Sanctions
One topic I am thinking about is the farcical kabuki dance surrounding the Iran sanctions regime. T^he lawmakesr pretend that they are going to be tough about the sanctions. Obama pretends that he will be tough about the sanctions. But in fact we effectively released them more than a year ago.
The sanctions had worked - they had brought Iran to the negotiating table, hat in hand. But Obama, eager for any sort of deal, is evidently the world’s most dangerous weak negotiator. He is aided in this by John Kerry, the only Senator to have been censured by the Senate for cutting deals with the Communists. But he had a track record of cutting deals with Communists long before; he helped negotiate our utter loss in Viet Nam, our leaving our prisoners of war in Viet Nam to die (working with John McCain on this) and our losses of influence in increasingly communist Latin America.
By Obama pretending to be tough about sanctions, here’s what I mean. Obama said a few days ago:
I updated Prime Minister Renzi on the framework that we reached with Iran, our progress towards a comprehensive deal that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and we agreed that until any final deal is reached, sanctions on Iran must continue to be fully and strictly enforced.
With this statement in your mind, be aware that Obama is quietly funding Iran’s nuclear efforts and terrorism support to the tune of a billion dollars per month or more, and gave them more than $10 billion last year. He expects to match that number again ($11.9b this year) before a deal is reached in June, so that even if there is no deal, Iran will still have those billions to create weapons and fund people desirous of destroying the US and Israel. Last year was the biggest one-year boost to Iran’s economy in its jihadist history. Here are some numbers on the money given by Obama’s administration from exactly one year ago and currently.
Iran is, with Obama’s support and funding:
- Increasing its nuclear capabilities
- Increasing its missile capabilities including intercontinental ballistic missiles that have no other purpose but to carry nuclear warheads to the US
- Increasing its attacks on its neighbors
- Increasing its controlled areas by conquering those neighbors, with several successes so far
- Increasing the import of advanced arms technology from Russia, North Korea and Pakistan
- Increasing its funding of terrorists. It was already the largest terrorist funder on the planet
- Increasing its shipments of arms to terrorists
- Increasing its training of terrorists, including with trainers on-site in their foreign terrorism campaigns
- Increasing its killing of political prisoners
- Increasing its killing of gays and lesbians and other sinners under Sharia law
- Increasing its killing of religious minorities - they really don’t like the Baha’i faith that originated there
- Increasing its output of oil under an already-collapsed sanctions scheme that increased their economy by half last year
- Maintaining US citizens in miserable captivity under false pretenses
- Gaining new concessions in every contact with the US in the P5+1 negotiations
- Growing its economy by leaps and bounds as Europe and Asia ink new trade deals with Iran
- Leveraging every billion dollars from the US approximately 3 to 1
- Increasing its deadly rhetoric against the US and Israel
- Openly and mockingly defying Obama and the US at every stage
They are walking all over the West using Obama as a floor mat. They got Obama to agree to give Iran an additional $50 billion in June as a signing b0nus, but he cannot apply any new terms and conditions. Obama’s deal will not:
- Insist that Iran recognize the legitimacy of Israel
- Insist that Iran recognize the legitimacy of the US
- Release US hostages currently held
- Stop its “Death to America” rhetoric
- Require that Iran allow inspections of its existing nuclear facilities
- Require that Iran allow inspections of any facility in the future
- Require that Iran shut down its enrichment activities
- Require that Iran stop its support of terrorism
- Require that Iran stop its attacks on other countries in the region
- Require that Iran stop its persecution of political prisoners and religious minorities
Obama, clearly, wants a deal. Any deal. Most of the Obama/Kerry sales pitch is directed against our partners, to force them to go along with the ever-weakening deal Obama is going to allow.
Can Obama be doing all of this merely to secure a legacy of having been “the president who cut a deal with Iran”? It will be a day that we will rue all too soon, and many do in advance.
Including me.
===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle
Originally published at DeHavelle.com. You can comment here or there.