OPINION:
Americans reasonably expect their president to treat himself to an occasional session of introspection, to give himself a grade on whether he’s living up to his oath to protect and defend the nation — to ask himself whether he has done anything wrong and if so, how to correct it. Alas, does anyone think it occurs to Barack Obama that he has ever done anything wrong?
Indeed, he may be the only man in America who is enthusiastic about the deal he appears to be making with Iran. No one knows exactly what he may be about to agree to; we’re supposed to take it on trust, without verification. He wants everybody to embrace the deal, whatever it is, and stand up and cheer. Another Nobel Prize should be forthcoming. Disillusioned Democrats, in a panic about the decline and imminent fall of Hillary Clinton, may be inspired to draft John Kerry for another run for president. Dreams die hard in this White House.
Absent something from the president, the rest of us can only read what the other side is saying about the deal and try to figure out from that what mischief may be afoot. The Islamic government in Iran appears to think events are running its way, that it can get a deal to enable it to buy time and space in its relentless pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
If Richard Nixon was derided as the man you wouldn’t buy a used car from, surely President Obama is the man who wants a car so badly that he will take anything on the lot, even one with neither engine nor transmission. A good wash-and-wax job is enough. Both Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, his puppet, continued to mock American aspirations for a deal, and last week offered remarkable claims of what the deal cannot be.
He won’t say he’s for or against the deal Messrs. Obama and Kerry are so proud of, but the ayatollah says there can’t be close inspections by outsiders and the sanctions must be lifted the day an agreement is signed. “There must be no “extraordinary supervision measures,” he says, and “Iran’s military sites cannot be inspected under the excuse of nuclear supervision.” In separate remarks on Iran’s National Day of Nuclear Technology, Mr. Rouhani said Iran “will not sign any agreement unless all economic sanctions are totally lifted on the first day of the implementation of the deal.”
This is not reassuring to Americans, who were told that “inspections first,” and then lifting the sanctions, were fundamental to American interests. Not to worry, says the ayatollah, because Iran has no intention of building nuclear weapons, because they are forbidden by Islam. This is the least persuasive assurance of all.
The record of negotiations with Iran is not encouraging. Beginning with President Clinton, America’s stated policy was to prevent Iran from joining the nuclear club. That assurance continued under President George W. Bush and into the first months of the Obama administration. But then Mr. Obama retreated from blocking Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Requiring Iran to give sufficient warning to enable America and the West to react to an Islamic bomb would be assurance enough.
House Speaker John Boehner, just back from visiting Israel, says “it would be naive to suggest the Iranian regime will not continue to use its nuclear program, and any economic relief, to further destabilize the region.” This is hard truth that the president and his administration ignores willfully.
Congress has a responsibility to determine when — and whether — sanctions can be lifted. Congress must do what it takes to first find out what the president intends to agree to. The president must not be allowed to make an end run around Congress for “ratification” by the United Nations. Congress can be cut out of these crucial deliberations only if it allows it. The chairmen of the relevant congressional committees, beginning with foreign affairs and national defense, must announce immediately that hearings will be held at once, and Secretary Kerry deposed under oath to find out what the agreement says. There’s too much riding on this deal to allow it to remain a secret. President Obama may not want to examine his performance, but if he won’t, Congress must.
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