Obama, Kerry capitulation to Iran condemned by just about everybody

How do you change the subject when your signature legislative "achievement" is blowing up in your face and proving to be a disaster for the nation? I guess there's only one way, and that's to perpetrate a foreign policy mistake that could prove to be an even bigger disaster.

Leave it to the Obama Administration, which is pretty excited about an agreement with Iran that has our biggest Middle East ally enraged and defiant, and clear-thinking national security types condemning it as one of the biggest diplomatic mistakes the U.S. has ever made. We'll start with Daniel Pipes, who is president of the Middle East Forum, writing for National Review:

This wretched deal offers one of those rare occasions when comparison with Neville Chamberlain in Munich in 1938 is valid. An overeager Western government, blind to the evil cunning of the regime it so much wants to work with, appeases it with concessions that will come back to haunt it. Geneva and November 24 will be remembered along with Munich and September 29. Barack Obama has made many foreign-policy errors in the past five years, but this is the first to rank as a disaster. Along with the health-care law, it is one of his worst-ever steps. John Kerry is a too-eager puppy looking for a deal at any price.

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With the U.S. government forfeiting its leadership role, the Israelis, Saudis, and perhaps others are left to cope with a bad situation made worse. War has now become a much more likely prospect. Shame on us Americans for reelecting Barack Obama. What is so bad about the deal is that it really does nothing to stop Iran from doing anything it wants to do. It calls for the "suspension" or uranium enrichment for six months, in exchange for the lifting of a whole host of economic sanctions. The Iranians do not have to dismantle any of their nuclear facilities and there is nothing forcing them to stick to the deal after the six-month suspension, or even before it expires if they don't want to. Congressman Mike Rogers, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, says by granting Iran the sanctions relief it has desperately seeking, we gave away the only real bargaining chip we had:

We have just rewarded very bad and dangerous behavior. So think about what this agreement does. It says you can continue to enrich - that's what the Iranians believe - and they have made no changes, no changes in the development of their nuclear weapon program. I can tell that you with a high degree of certainty. So here is the leading nation state of terror who tried to commit a political assassination right here in Washington, D.C., as they believe contributed to the deaths of hundreds of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, who continues to be the main driver between the incredible brutality that's happening in Syria, very active around the world with other political assassination attempts. And what have we done? We’ve taken away the one thing - we've given them just enough breathing room - the one thing that brought them to the table. What’s worried about that is bipartisan opposition in Congress, very strong bipartisan opposition to the deal. Our Arab League partners don't like the deal. Israel doesn't like the deal. And we may, we may have just encouraged more violence in the future than we have stopped. That's why I hope we reconsider where we're at, and certainly in six months.

To say Israel doesn't like the deal is an understatement, and ironically that may be the only real good news here. Benjamin Netanyahu is not some delusional Labor Party dreamer who puts his faith in pieces of paper. He is committed to Israel's security and has made it clear that military action against Iran is very much on the table for the Israelis, no matter what nonsense Obama and Kerry agree to:

Netanyahu told his Cabinet that Sunday's deal gave Iran much-needed relief from the sanctions, but left most of Iran's nuclear infrastructure intact. In particular, he cited Iran's continued ability to enrich uranium, a key step in making a nuclear bomb. "What was reached last night in Geneva is not a historic agreement, it is a historic mistake," Netanyahu said. "Today the world became a much more dangerous place because the most dangerous regime in the world made a significant step in obtaining the most dangerous weapons in the world." Voicing what he called Israel's right to self-defense, he said, "I want to clarify that Israel will not let Iran develop nuclear military capability." Earlier, Netanyahu's Cabinet minister for intelligence issues, Yuval Steinitz, said the deal was based on "Iranian deception and (international) self-delusion."

This is why the American electorate needs to takes its decisions more seriously, and never again put a person in the Oval Office because he displays oratorical skills or represents some sort of historical symbolism. Both Obama and Kerry are classic left-wing appeasers who value signatures on pieces of paper more than they value the strategic interests of the United States. They are naive about evil, and embrace the nutty moral equivlance notions that see America as no better or worse than despotic regimes around the world. Worse, when they find themselves in a political fix at home, they see a potential solution in announcing a "diplomatic triumph" that is actually no triumph at all, but can be made to sound like one if the media are pliable enough and the public is not really paying that much attention. You might remember Kerry arrogantly lecturing George W. Bush during the 2004 presidential debates, suggesting that he, Kerry, possessed the sort of sophistication and savvy that would allow him to persuade all kinds of world leaders to do what America wanted. In truth, Kerry possesses typical left-wing insticts that desire a deal at all costs, even when the deal gives away too much in exchange for too little, and isn't even guaranteed to really go into effect as announced. Yeah, he can get the piece of paper. It's just that it's worthless at best and most likely detrimental to the interests of the United States. But he can wave it around and pat himself on the back! The best thing that could happen here would be for the whole thing to come apart in six months, lest the world embrace the delusion that anything has really changed. Iran will not give up its nuclear ambitions unless it fears unacceptable consequences, and it will feel no such fear as long as U.S. foreign policy is being made by fools like Barack Obama and John Kerry.