Tag Archives: iran nuclear deal

An Iran Deal Fit For A King

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Iranians celebrated a deal that lifted sanctions against their nation. The deal is less popular in the U.S. Congress, but that hardly matters. [Credit: The Guardian]

Ira­ni­ans cel­e­brat­ed a deal to lift sanc­tions against their nation. The agree­ment is less pop­u­lar in the U.S. Con­gress, but that hard­ly mat­ters. [Cred­it: The Guardian]

Three thou­sand years have passed since a shep­herd-turned-war hero-turned-ter­ror­ist-turned-king cap­tured an obscure city sit­u­at­ed on a hill 34 miles inland from the Mediterranean.

David, Israel’s sec­ond king, would estab­lish his cap­i­tal in that city whose name is every bit as inapt as Philadel­phia (city of broth­er­ly love) or Los Ange­les (city of angels). Jerusalem, David’s cho­sen cap­i­tal, means “city of peace.”

It has more often been a city of con­tention, war and strife.  The rever­ber­a­tions from that ongo­ing dis­cord reached the Supreme Court last month in a case that car­ries impli­ca­tions for whether the U.S. will con­tin­ue to be gov­erned as a Repub­lic or ruled by a king. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Iran Nuclear Agreement: Disagreeing Over How To Disagree

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Secretary of State John Kerry shook hands with Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Sharif on a nuclear agreement earlier this month. But the two don't agree on what they agreed to. [Credit:vocfm.com]

Sec­re­tary of State John Ker­ry shook hands with Iran For­eign Min­is­ter Moham­mad Javad Sharif on a nuclear agree­ment ear­li­er this month. But the two don’t agree on what they agreed to. [Credit:vocfm.com]

The par­ties to the Iran nuclear agree­ment don’t agree on what they agreed to.  Con­gress is strug­gling to agree on how to express its dis­agree­ment with the agreement.

Such is the debased state into which U.S. for­eign pol­i­cy and con­sti­tu­tion­al gov­er­nance have descend­ed. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Iran Nuclear Deal and the Price of Raising False Hopes

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US Secretary of State John Kerry shares a moment with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammed Javad Zarif, after concluding an agreement for relaxed sanctions and renewed talks. [Credit: BBC]

US Sec­re­tary of State John Ker­ry shares a moment with his Iran­ian coun­ter­part, Mohammed Javad Zarif, after con­clud­ing an agree­ment for relaxed sanc­tions and renewed talks. [Cred­it: BBC]

Iran, World Pow­ers Reach His­toric Nuclear Deal. – Wash­ing­ton Post 

“What was agreed last night in Gene­va is not a his­toric agree­ment, it is a his­toric mis­take.” — Israeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu

The irre­sistible ten­den­cy of gov­ern­ment to over­sell its achieve­ments was on dis­play in this past weekend’s announce­ments of an agree­ment between Iran and the so-called G5+1 – the five per­ma­nent mem­bers of the UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil and Germany.

News out­lets the world over her­ald­ed the Iran nuclear deal as “his­toric.”  Its crit­ics called it his­toric fol­ly.  Review­ing the agree­ment, it appears that both sides are exag­ger­at­ing. It nei­ther sets back Iran’s capac­i­ty to devel­op nuclear weapons nor facil­i­tates their devel­op­ment. Con­tin­ue read­ing →