As Jeb Bush pushes torture as a feature, not a bug of his future presidency, his father’s former national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, is
telling Al-Monitor
that “To turn our back on [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or
JCPOA] would be an abdication of America’s unique role and
responsibility, incurring justified dismay among our allies and
friends.”
Jeb, infamously, could not decide whether the
invasion of Iraq was a feature or a bug of his brother’s junta.
He finally hemmed and hawed his way into acknowledging that, knowing
what we know now, it was a mistake. That didn’t stop him from saying the shrub, the man who brought the world to the brink of ruin in 2008, is
his most trusted adviser.
Maybe, while he’s taking a break from ordering
torture and launching nukes at Iran, Jeb can stare vacantly into space
while enemies launch terrorist attacks on our country. Or he and the shrub
can stare together. You know, a family thing.
Carl Levin and John Warner, two former senators, one a Democrat and the other a Republican,
published an op-ed at Politico arguing for the deal. These two senators have a lot of
experience in foreign affairs and their voices deserve to be listened
to.
They write,
We both were elected to
the Senate in 1978 and privileged to have served together on the Senate
Armed Services Committee for 30 years, during which we each held
committee leadership positions of chairman or ranking minority member.
We support the Iran Agreement negotiated by the United States and other
leading world powers for many reasons, including its limitations on
Iran’s nuclear activities, its strong inspections regime, and the
ability to quickly re-impose sanctions should Iran violate its
provisions.
However, they have a reason perhaps our collection
of chickenhawks might even understand if they could understand that the
military has value even when it is not being actively used:
“But we also see a compelling reason to support the
agreement that has gotten little attention: Rejecting it would weaken
the deterrent value of America’s military option.”
They point out that “it’s highly unlikely that our
traditional European allies, let alone China and Russia, would support
the use of the military option since we had undermined the diplomatic
path.” We would be effectively isolating ourselves from the allies we
would need in the event we felt military intervention necessary. The
senators are talking here about “access rights, logistics, intelligence,
and other critical support.”
Imagine that. We’re stronger with allies than
without. Even the shrub knew that, for all his devotion to cowboy diplomacy
and his asserted right to attack anybody who at any future date had a
chance of becoming a threat to the U.S.
It is difficult to admit, but there is ample reason
to believe our current crop of Republican leaders are even more myopic
than the shrub. The shrub understood – belatedly – that calling his Iran
War a holy crusade was maybe a little over the top. But Republicans
today, a decade later, positively relish the role of holy avengers,
smiting uppity islam in the name of their dog.
What is it the new testament says about the value of
allies? You only need one: “If dog is for us, who can be against us?” Oh yeah, and there was that thing the crusaders liked to
say while they were hammering their muslim foes: “Deus Vult!” dog wills
it!
These Republicans have a crusader’s knee-jerk
reaction to anything islamic and this hatred is fed by Darth Netanyahu
in Israel. It doesn’t matter that Netanyahu’s own military and
intelligence people disagree with his assessment of Iran. Netanyahu is trying to cover this up and Republicans are covering their ears.
Netanyahu is talking the language they like and
that’s all they’re going to listen to. Surprisingly, they’re not the
only ones listening, and
Gallup tells us that Obama gets “low marks for his handling of Iran.” Only one in three Americans approve.
And what isn’t a critical threat for Republicans?
They can’t accumulate enemies fast enough: Russia, Iran, ISIL, Ebola
(ISIL + Ebola), Mexicans (Mexicans + Drugs), Democrats, Women, Liberals,
Progessives, Blacks, Gays and Lesbians, Transgenders, Atheists. How do
these creepy old white people live in the world they have created for
themselves?
And how can we escape its consequences? You know, those of us who are sane?
The P5+1 agreement,
the JCPOA,
is a good deal. The only option Republicans have to offer is a war
nobody wants, a war that would only serve to isolate America (as did the
the shrub junta) from the world. No problem for chickenhawks.
Nobody is going to be shooting at them, after all.
Democrats, with one or two exceptions, back the president,
and that’s as should be. He, after all, is our president, not Benjamin
Netanyahu. It is a bug of Republican governance that they do not know
who is an American and who is not unless they are crossing the Southern
border. Then they are pretty quick to oppose anything foreigners want.
Republicans must realize they work for the American people, not for Benjamin Netanyahu, and that, as John Kerry put it, we don’t live in a world inhabited by Unicorns. Obama, forced to be the adult in the room yet again, recognizes this. Brent Snowcroft and others who support the Iran deal recognize this.
It is a shame congressional Republicans and sixteen
pretender candidates prefer a fantasy world of their own making to
our shared reality. The need to understand that peace isn’t just
something that happens if you fail to declare war. You have to work for
it. You have to give it a chance.
As Snowcroft points out, there is always the
military deterrent as a last resort. It doesn’t have to be the first
resort to work, and as we saw in Iraq, it doesn’t always work anyway.
!['Real Time' host Bill Maher tells a story on Aug. 14, 2015. [YouTube]](http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Real-Time-host-Bill-Maher-tells-a-story-478x257.jpg)
