On the Iran deal..looking out for number one. The deal is in US interests.

Looking out for number one should be the primary concern of Congress’ position on the Iran nuclear deal.  Number one means us, the United States.  A deal as outlined in the framework is in the  interest of our country because it is the best way to avoid getting   involved in another ground war in the Middle East.  The alternative is to remove any constraints on military conflicts with a march to war and an inevitable risk the US will find its boots on the ground as we fight on behalf of our allies in the region whose backs we have pledged to protect.

All out military conflict would be in no one’s interest, especially the civilians from Israel to Iran who will bear the brunt of the carnage. There is a body of thought that bombing Iran’s physical facilities would also require boots on the ground to be effective.  Whose boots? Ours?

 The devil is in the details still in process of being negotiated.  The fat lady has not sung and there are those both in the US and Iran who are out to sabotage the framework without waiting for the final aria.  Those attempting to abort the embryonic deal are US neocons such as John Bolton who want to do a pre-emptive military strike against Iran now, those who do not trust any verification methods to work, and hard liners in Iran who do not want to give up their ability to develop their nuclear weapons.

Those U.S. neocons are the same ilk who talked us into invading Iraq.  If we did not learn anything from Iraq, the futility, the loss of blood, the heartbreak of wounded warriors, and the $6 billion in treasure, then there is no hope for this country ever acting rationally. However, the US killing the deal would leave drummers for war as the ones in the drivers’ seat in Iran, with our Middle East allies, and in Congress, since there would be no restraints or constraints or alternatives left.

One possible scary outcome is that both Iran and Israel, who already has nuclear WMD, would be at a standoff of reminiscent of the cold war’s mutually assured self- destruction. We would then see Sunni Arabs race to get their own bombs. One itchy finger on a nuclear trigger could unleash the unthinkable.  

The simplistic alternative, to reinstate the sanctions, works only if Iran is the one to scuttle the deal.  If the US kills it, it is doubtful our partners in negotiations, France, Germany, United Kingdom, the EU, Russia and China, would continue since the purpose of the sanctions was to get Iran to negotiate and their chief partner, the US, was an unreliable negotiator.

Republicans and some Democrats in Congress have become deaf to credible safeguards against Iran cheating.   The reassurance of one of our chief negotiators, the Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz, a nuclear physicist, carries more weight than politicians’ partisan speculations. Congress is also deaf to those they represent.  The American people support a nuclear deal by a nearly 2 to 1 margin per a Washington Post/ABC News March 30 poll.

Verson of this post published in www.skyhidailynews.com 4 17 15

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/poll-2-to-1-support-for-nuclear-deal-with-iran

http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2015/04/09/could_air_power_stop_iran_107858.html