I’ve had a day or so to digest the new Iran Nuclear Deal brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry, representatives from the UN Security Council (and Germany) and the Iranian foreign minister Mohammad something or other and I think this was a very bad deal for the US.

This Deal Wasn’t Needed

It appears the sanctions were working:

“There’s widespread agreement that sanctions have worked, squeezing Iran financially and bringing its leaders to the negotiating table. Iran’s economy is, by any measure, in terrible shape.”

Although I would use the present tense of the verb ‘work’ instead of the past tense in the NPR article because I thought the purpose of the sanctions was to force Iran to STOP enrichment of Uranium past the point needed for medical and power generation.

Look what happens when the US and its allies get together and decide to not purchase oil from countries that want to destroy us:

“That really had a devastating effect,” says Danielle Pletka, who tracks the Middle East for the American Enterprise Institute. She says when it was just the U.S. refusing to buy, the Iranians could easily sell its oil elsewhere in the global market.”

“[But] when the Europeans came on board and decided not to buy, it had a huge impact and it cut by more than half Iran’s ability to sell,” she says.”

We were crippling their economy and you have to think that eventually the Iranian people and their leaders when faced with the choice of feeding their children or building nuclear weapons would choose food.   And it appears the Iranian citizens were going down that road with the last election:

“Hassan Rohani was elected with a mandate to improve the economy,” he says. “He has promised he will improve the economy and decrease Iran’s isolation, and to do so he must reach a negotiated settlement on the nuclear program so sanctions can be lifted.”

All the pressure was on Iran to reach a settlement in order to lift the sanctions.  Iran was on the ropes and had little negotiating power.  When you have an opponent on the ropes, you don’t back off and let him catch his breath.

I think Team Obama could’ve taken a lesson from Reagan and the way the US won the Cold War with the USSR.  In a sense we forced economic hardships on Russia by baiting them into a technological based arms race and the Soviet’s Socialism was no match for the US’s Capitalism.  Russia was forced to watch its economy tank while they tried to keep pace with our spending and eventually the Soviet system collapsed.

Reagan saw this happening but did he call a meeting with the USSR and volunteer to reduce our spending?  Heck no, he doubled down on the Strategic Defense Initiative and that was one of the final straws that broke Mother Russia’s back.

There was no need to broker a deal, the sanctions were working and they should’ve been given more time.

The Iranians Were Attempting To Enrich Uranium To Weapons Grade

Uranium only needs to be enriched to 3-5% to be used in reactors for energy production and most modern nuclear weapons have Uranium enriched over 80% but Uranium enriched to 20% can be what is called weapons-usable grade Uranium.  So if the Iranians are enriching Uranium to levels greater than 5% then that is proof they have nefarious intentions.

Well, it appears the Iranians were well on their way because one of the tenets of the deal included this:

“All of Iran’s stockpile of uranium that has been enriched to 20 percent, a short hop to weapons-grade fuel, would be diluted or converted into oxide so that it could not be readily used for military purposes.”

So we know they were enriching Uranium at levels that serve no other purpose than military and we decided to stop the sanctions.

Remind me never to take John Kerry with me to buy a car.

This May Be All About John Kerry’s Legacy

This NPR story’s headline scares me to death:

John Kerry: Risk Ready And Looking For A Legacy

“Secretary of State John Kerry has been diving into difficult issues ever since he took up the office at Foggy Bottom. He’s managed tough negotiations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai over a future, limited role for U.S. troops there. He’s re-launched Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, reached a deal with Russia to rid Syria of chemical weapons and is now making headway with Iran to roll back that country’s nuclear program. This is a man clearly looking for legacy.”

That last sentence is particularly troubling.  Team Obama, and specifically John Kerry, aren’t up for re-election and appear to be worried more about how History will treat them instead of doing what is in the best interest of the country and the world.

I don’t care how History speaks of John Kerry but if his motivation right now is to take risks and score quick wins so he looks good in the short term then that makes him a very dangerous man.  Those attributes might be suited for a CEO of a tech startup but they are NOT what we need in a Secretary of State.

John Kerry should study about Neville Chamberlain and how he brokered a deal that he probably hoped would leave a legacy.  Chamberlain thought that giving Hitler the Sudetenland and parts of Czechoslovakia would be enough to avert a war in Europe.  Appeasement.  Chamberlain got his wish, he left a lasting legacy but not in the way he had hoped.

It still boggles my mind why we even entered into negotiations with Iran and I hope I’m wrong but I fear that in 6 months Iran will be closer to developing a nuclear weapon and the only concerns their leaders will have is who will be the first target.