path which no American president – regardless of
party – has ever taken. Today, nothing has changed. America has neither the stomach
nor the imperative to reverse this policy and invade Iran, a nation with 3
times the population and size of Iraq.
Thus, the next most powerful option in our arsenal is sanctions. However, sanctions are less definitive and come with a shelf-life.
2. After our unnecessary
invasion of Iraq, America’s enemies hated us and our allies distrusted us.
However, under Obama’s leadership, executed by secretaries Clinton and Kerry,
the United States built a global web of sanctions that coerced Iran to the
bargaining table. Because unilateral sanctions don’t work (e.g., Cuban cigars
are available in Duty Free shops from Canada to Kenya), it was absolutely
mandatory that the United States gain the support of China, Russia, the EU and
others, all with differing trade, social and economic agendas, to join and
sustain crippling sanctions against Iran.
With invasion impractical and
indefinite sanctions unsustainable, and with American leadership in the global toilet,
Obama and Kerry produced a deal that cripples Iran’s nuclear ambitions for the
foreseeable future while maintaining an international sanctions regime against
Iran.
By any measure this was brilliant statesmanship. Only the most partisan of politicians can fail to praise its authors.
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