Waffling Obama—Friend of Enemies, Enemy of Friends

President Obama is proving himself to be completely unreliable as an ally of our friends in the Middle East and a good friend of our enemy, Iran. This “framework,” with its “snap back” on sanctions if Iran reneges on it promises is turning out to be the biggest diplomatic give-away in the record of U.S. foreign relations. President Obama has backpedaled on everything he has promised and demanded, e.g., he faded away on the mythical “red line” against chemical weapons use by the Iraq government. Now he is backpedaling on his promise to gradually phase out sanctions on Iran, even though that was one of his main demands for a deal with Iran. He is even backpedaling on his demand for unrestricted inspections of all nuclear sites in Iran. What’s left to the United States’ advantage?? Nothing. Iran has it all.

Under this deal with the West, Iran now will have a rather unrestricted path to development of an atomic bomb and an effective delivery system! WHAT A DEAL! There will also be no restrictions on Iran’s terror-spreading activities through their support of Hamas and Hezbollah. Their activities in Yemen also will not be restricted. Can we call this process “negotiation?”

This whole process will undoubtedly set off a nuclear race through several countries in the Middle East. I noticed in a recent interview with the Saudi ambassador, he refused to deny that the Saudi’s will work to get their own nuclear weapons.

We should not be surprised at all this, however, Democrats are famous for lousy foreign relations policies. Take for instance, the situation at the end of the Carter administration. At that time, Libya was bombing passenger planes over the Mediterranean. President Carter spent his time wringing hands over the situation and generally dithered around without a single effective move being made to correct the situation. President Reagan came into office, promptly ordered a bombing of a Libyan munitions plant, and the whole situation ended suddenly.

The leaders of Iran speak of the great Satan with white hot rhetoric; they proclaim, “Death to America” and such other statements. Our leaders assure us that that wordage is just meant to whip up enthusiasm and placate their more hostile political supporters. But I wonder…. I think they mean it. Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism. Iran bankrolls Hezbollah and Hamas, and it is a mortal enemy of Israel. Iran props up some of the most brutal leaders on the planet, including Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. They have repeatedly lied about their production of enriched uranium and reprocessed plutonium; and they have hidden all the facts they could about their nuclear activities from the International Atomic Energy Agency. They have reneged on their commitment to the Nonproliferation Treaty to which they have been signatories since 1970.

Our leaders in the administration continue to insist on dealing with the Iranians as if they are negotiating in good faith. I think our government should have the courage to believe the Iranians mean exactly what they say and act on that belief appropriately—they hate America and would like to destroy us, just as they despise Israel.