Monday, November 25, 2013
From: Gary L. Bauer
Obama Cuts A Deal With Tehran
Speaking at the White House late Saturday night, Barack Obama announced that a deal had been reached with Iran. The agreement, according to the president, “cut off Iran’s most likely path to a bomb.” Few seem to share the president’s enthusiasm. Only two countries praised this deal — Iran itself and its client state Syria.
The news of this agreement was greeted with dismay in Jerusalem, Riyadh and the capitals of other Middle East and Persian Gulf states. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not mince words, blasting the agreement as “a historic mistake.”
Netanyahu added, “Iran is committed to Israel’s destruction, and Israel has the right and the obligation to defend itself I want to make clear as the prime minister of Israel, Israel will not allow Iran to develop a military nuclear capability.”
British media report that senior Saudi officials are furious. A top advisor to the Saudi royal family said, “We were lied to (by Obama), things were hidden from us.”
The reception wasn’t much better on Capitol Hill. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said “this agreement did not proportionately reduce Iran’s nuclear program for the relief it is receiving.”
Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said he was “disappointed” with the deal. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) called the deal a “mistake,” and warned it “dangerously recognizes that Iran will be allowed to enrich uranium ”
Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz called the deal “naïve,” adding, “I think it could turn out to be a cataclysmic error of gigantic proportions.”
The president and his supporters on the left, along with some isolationists on the right like Pat Buchanan, are claiming that this was the only option other than war. The reality is the exact opposite. This makes a big war in the Middle East almost inevitable.
Nothing in the agreement will prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Iran is not required to dismantle even one of its 18,000 centrifuges. If we are already cowering in front of a non-nuclear Iran, imagine what will be required of us when Tehran announces it has acquired its “Islamic bomb.”
In addition, Israel cannot roll the dice the way Obama can. There is no margin for error with Israel. Israel cannot wait until Iran has a bomb. As Prime Minister Netanyahu stated, “military nuclear capability” is Israel’s red line and that is a very different issue. Agreement or no agreement, Israel will act if it feels it has to.
During the week leading up to the pact, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the real power in Iran, publicly referred to Israel as the “rabid dog of the region” and promised that the “Zionist regime” was “doomed to collapse.” That alone should have caused U.S. negotiators to get up and walk out of the talks.
Obama told the American people they could keep their doctor if they liked their doctor. Now he is telling Iran, “If you like your nukes you can keep your nukes.” Only this time he is telling the truth. Some critics are suggesting that this deal is another bad side effect of Obamacare. The administration desperately wanted this deal to get Obamacare off the front pages.
By the way, the same day we caved in to Iran, China claimed control over much of the air space above the East China Sea, which includes several disputed islands controlled by Japan. Our weakness in the Middle East is encouraging our enemies everywhere.
Today’s Obamacare Disaster Update
- Speaker John Boehner signed up for Obamacare and is experiencing the same rate shock that millions of other Americans are facing. According to one report, Boehner’s “health insurance premiums will nearly double — and his deductibles will almost triple — as a result of the Affordable Care Act.”
- Officials in charge of Colorado’s Obamacare exchange are panicking. The Denver Post reports that enrollment figures are “barely half the state’s worst-case projection.” Among other issues, the terrible performance figures are threatening the exchange’s budget. The state exchange is paid for in part by enrollment fees. Fewer people signing up means fewer people paying those fees.
- Officials for Vermont’s Obamacare exchange admit that their security has been breached.
- Obama’s proposed “fix” is falling flat for the millions of Americans who have had their health insurance policies cancelled because of Obamacare. So far nine states, including California, have rejected Obama’s plan.
- Liberals are breaking ranks with the Obama White House. Minnesota Senator Al Franken conceded that Obamacare’s individual mandate may have to be delayed.
- If Healthcare.gov is not up and running by December 1st as promised, the White House may find itself with few, if any, defenders. Politico writes, “Democrats
are gearing up to use Capitol Hill hearings to point out examples of waste, fraud, abuse or just outright incompetence to try to persuade constituents that they aren’t responsible for the bungled rollout.”
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