The Calamity of Obama’s Iran Deal By Mitt Romney
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-calamity-of-obamas-iran-deal-1437608955
If the ayatollahs have a nuclear weapon, they will use it. Now they’re on the path to get one.
The generational calamity that will result from President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran will last a very long time indeed. This can be said with perfect confidence because of two undeniable facts.
First, Iran is led by suicidal, apocalypse-seeking, America-hating, Israel-denying theocratic fanatics. If these ayatollahs have nuclear weapons, they will use them, someday, somewhere. Iran is a major, longtime state sponsor of terrorism; its leaders are entirely bereft of restraint, decency and respect for human life.
Second, the Obama deal prescribes a pathway for Iran to develop nuclear weapons. The agreement’s defenders contend that it will delay Iran’s nuclear program by 10 to 15 years (about one half of a generation). Perhaps. But no one can say that the deal will prevent Iran from getting the bomb.
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President Obama once promised that he would eliminate economic sanctions on Iran only if Tehran eliminated its nuclear program. Then he caved. Iran keeps its Fordow nuclear facility (President Obama had said it existed solely to develop nuclear-weapon technology); Iran keeps centrifuges; Iran is permitted to construct new and advanced IR-6 and IR-8 centrifuges in eight years, and is authorized under the deal to reprocess spent nuclear fuel in 15 years. So let us be honest: The deal leaves Iran on the path to a nuclear weapon.
Yes, the path is technically 10 or 15 years long—unless Iran cheats. Like North Korea cheated. Like Russia cheated.
President Obama abandoned his insistence upon “anytime, anywhere” inspections. Now Iran will be given at least 24 days’ notice—possibly much more—before inspections of undeclared sites. That is plenty of time to move and hide nuclear technology and research operations, though perhaps not enough time to erase evidence of a major enrichment program. And even if inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency were able to definitively identify a violation, would the civilized world really be willing and able to “snap back” crippling sanctions on Iran?
In some ways, the deal may actually speed Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Lifting sanctions will provide a gusher of new oil revenues that can be used to finance nuclear research and development. The oil revenues will also strengthen Iran’s hand as it underwrites terrorism, regime change and sectarian mayhem throughout the Middle East.
Future generations of Americans will look back on the Obama years with considerably less enthusiasm than do his apologists today—the Iran nuclear deal will be added to a long list of “iniquities” the consequences of which were visited upon them.
These Americans will still be paying interest on the trillions of dollars of Obama debt; carrying the burdens of the millions of illegal immigrants he welcomed; agonizing over the scourge and human tragedy of generational poverty that this president refused to address; and lamenting the millions of children who grew into adulthood without a competitive education because he bowed to the teachers unions. But among all these iniquities, the Iran deal will stand out. Iran will be a nuclear monster.
Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, was the 2012 Republican nominee for president.
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