Last week, Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, authored an op-ed announcing his opposition to the Iran Nuclear aggreement. In doing so, he placed himself in the line of fire of President Obama and his allies, including Minority Leader Harry Reid, who, in the words of one observer, were “breaking arms and legs” to ensure sufficient support to get the measure approved and veto proof. The President, disgracefully, had already compared principled opponents of the risky and irresponsible agreement—essentially the apotheosis of the President’s crippling phobia about projecting U.S. power abroad in the interests of peace when it might require threats backed by the willingness to carry them out. (We are seeing the devastating results of this leadership failure in Syria)—as the moral equivalent of terrorists. His allies in the news media had ignored all objectivity to marginalize Democratic opponants of the deal while tarring Republicans as warmongers, and effort that hit ethics rock bottom with the New York Times “Jew-Tracker” that implied that loyalty to a foreign government and faith, not consideration, analysis and principle, were behind opposition to the President’s scheme. Here is the Times graphic…
Nice.
Apparently it is unpatriotic to show any concern for the U.S.’s major ally in the Middle East, which, once the agreement was assured, Iran’s supreme leader vowed would be wiped off the map in 25 years.…you know, after Iran quickly builds a nuclear arsenal after Obama’s deal has run its course, if not before. The same day, it was revealed that Iran is deploying ground troops in support of Russian Troops in Syria. Hillary Clinton last week, bizarrely supported the Iran agreement by saying her approach to enforcing the deal would be “Distrust and verify,” as if the terms permitted sufficient verification, much less distrustful vigilance. It is a basic tenet of negotiation that one does not exchange promises with those one cannot trust. So far, we only know that we can trust Iran to kill people, as John Kerry’s letter to Congress quickly confirmed.
Most disturbing of all, to me, at least, was the crowing from the media and Democrats how this abomination is an “Obama victory,” though it is obviously a national defeat as well as an existential crisis for Israel. The news media has accepted Obama’s narcissist view of reality. If he gets what he wants, it’s a victory, no matter whether what he wants makes sense, or is in the best interests of the nation. That means that all the inevitable and deadly consequences that flow from this Munich sequel (at least one House member praised it as meaning “peace in our time”! ) will be part of that “victory.”
The United States, holding all the power and leverage, was rolled by Iran because it knew that our President would prefer to delay Armageddon than find the courage to prevent it. Victory!
Sen. Cardin had every reason to cave to his party and fist-pumping President except one: he has integrity.
Ethics Alarms 
I’m glad that Senator Cardin has the intestinal fortitude to stand up to Obama and Harry Reid on this issue. He is an Orthodox Jew, which is a good thing as he knows that he has to answer to a Higher Power. Betraying Isreal and the rest of the world by supporting this terrible deal would be betraying his own integrity.
Not to mention humanity in general. We should not overlook the fact that Neville Chamberlain’s “deal” cost the world 6 years of all-out war and untold millions of casualties, in a world WITHOUT nuclear weapons. God only knows what we have to look forward to with this decade’s Chamberlain, Barrack Obama.
Chamberlain, at least, meant well.
But wasn’t the administration’s “victory” already assured by the time Senator Cardin weighed in? If it was, not so much fortitude than a time honored political move, often in concert with the party leadership. I think had Cardin announced when the outcome was in doubt, it would have been more worthy of praise.
Agreed. Or he might have steeled the spine of other wavering Democrats, of which there were legion.
Wow! Talk about assholes! The Times presents that four column and row thing as if it’s science, and their readers no doubt eat it up like the bottom-feeding carp that they are.
The anti-Semitic streak running through that party is stunning, especially with how they’re always pointing out the “hatefulness” of others.
More especially given how many Jews are liberal Democrats.
Of course they’ll say they aren’t anti-semitic, only anti-Zionist, and if the Jews would just go home to Poland and Germany…
It’s such a bizarre lack of moral clarity. It’s like kicking Native Americans off a tiny reservation because Texas wants their land.
So Isaac, your point is Israelis are Nazis who treat Palestinians like they are Jews being pushed into ovens. Nice. Where does that get the discussion? The U.S. is supposed to be diverse but the Middle East is entitled to turn itself into an Islamic-Arab-Persian monolith because…?
I didn’t read isaac’s comment like that at all…
I think he was equating Israelis in Israel to the Indians on a tiny reservation being demanded to leave by a larger entity that doesn’t really need the land…
Not even close, Isaac, and a clear attempt to say “hey, look over there,” and “everyone does it.”
And just for the record, Texas has never kicked ANYBODY off of any reservation, tiny or otherwise, because the state wanted the land. Reservations are federally mandated, and federally defined. The state has NOTHING to say about it.
Well, Mirabeau Lamar, early in the Republic, did begin removals of Indians from lands that they’d peacefully occupied alongside Anglo & Tejano settlers for decades, though it wasn’t for the “state’s” desire for land it was certainly on behalf of the incoming flood of American settlers…of course a handful of militant Indians out of the lot of them made it easier to justify.
I don’t think that’s what Isaac meant.
I hope the Israelis bomb the shit out of Iran’s nuclear facilities before the Russians get a chance to install their anti-aircraft missiles in Iran. (You know, the systems they loaned to the Ukrainians so they could shoot down a Boeing 777 filled with people flying from Amsterdam to Malaysia.)
I know we focus on Israel here in the US but Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey are just as upset about the Iran deal as Tel Aviv.
Ironically Israel ‘ s relations with Egypt and Saudi Arabia are the best they have been in decades. So Obama hasn’t totally failed to bring people together.