The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
Through the misuse of terrorist buddies, that old, old civilization that is today called Iran is out to make itself something new, the leader of the world, and is taking an early step through the attempted destruction of Israel. This could be a major goal-enhancing accomplishment, but understand that it is hardly the beginning of a destructive Iranian march helped considerably by Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Iran has been an inhumane horror for a long time, once taking lots of Americans hostage for the sake of retaliation and cruelty and, in order to rule the Middle East and more, has been doing groundwork for nuclear weapons. An incautiously expressed, overriding vision has been and is to wipe out the United States and take over the world someday, a destiny deemed to be divinely promised.
Hold on, said a bunch of Western nations with sanctions to stymie Iran’s wealth accumulations and dirty deeds for a number of years and simultaneously deter the nuclear march to mass destruction of so many of the rest of us. Ah, but, go ahead Iran, Obama as much as said. He bowed his head humbly, got rid of largely effective sanctions and tried to infuse Iran with a more peaceful temperament through something called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
It was pretty much a do-nothing concoction produced by Iranian leaders negotiating with a panel that included representatives of two non-democratic nations, Iranian pals China and Russia. Informally called the Iran deal, it should have been a treaty requiring an impossible two-thirds vote in the Senate instead of just one-third that Obama oppressively proclaimed sufficient.
Iran’s leadership didn’t think it had given up much of anything, and it hadn’t, others testify convincingly. Despite initial demands, it could keep using nuclear energy and give hugs to new technology while retaining the means of enriching uranium that could someday give nuclear weaponry a chance. While the United Nations wanted a ban on ballistic missile testing, the United States and its cohorts did nothing much to slow anything down and the results today are absolutely incredible missiles, capable of toting A-bombs and maybe someday astounding enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Inspections were disallowed in Iran’s military bases thanks to votes by China and Russia that have also supplied Iran with weapons.
But, listen, said confident Obama, here is $150 billion of your now unfrozen assets to better help suffering Iranians. In many cases, large groups did not applaud their governmental bosses who gave much of the money to fanatical factions enhancing Iran’s evil power by terrorizing its opponents.
Well, said the president who came after Obama, the well-known Donald Trump, he could scrap this deal that wasn’t working and wasn’t an untouchable treaty. And he did just that while restoring U.S. sanctions making Iran less able to menace everyone else and creating a program in which Arab nations established new, better relations with Israel.
Iran was frustrated but rescued when Vice President Joe Biden became President Joe Biden, got rid of the sanctions and would have restored the deal if Iran had agreed. It was too busy with money enabling explosive malice, and finally Biden began to restore some of the sanctions, more than a bit late given how Iran sufficiently financed Hamas villains visiting Israel on Oct. 7 and starting a war through a festival of grotesque rape and murder.
The theme of this story should be apparent, namely that strength can prevent war and weakness can invite war, that good intentions minus analysis often give us bad results, that progressives time and again produce regression and that America had better start doing a better job of electing presidents.
That’s not the same as saying vote for Trump, whose own mistakes are easy enough to find. But thinking that Biden is the least bit competent is to be as forgetful as he is. Right now, my inclination is Nikki Haley, who beats Biden in a recent poll while Trump loses.
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