In last night’s US Vice presidential debate, Tim Kaine repeatedly touted the Iran deal as an example of the “success” of Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy – arguing that it stopped Iran’s nuclear ambitions without firing a single shot. He even went a step further by making a wild claim that came straight out of the twilight zone – i.e. falsely asserting that Israel supports the Iran deal.
The opponents of the Iran deal have thoroughly debunked the ludicrous spin of the Obama administration and the Clinton campaign. Mike Pence did a good job of it at last night’s debate where he pointed out that “…the deal guarantees that Iran will someday become a nuclear power because there’s no limitations once the period time of the treaty comes off.”
In addition, this modern-day Munich agreement did not just provoke a nuclear arms race in the Middle East – where Egypt and the Gulf nations are all rushing to acquire nuclear weapons – but is appearing to provoke something far more sinister and worse – Word War III with Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made this clear when he addressed the media at the St Petersburg international economic forum in June. At first, Putin hailed the Iran nuclear agreement as one of Obama’s foreign policy “achievements” but then used that as a casus belli for waging a “defensive” war against the US and NATO. In the process Putin made a logical argument – the US installed missiles in Romania and claimed that these missiles were to be used as part of a defensive missile shield against Iran. However, Putin then went on to rhetorically ask how the US could justify this “defensive shield” in the aftermath of concluding a “successful” nuclear treaty with Iran? Exactly what “threat” was the US defending itself from by deploying an anti-missile shield on Russia’s doorstep? An anti-missile shield that could easily be used and converted for offensive purposes – launching missiles with nuclear war heads on Russia’s doorstep. After singling out the Iran deal and the anti-missile shield in Romania, Putin then went on to warn that the world was in grave danger and justified Russia’s subsequent “defensive actions” (such as mass troop and missile mobilisation) against US and NATO aggression.
Putin’s speech seemed to have attracted no attention with the mainstream media. The same media who in the past had provided (in the words of an Obama official) an “echo chamber” for Obama and Clinton in touting the Iran deal now seem to be busy either “reporting” allegations that Trump called some b-grade celebrity fat 20 years ago or on gender neutral bathrooms.
Ironically, a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and Word War III with Russia has been triggered off by a US President and Secretary of State whose alleged life long ambition has been to bring about world-wide nuclear disarmament and peace. When Kaine repeatedly hailed the Iran nuclear accord as a major foreign policy “achievement” perhaps he was right? Perhaps the words like “achievement” and “success” have sinister Orwellian connotations? And if we employed this Orwellian double speak as a benchmark, then Kaine is absolutely right – from Clinton’s and Obama’s “success” in Benghazi, to their “success” in Syria, Iraq and the Ukraine – starting world War III with Russia might be their biggest “success” yet.
