Leaning in to Foreign Policy Folly
Team Biden's charm offensive towards Iranian gangsters is pure lunacy.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken is the right man for the job. Especially if the job is to knowingly conduct foolhardy, self-destructive foreign policy and then brag about it to the world.
But that’s exactly what he did Sunday when he affirmed the commitment on behalf of the administration to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Certainly Iran cannot be trusted. It is a radical regime and the thought that their diplomatic corps is chock full of honest actors is absurd, even if John Kerry is enamoured with them.
That is why the original JCPOA was designed to give Iran a wide berth when it came to compliance. Since we knew the regime would cheat, we made cheating permissible in the language. So while the Islamic Republic of Iran went around the bakery shoplifting cookies we declared shoplifting to be shopping and thus no crime was committed.
Easy peasy.
As put so succinctly by Noah Rothman of Commentary Magazine:
Iran can unilaterally deny international observers access to military sites, and it can shield an extensive trove of technical knowledge related to its nuclear program from inspectors. It can import tons of low-enriched uranium, manufacture nuclear fuel, test nuclear-capable delivery vehicles, and restart its centrifuges and develop a stockpile of fissionable material within weeks rather than a year. None of this is a violation of the terms of the JCPOA and its annexes.
The Iran nuclear deal was garbage and we all knew it. The hope was that as we more normalized relations and commerce, young Iranians would be so influenced by Air Jordans and the Kardashians that they’d cast off the old, lame Mullahs.
It was pure Ben Rhodes, Pod Save America, West Wing, know-it-all fist bump diplomacy and of course, it was idiotic and counterproductive.
While we appeased Iran at every turn, they raised hell all over the region.
So, of course we’re doing it all again.
Doing it all again, even as the smoke has yet to clear in Israel, where Iran-backed Hamas has just finished launching four-thousand rockets into residential communities and Tehran has openly cheered the action.
These rocket bombardments aren’t just happening in Israel. As Bloomberg’s Seth J. Frantzman notes:
This is part of a pattern developing across the region. Yemen’s Houthi rebels have used increasingly sophisticated rockets and drones against Saudi Arabia, as have Shiite militias in Iraq, against U.S. forces. By far the largest, most advanced stockpile belongs to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which includes precision-guided missiles as well as rockets that may one day be launched from long-range drones.
All these arsenals in the possession of non-state actors share a common origin: Iran. In recent years, the Islamic Republic has supplied these groups, key members of Tehran’s region-wide network of proxies and partners, with tens of thousands of rockets and drones, as well as the technology to build them. In the process, it has fundamentally transformed warfare in the Middle East.
In short, Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.
Which brings us to Tony Blinken.
The Secretary of State joined George Stephanopoulos on Sunday and was asked, straight up if we should be dealing with the thugs in Tehran.
GEORGE: “Your administration’s continuing to pursue nuclear negotiations with Iran, but 42 Republican senators have called on the President to end the negotiations, make it clear that sanctions will remain in place because of Iranian funding of Hamas. Do you believe that Iran is funding Hamas? And if they are, should the sanctions stay in place?”
SECRETARY BLINKEN: “George, Iran is engaged in a number of activities, including funding extremist groups, supporting terrorism more broadly, supporting very dangerous proxies that are taking destabilizing actions throughout the Middle East, proliferating weapons.”
WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! WHOA!
Wait right there. Aren’t those all reasons for not dealing with Iran? You had us at “funding extremist groups,” Tony.
George just asked about Hamas but Blinken gave him an entire laundry list of villainous actions and projects Iran is involved in. In that case, how can we possibly endeavor to cut a good faith deal with these criminals?
Ahh, you’re not thinking on Blinken’s level. Remember, these people are smarter than you.
“An Iran with a nuclear weapon or with the capability to build one in very short order is going to act with even greater impunity in those areas,” explained Blinken, “which just adds to the urgency of trying to put the nuclear problem back in the box that the nuclear agreement put it in.”
You getting this?
Because the terrorist regime has been unabated in its reign of terror - or as Blinken insanely calls it, “in the box” - we need to loosen sanctions and give them all the protections of the JCPOA or the Mullahs will do more terror.
In other words, Iran will make nukes and use them on their enemies as we sit passively by or they will do it after attending some ribbon cuttings in Vienna. The third option of putting more pressure on Iran is not on the table.
“But the first thing that we need to do is put the nuclear problem back in the box,” continued the madman named Tony. “That’s why we’re committed to trying to see if Iran will come back into compliance with the nuclear agreement, the so-called JCPOA – that’s what we’re engaged in now – and then use that as a platform to build on and to try to deal with these other issues.”
Once again, the hope is that as we more normalize relations and commerce, young Iranians will be so influenced by Air Jordans and the Kardashians that they’ll cast off the old, lame Mullahs.
Same old, same old.
The Iran deal is not a plan, it is the lack of a plan. But no matter, it’s a thing we sign, a photo op and a press campaign.
It’s just like John Kerry’s climate agenda. Solar panels and wind turbines and charging stations from coast to coast. Will they solve a problem?
No. But that’s not the point. It’s a thing we sign, a photo op and a press campaign. It is more spiritual than anything else, but pragmatism is for non-elites while performative measures are the opiate of the patrician in 2021.
But aren’t those solar panels and wind turbines going to be made by slaves, John?
Yep.
“You’re absolutely correct,” declared Kerry. “It is a problem.” He noted that “solar panels that we believe in some cases are being produced by forced labor by Uighurs.” He went on to note that rare earth minerals are produced by China and used in things such as magnets for wind turbines, and we know who mines those.
You’ve got a problem using slave labor to supplant the energy industry with an insufficient replacement?
You’re not comfortable giving a Shiite radical gangster nation leeway to work on their nukes while we offer them more fruits of diplomacy?
You obviously haven’t re-imagined foreign policy.
C’mon man. Be patriotic.
Great article Tom. It's a religion for this administration. These people are more spiritually involved than the very mullahs they are supposedly trying to outmaneuver. Keep up the good work.