I’ve been a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for 19 years now. Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry testified before the committee – in support of the Obama Administration’s deal with Iran. Yes, Russia, China, Germany, Great Britain and France officially support it too. But make no mistake about it, the Obama Administration has wanted a deal, any deal, with Iran for years now. And they’re the ones pushing this, along with the mullahs of Iran, who are ecstatic about it.
Secretary Kerry began his testimony by saying he wanted to “clear up” any misunderstandings about the deal. Then, in my opinion, the Secretary proceeded to muddy up the waters even more, and completely failed to make the case as to why signing this deal with Iran is in the United States’ best interest.
In case you were wondering, after a witness testifies before a congressional committee, each member of the committee gets 5 minutes to question the witness, alternating back and forth between Republican and Democratic Members of Congress. Here are the questions I asked John Kerry during my allotted 5 minutes:
This Administration, the President specifically, called ISIS the JV team. That clearly wasn’t true. This Administration cited Yemen as the model approach for U.S. counter terrorism. That was shortly before Yemen’s near total collapse into chaos. So that wasn’t true either. President Obama declared Al-Qaeda to be decimated, on the run, broken apart, on their heels, and very weak. Those are all quotes by the way. That may be wishful thinking, but it’s not true. Why should the American people trust you now on this deal?
Sticking with the theme of trust, let me ask you this. Relative to anywhere, anytime inspections, you said and I quote, “this is a term that honestly, I never heard in the four years that we were negotiating.” But in fact in April of this year, Deputy Secretary Advisor Ben Rhodes had said that the International Atomic Energy Agency would have immediate access – immediate access – to any site the agency wanted to inspect. “Immediate” sure sounds like anytime to me. Also in April, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said “we expect to have anywhere, anytime access…to places that are suspected of out-of-bounds activities.” There’s that anywhere anytime again. So again, why should the American people trust what they’re being told by this Administration about this deal?
If this is such a good deal, why is Israel so opposed to it?
If you’d like to see my questions, and Secretary Kerry’s responses to those questions, you view a video here. It got a bit, shall we say, confrontational. I’ll let you decide which of the two of us got the better of the exchange. (I doubt I’ll be getting a Christmas card from the Secretary this year.)
The bottom line is, I continue to have the same concerns about this deal as I did since I first read it.
- There are no anytime, anywhere inspections to determine whether Iran is cheating (and we know they will.)
- The deal leaves our allies in the region, especially Israel, more vulnerable to Iran then they are now.
- The deal leaves US more vulnerable than we are now, because the arms and ICBM embargo is lifted, allowing Iran to acquire sophisticated Russian ICBM technology, and thus put American cities, including Cincinnati, vulnerable to a nuclear attack.
- Iran gets up to $150 billion as a result of lifting existing sanctions, and since Iran is the chief supporter of terrorism around the globe, there’s no question that terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Quds Force will be better funded, and even more dangerous.
- Iran’s neighbors Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and the Gulf states, who do not currently have nuclear weapons, will likely feel the need to develop their own nuclear programs, leading to a far more dangerous region, and world.
- Rather than actually getting rid of Iran’s nuclear program, they are permitted under the deal to retain a vast nuclear enrichment capacity, which will allow them to obtain a nuclear bomb, and then bombs, in unacceptably short order.
- Despite the Obama Administration’s claims that they will easily be able to “snap back” sanctions if (when) Iran violates the deal, this is pure fantasy. Once the sanctions are lifted, it will be virtually impossible to get agreement with Russia and China to re-impose them.
- Within hours of announcing the deal with Iran, its leaders were in the streets with their radical followers chanting “death to America.” Surprise, surprise.
- And most importantly, you can’t trust Iran.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. By the way, I had a telephone town hall meeting with a cross section of people who live in our congressional district recently. During that call, I asked the question “do you support, oppose, or are undecided about the deal with Iran?” Of those who voted, only 18% supported the deal, 64% opposed it, and 18% were undecided.
Let me know what you think.