After seeing Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris hit several consecutive back-to-back home runs in the early 1960's, fellow Yankee great, Yogi Berra quipped, "It's like deja vu all over again." This comes to mind as I consider the recent nuclear agreement with Iran because we have seen this before. In 1994, a similar agreed framework was adopted that was supposed to freeze and eventually eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons program. We were told that the agreement would guarantee that North Korea would not produce a nuclear weapon by putting in place strong control measures, a sophisticated monitoring regime and unfettered inspections of all North Korean military and civilian nuclear sites. In exchange for these concessions, the North Koreans received billions of dollars worth of fuel, food and economic aid. The North Koreans began cheating on the agreement almost immediately and by 2006, they had tested their first nuclear device.
Yesterday, President Obama announced that Secretary of State Kerry successfully negotiated a nuclear deal with Iran after nearly 18 months of talks. The agreement doesn't provide for the 24/7 anywhere/anytime inspections that we were promised; it didn't require Iran to renounce its call for the destruction of the state of Israel and in fact required no concessions from the Iranians at all. In addition, the deal ends the sanctions against Iran and frees up nearly $150 billion in frozen assets to a country that is still listed as the number one state sponsor of terrorism in the world. Do we really think that this money will be used to improve the life of the Iranian people and not to spread terror and chaos throughout the world?
If you go back and read what was reported by in the press about the North Korean nuclear deal or listen to President Clinton's announcement of the agreed framework, one could substitute Obama for Clinton and Iran for North Korea and the two situations are nearly identical. Why does anyone believe the ultimate outcome of the Iranian nuclear agreement will be any different than that of the North Korean deal?
Doing the exact same thing and expecting a different outcome has been described as one definition of insanity. Ten years from now, Iran will have nuclear weapons. This agreement almost guarantees it and believing otherwise is clearly crazy!
Ken, agreed. I am afraid for what will come in the future. Not only was the agreement for nuclear deal that puts Iran on the path to the bomb, they agreed to let Iran "have" ballistic missiles in eight years, when this was off the table until the 11th hour and Kerry succumbed and capitulated. We are suckers.
ReplyDeleteTim, we will witness the next use of nuclear weapons within the next ten years. As Iran gets closer and closer to possessing a bomb and developing a missile capable of delivering it, Israel will feel compelled to conduct a preemptive strike. Since Iran's major nuclear site is buried hundreds of feet below a mountain, nuclear will be their only option. Publically they will be condemned but most, especially their Arab neighbors in the region, will secretly breathe a sigh of relief!
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