“Thanks, Tom Cotton. You Just Got Us a Hard-line Supreme Leader,” snipes the highly intelligent Mehdi Khalaji, writing in Politico Magazine.
In their controversial letter to “the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton and 46 other Republican senators suggested that even if Washington comes to a nuclear deal with President Obama, the next American president could decide to reject it, presumably if he (or she) were more of a hard-liner than Obama is.
But the next ayatollah who becomes supreme leader of Iran could do exactly the same thing—and many signs are that he is going to be more of a hard-liner. Ironically, opponents of a nuclear deal in Washington could well be contributing to this outcome by creating an atmosphere of mistrust in Tehran that only consolidates the power of the conservatives there.
Over at the Atlantic, the estimable Jeffrey Goldberg makes the same point. “Republicans May Have Undermined Their Own Cause Against Iran. The letter to Ayatollah Khamenei could provide an excuse to blame the U.S. if nuclear negotiations fail.”
Mehdi and Jeff are smart guys, and on actual policy I agree with them maybe 90 percent, but they don’t get it. They just don’t get it. The Republicans want the talks to fail. They want a hard-line leader in Tehran. They want an enemy. Tom Cotton Republicans regard foreign affairs as a video-game. The higher the stakes, the higher the excitement. We’re playing for world domination, motherfucker! Bombs away! No pussies need apply!
The Republicans unconsciously assume that the U.S. is all-powerful, that we can command our allies to do whatever we want and that, no matter how irrational our demands, there will be no “real world” consequences to our bluster, or even our bombs. Republicans would like to see the talks fail, would like to have a decade or so of ever-increasing U.S. harassment of Iran, culminating in a “surgical” bunker-buster strike or two that was “forced” upon us. They would literally be stunned if Iran ever retaliated in any manner whatsoever. They have no right! Because we are right and they are wrong! So they have no rights!
