A Slightly Less Quick Reaction On Iran Nuclear Deal

Last night, I quickly dashed off a post on the deal, so I left much out.  Critics will focus on what this does not change: that Iran is expanding its influence in the region (um, thanks GWB), that Iran supports terrorist groups, that Iran is hostile to Israel.  Yep.  There are two responses to this:

a) US arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union did not fix the US relationship with the USSR.  They mostly just slowed down and managed the arms race, while giving the US and the Soviet Union a bit of progress on the bilateral relationship.  The deals did not stop the Soviet Union's support of insurgencies the US did not like, it did not stop the USSR from controlling Eastern Europe, and it did not lead to the Soviet Union rejecting its own ideology which called for worldwide revolution (a pretty hostile ideology if you are old enough to remember.

b) The deal does not fix Iran's problems either.  The US is still seen as being mostly bent on Iranian regime change.  The US is still arming its friends in the region.  Israel gets to keep its nuclear weapons without any negotiated restrictions on its nuclear weapons program.  Pakistan (not a friend of Iran) gets to keep its nuclear weapons. 


Anyone expecting this deal to do anything other than limit Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons is just not that serious.  This deal does mean that the US stays under the war cap--that we are not adding yet another country to the US military's agenda today. 

One last thought: wasn't it Reagan who said Trust but Verify?  The deal has that hardwired in, yes?