Time is running out, Secretary of State John Kerry writes, in the June 30 Washington Post:
All along, these negotiations have been about a choice for Iran’s leaders. They can agree to the steps necessary to assure the world that their country’s nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful and not be used to build a weapon, or they can squander a historic opportunity to end Iran’s economic and diplomatic isolation and improve the lives of their people.
Diplomacy and leadership are marked by tough calls. This shouldn’t be one of them.
Gee, it almost seems like two years ago that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was warning Iran that “The window of opportunity will not be open forever.” Our never-ending obsession with the never-quite-existent nuclear weapons “capability” of Iran has passed well beyond self-parody.1 Meanwhile, over in Syria, President Obama, having once said that “Assad must go,” and having said something or other about his aversion to red lines, is now asking Congress for $500 million for an “arms for moderates” program that is sure to accomplish something sometime in the future, before time actually runs out.
U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East resembles nothing so much as a man caught in a forest of fun-house mirrors, forever crashing into his own image. We say that certain situations are intolerable, at the same time making it clear that if we have to tolerate them, we will. What is Secretary Kerry proposing to do if the Iranians won’t play ball? Bomb their nuclear facilities, with, you know, unbelievably small bombs? We know that won’t work. How about tactical nukes? We know that won’t happen. OK, how about boots on the ground? Well, the question answers itself.
So, surely, the “answer” will be more sanctions, involving more international arm-twisting, more economic deprivation of the Iranian people, inflicting suffering on the innocent with no end other than to demonstrate the fact that America means business. We’re so bad that we’ll let little kids starve to death, just for nothing!2
I’m sure John Kerry thinks he’s a compassionate man. Which means that he only says stupid things, and only does wicked deeds, with the very best intentions.
Afterwords
It’s convenient to blame all our Middle East follies on the Saudis and the Israelis, and trying to get a good night’s rest with those two imperious bedfellows is surely no cup of tea. But can’t a superpower say “no” once in a while?
- The Iranian capacity has been “imminent” for the past 20 years. In the meantime, North Korea has had the bomb (sort of) for the past 20 years, and has done absolutely nothing with it. ↩︎
- Secretary of State Madeline Albright once claimed that the death of 500,000 Iraqi children resulting from the imposition of U.S. sanctions on Iraq was somehow “worth it.” It is certainly “arguable” that Saddam Hussein could have made the impact of the sanctions less lethal to the common people of Iraq, but Albright didn’t even bother to make that claim. ↩︎
