Iran Deal Highlights Obama's Weakness and Fear as President

"We have suffered a total and unmitigated defeat ... you will find that in a period of time which may be measured by years, but may be measured by months, Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the Nazi régime. We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude ... we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road ... we have passed an awful milestone in our history, when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged, and that the terrible words have for the time being been pronounced against the Western democracies: "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting". And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martia vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time." ~~~~~ This was the speech of Winston Churchill, still a member of the opposition, in the House of Commons after the Chamberlain agreement with Hitler, the Munich Agreement that ceded effective control of Czechoslovakia to Germany in 1938 and was seen by Hitler as the assurance he sought that the European powers would not interfere with his land grab accross central Europe. It led directly to the September 1, 1939, Nazi invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War Ii. ~~~~~ John Bolton, former American UN Ambassador, wrote in the Weekly Standard last Sunday that "the Obama administration feared an Israeli airstrike on Iran more than it feared Iran building a nuclear weapon, and that's why it pushed for a deal to reduce sanctions against Iran....Buying time for its own sake makes sense in some negotiating contexts, but the sub silentio objective here was to jerry-rig yet another argument to wield against Israel and its fateful decision whether or not to strike Iran,...Obama, fearing that strike more than an Iranian nuclear weapon, clearly needed greater international pressure on Jerusalem." Bolton wrote that he believes Israel knows it was the target of the Geneva negotiations that produced the deal early Sunday morning. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deal a "historic mistake." Israel has repeatedly warned that Iran's nuclear goal is to obliterate the Jewish state and he has vowed to take action to prevent that from happening, as it has done by eliminating earlier nuclear programs in Iraq and Iran. Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel has the right to act in its own defense : "The Iranian regime is committed to Israel’s destruction, and Israel has the right to defend itself, by itself," Netanyahu recently told his cabinet. "Israel won’t let Iran develop military nuclear capability." And, along with most observers, Bolton is certain that Iran will continue to move forward with its nuclear program in the shadows while the agreement signed Sunday is in effect. If Israel waits, according to Bolton, it will be more difficult to take effective action. "An Israeli strike during the six-month deal would doubtless spark outrage, but it would spark the same condemnation - if not more - later." He urged the Netanyahu government to not fall prey to "the psychological warfare successfully waged so far by the ayatollahs....An Israeli military strike is the only way to avoid Teheran’s otherwise inevitable march to nuclear weapons, and the proliferation that will surely follow," Bolton wrote. ~~~~~ Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra is in almost total agreement with John Bolton, but stops short of calling for an Israeli air strike against Iran. Hoekstra told Newsmax late Saturday to "count me as a huge skeptic" of the deal in which Iran would receive $4.2 billion (n.b.: the real figure looks more like $12-20 billion) and limited sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program."This president hasn't developed the trust in his foreign policy judgment over the past five years," Hoekstra said in an exclusive Newsmax interview. "He's got a Middle East policy that is in tatters. All we have to show for this agreement is that two of our staunchest allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, are very skeptical of it. They're wondering where the United States is heading when they've got an agreement with Iran. They may or may not abide by the limitations on their nuclear program, but they're getting immediate relief of sanctions," Hoekstra said of Iran. "They'll continue to fight us in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan." The Iranian undertakings are not enough for Hoekstra, who served eight terms in the House of Representatives and chaired the Intelligence Committee from 2004 to 2007. "They’re getting a break beginning right now - and they've got a plan to start moving money around, getting essential materials into their country that are going to alleviate some of the problems they've had with sanctions. That's going to prop up the regime. Then, the question becomes : 'When do we get access to their nuclear programs? When do we get access to make sure we're stopping their program, or that they have stopped them?'" Hoekstra added : "This administration has a habit of immediately claiming victory instead of saying, 'Let's see where we are in 12 months.' They claimed victory in Egypt. It was disastrous. They claimed victory in Libya. It's been disastrous. They claimed victory in Iraq, and Iraq has not been good. They claimed success with Obamacare when they passed it. It's been disastrous. It's too early to claim success. Let's see where we are in 12 months," Hoekstra said."This strength of the hand of Iran weakens our position in the region." ~~~~~ Dear readers, these are not the lightweight voices of TV analysts. They are the voices of men experienced in dipomacy and intelligence matters at the highest levels. They would have stood with Churchill in 1938. They have had to deal with Iranian treachery in real time, not as President Obama, a junior Senator who was elected President because of innocuous words and a charming demeanor. The world has been accumulating evidence of the folly of America's choice for five years - through Libya and Benghazi and Egypt and Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan -- all sadly mismanaged by Obama. But the prior errors in judgment were in places and over issues that, while heart-wrenching, were not in and of themselves critical. BUT they did teach Iran, always a country to be the first to find chinks in the world's armor. Obama has taught Iran, as Chamberlain taught Hitler, that he is weak and fears conflict and war. Perhaps the pro-shiite pattern in Obama's prior decisions also taught Iran that he would finally deal with their shiite regime and favor them. Iran has been proven right in the short term. It is now time for the world to come together to prevent another Obama catastrophe, this time one that could lead to a nuclear World War III. For there is something worse than fear. That something is loss of liberty and defeat by a religious fanaticism that leads to enslavement. As Churchill so magnificently put it : "The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end there it is...Never, never, never give up."