It was not easy, and the negotiations went beyond several deadlines imposed, but it seems that the United States (and Western allies) have reached an agreement with Iran -- an agreement that hopefully will prevent Iran from making nuclear bombs (or at least delay that by 10 to 15 years).The agreement provides for IAEA inspections and substantially reduces Iran's stockpile of fissionable material (and centrifuges to produce that material). In return, the U.N. sanctions on Iran will be removed -- and if Iran abides by the agreement, the U.S. and Western sanctions will also be removed.
Of course, Republican heads are exploding all over Washington. That was to be expected though, since I don't think there was any kind of agreement that they would have approved of. For them, this is just another issue to play politics with and campaign on -- even though they don't have an alternative to offer.
The fact is that there are only two alternatives to this deal -- to do nothing or to go to war with Iran. Does anyone really think those are viable? This deal is not perfect, and few (if any) diplomatic efforts reach perfection. But it has a chance to work -- a pretty good chance. And that is much better than doing nothing at all, or going to war with Iran (a war that would make our failed excursions in Afghanistan and Iraq look like garden parties).
The GOP-controlled Congress is going to try and stop this agreement from being enforced -- and President Obama has promised to veto any effort to do stop the agreement. That means that both houses of Congress will need to gather a two-thirds vote to override the president's veto. The GOP will get some Democratic support, but hopefully not enough to stop the agreement from going into effect.
I think it would be silly not to give this deal a chance to work. If Iran cheats on it, we can always withdraw from it and then we would be back to the current situation. Let's keep our word, and give the Iranians a chance to keep theirs. There is a good chance the deal could work -- and we should take that chance.
(Note -- The image above was found in the comments section of Daily Kos.)
