Third, trying to derail an Iranian agreement is a nakedly political goal, since no matter how many treaties Iran signs, there is almost no chance that they will abide by them. If a treaty is all it would take to stop Iran from having nuclear weapons, then we are in luck! Iran signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1970. Since then, Iran has declared that enriching uranium is perfectly acceptable under the treaty, despite being asked by the United Nations, in 2006, to stop doing that. That was seven years ago. Are we really to believe Iran has stopped its march toward a nuke? Of course not. Obama believes in the power of his personality, but he’s dealing with a government that will lie to continue its quest for nuclear weapons. Much like President Carter was caught off guard that the Soviet Union’s Leonid Brezhnev lied to him about invading Afghanistan, it would be a sad day for America to be similarly surprised to hear that Iran does indeed have the weapons we are relying on signed papers to stop.
Fourth, as a strictly political move, it is an extraordinarily poorly timed one. The news this week is dominated by Hillary Clinton, by all accounts not only the Democratic front-runner for president in 2016 but in many minds the only-runner, using a private email account for State Department correspondence. Republican candidates, who complain, rightly, about how the media treats them have the opportunity to sit back and watch. Instead, those in the Senate like Rand Paul are being called traitors and those outside Congress will be made to answer for their fellow Republicans. For what? For getting the word out to Iran that their treaty with Obama may not hold? So foolish.
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