Required Reading

I have a twofer for you today on the nuclear “framework” agreement with Iran. First up, Austin Bay:

Words matter, or at least they should when the “understanding” allegedly affects a theocratic dictatorship’s ability to obtain and use nuclear weapons.

Both words imply a degree of agreement between parties. Regrettably, the Iranian government quickly disputed the Obama administration’s claims that Tehran had made significant concessions.

To say that this obvious Iranian disagreement with Obama bodes ill for the “historic understanding” is an understatement.

Comparison to the unfortunately historic 1938 Munich Agreement strikes me as wretchedly apt. However, within 36 hours of signing the document that gave Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland to Germany, Adolf Hitler didn’t contradict Neville Chamberlain’s claim that Munich guaranteed “peace for our time.” But Hitler did contradict him. Less than a year later, Germany attacked Poland, igniting WW2.

Chamberlain trusted Hitler’s word.

As I wrote yesterday, at least Chamberlain meant well. Obama knows exactly what the people are he’s dealing with, and deals with them anyway.

And now Henry Kissinger and George Schultz:

Mixing shrewd diplomacy with open defiance of U.N. resolutions, Iran has gradually turned the negotiation on its head. Iran’s centrifuges have multiplied from about 100 at the beginning of the negotiation to almost 20,000 today. The threat of war now constrains the West more than Iran. While Iran treated the mere fact of its willingness to negotiate as a concession, the West has felt compelled to break every deadlock with a new proposal. In the process, the Iranian program has reached a point officially described as being within two to three months of building a nuclear weapon. Under the proposed agreement, for 10 years Iran will never be further than one year from a nuclear weapon and, after a decade, will be significantly closer.

The very best that can be said about the deal Obama has brokered, is that it works like ♡bamaCare!!! — it kicks the can far enough down the road that Obama will be out of office when the you-know-what finally hits the fan.

The worst that can be said was just said by Dick Cheney.