[LA Times] President Champ has made an art form of attacking his opponents rather than substantively defending his own policies, most recently regarding the Vienna agreement on Iran's nuclear program. Essentially, Obama argues that we must either accept his wretched deal or go to war to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons..
As is typical, Champ posits the wrong choice, apparently to distract from the unpleasant reality that the agreement won't work. It will not prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. So the real choice we are faced with is dealing with the consequences of military action or the consequences of a nuclear Iran. Neither is palatable, but the latter is far worse. If the real objective is stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons, preemptive military action is now inescapable.
This rock-and-hard-place outcome has long been foreseeable. Iran's dogged determination to become a nuclear-weapons state was fiercer and stronger than the West's frail response. Assuming Iran scrupulously complies with every provision agreed to in Vienna -- an absurdly unlikely scenario given the ayatollahs' objectives and history -- its ambitions for nuclear weapons will simply have been delayed eight to 10 years.
In all likelihood, the ayatollahs are already at work violating the accords. After all, Iran has systematically breached its voluntarily-assumed obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for more than 30 years. Now the president's deal will allow Iran to keep the fruits of its violations. Yes, the deal includes restrictions on uranium enrichment, but Tehran can retain its enrichment program, with guaranteed international assistance in improving it. These concessions are fatal mistakes.
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