Iran

Military Brass in U.S. and Israel who support P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran

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Iran-nuclear-deal-1024x576I have previously posted about the intelligence agencies officials, ambassadors and nuclear scientists who have all come out in support of the P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran.  Today the Washington Post reports about the U.S. military brass who support the agreement (and I include the Israeli military brass who support the agreement below). Dozens of retired generals, admirals back Iran nuclear deal:

Three dozen retired generals and admirals released an open letter Tuesday supporting the Iran nuclear deal and urging Congress to do the same.

Calling the agreement “the most effective means currently available to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” the letter said that gaining international support for military action against Iran, should that ever become necessary, “would only be possible if we have first given the diplomatic path a chance.”

Read the open letter by retired general and admirals

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World’s most knowledgeable experts in nuclear weapons and arms control back P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran

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The New York Times reported over the weekend that 29 U.S. Scientists Praise Iran Nuclear Deal in Letter to Obama:

Iran-nuclear-deal-1024x576Twenty-nine of the nation’s top scientists — including Nobel laureates, veteran makers of nuclear arms and former White House science advisers — wrote to President Obama on Saturday to praise the Iran deal, calling it innovative and stringent.

The letter, from some of the world’s most knowledgeable experts in the fields of nuclear weapons and arms control, arrives as Mr. Obama is lobbying Congress, the American public and the nation’s allies to support the agreement.

The two-page letter may give the White House arguments a boost after the blow Mr. Obama suffered on Thursday when Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, a Democrat and among the most influential Jewish voices in Congress, announced he would oppose the deal, which calls for Iran to curb its nuclear program and allow inspections in return for an end to international oil and financial sanctions.

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President Obama on Iran Deal: ‘The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy or some form of war’

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Invoking the memory of President John F. Kennedy, who in June of 1963 used his commencement address at American University to call on the Soviet Union to work with the United States to achieve a nuclear test ban treaty, President Kennedy’s “A Strategy of Peace” Speech, President Obama today returned to American University to give a speech in support of the P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran. Remarks by the President on the Iran Nuclear Deal:

KennedyAUFifty-two years ago, President Kennedy, at the height of the Cold War, addressed this same university on the subject of peace.  The Berlin Wall had just been built.  The Soviet Union had tested the most powerful weapons ever developed.  China was on the verge of acquiring a nuclear bomb.  Less than 20 years after the end of World War II, the prospect of nuclear war was all too real.  With all of the threats that we face today, it’s hard to appreciate how much more dangerous the world was at that time.

In light of these mounting threats, a number of strategists here in the United States argued that we had to take military action against the Soviets, to hasten what they saw as inevitable confrontation.  But the young President offered a different vision.  Strength, in his view, included powerful armed forces and a willingness to stand up for our values around the world.  But he rejected the prevailing attitude among some foreign policy circles that equated security with a perpetual war footing.  Instead, he promised strong, principled American leadership on behalf of what he called a “practical” and “attainable peace” — a peace “based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions — on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements.” 

Such wisdom would help guide our ship of state through some of the most perilous moments in human history.  With Kennedy at the helm, the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved peacefully.  Under Democratic and Republican Presidents, new agreements were forged — a Non-Proliferation Treaty that prohibited nations from acquiring nuclear weapons, while allowing them to access peaceful nuclear energy; the SALT and START Treaties which bound the United States and Soviet Union to cooperation on arms control.  Not every conflict was averted, but the world avoided nuclear catastrophe, and we created the time and the space to win the Cold War without firing a shot at the Soviets.

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Saletan: The GOP is ‘utterly unprepared to govern’

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William Saletan at Slate attended last week’s congressional hearings on the P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran so that you didn’t have to. He came away with this revelation: “The Iran hearings have shown how the Republican Party can no longer be trusted with the presidency.” Not Fit to Lead:

Iran-nuclear-deal-1024x576If Republicans win the White House next year, they’ll almost certainly control the entire federal government. Many of them, running for president or aspiring to leadership roles in Congress, are trying to block the nuclear deal with Iran. This would be a good time for these leaders to show that they’re ready for the responsibilities of national security and foreign policy. Instead, they’re showing the opposite. Over the past several days, congressional hearings on the deal have become a spectacle of dishonesty, incomprehension, and inability to cope with the challenges of a multilateral world.

When the hearings began more than a week ago, I was planning to write about the testimony of Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. But the more I watched, the more I saw that the danger in the room wasn’t coming from the deal or its administration proponents. It was coming from the interrogators. In challenging Kerry and Moniz, Republican senators and representatives offered no serious alternative. They misrepresented testimony, dismissed contrary evidence, and substituted vitriol for analysis. They seemed baffled by the idea of having to work and negotiate with other countries. I came away from the hearings dismayed by what the GOP has become in the Obama era. It seems utterly unprepared to govern.

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J Street: Listen to the the military and security experts here and in Israel who support the P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran

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J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami has an op-ed for the Washington Post’s The Outrage Machine column today, Opinion: The pro-Israel position is supporting the Iran nuclear deal:

Iran-nuclear-deal-1024x576In the two weeks since the Iranian nuclear agreement was reached, more attention has been focused on the politics surrounding the deal than on the merits of the agreement itself.

Much of the spotlight has been on the strong — even frantic — opposition of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the agreement marked “one of the darkest days in human history.”

The rush of Israeli politicians — and American-Jewish organizations to line up behind him — obscures the fact that a growing number of highly-respected Israeli voices and the majority of Jewish-Americans actually support the Iran deal.

In fact, in recent days, people like former Mossad Chief Efraim Halevy and former Shin Bet director Ami Ayalon have stepped forward to differ with the prime minister. That’s no easy task in the heated political environment of Israel. Netanyahu has been issuing dire warnings evoking the threat of a second Holocaust for years. Anyone who contradicts him risks being labeled as “weak on security.”

Perhaps, this explains why distinguished former top officials of the Israeli security services — whose service, knowledge and experience are unquestionable, have been the first to step forward in favor of the agreement. Their credentials also make their voices exceptionally important to this debate.

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