If Iran Already Has a Nuclear Bomb, Why the Obama Negotiating Charade? If Iran Doesn't Have a Bomb, Why Does Obama Want to Give It One?

Arriving in Tel Aviv Sunday evening, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said his goal is not to convince Israeli leaders to drop their opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, but instead to emphasize that the accord imposes no limits on what Washington can do to ensure the security of Israel and US Arab allies : "Our ability to carry out that strategy is unchanged." Carter told reporters aboard his plane en route to Tel Aviv : "Friends can disagree but we have decades of rock-solid cooperation with Israel." Carter added that the Obama administration reserves the right to use military force against Iran if necessary, although he said the nuclear deal is intended to preclude that by resolving the issue diplomatically. ~~~~~ Meanwhile, President Obama sent his nuclear agreement with Teheran to Congress on Sunday, at the same time that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged US lawmakers to reject the deal that he said would only feed an "Iranian terror machine." Netanyahu told US television Sunday political talk shows : "I think the right thing to do is merely not to go ahead with this deal....There are many things to be done to stop Iran's aggression and this deal is not one of them." Speaking to his cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu quoted the Iranian Supreme Keader Ayatollah Khamenei : "The Iranians are not even trying to hide the fact they will take advantage of the hundreds of billions they will receive via the agreement to arm their terror machine....And they say explicitly they will continue their struggle against the United States and its allies, Israel of course above all." ~~~~~ If Congress says 'No' to the deal, it will require a 2/3 vote in both the House and Senate to override the expected Obama veto, so the Obama administration is working to win over enough of Obama's fellow Democrats to offset strong Republican opposition. In a rare gesture, Obama took three Democratic congressman golfing with him : Joe Courtney of Connecticut, Ed Perlmutter of Colorado and John Yarmuth of Kentucky. The President more often takes aides and friends for weekend golfing. Obama has stressed that taking the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon off the table increases the security of Israel, the United States and its allies. US officials have also signaled they are not changing a longstanding US defense strategy that is underpinned by the threat of a hostile Iran. Carter said Sunday : "Neither the deal nor everything else we're doing to advance our military strategy in the region assumes anything about Iranian behavior. There’s nothing in those 100 pages that places any limitations on the United States or what it does to defend...its friends and allies, including Israel." ~~~~~ Carter's assurances to Israel about defense cooperation have long been backed up by US actions. The US has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the Israeli air defense system known as Iron Dome, designed to shoot down short-range rockets, mortars and artillery shells fired into northern Israel from southern Lebanon and into Israel's south from the Gaza Strip. The US has worked with Israel on anti-missile systems and a wide range of other defenses. Two years ago the Pentagon committed to providing advanced radars for Israel's fleet of fighter jets and KC-135 refueling aircraft, and making Israel the first country to buy the V-22 Osprey hybrid airplane-helicopter. And the Pentagon has suggested that the $3 billion annual defense budget for Israel will increase following the Iran deal. ~~~~~ On Sunday, Carter was welcomed by his Israeli counterpart. Today, the American defense chief is meeting at Israel's defense headquarters with Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who thanked Carter for his contributions to Israeli security and said Israel appreciates its friendship with the US. Tomorrow, Carter will meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Carter will also visit Jordan and Saudi Arabia, both of which regard the prospect of increasing Iranian influence in the region with great suspicion. ~~~~~ While Carter is plying US Middle East allies with assurances and promises of beefed up defense cooperation, the first concrete sign of European determination to quickly rebuild economic and political ties with Iran after a 12-year standoff came as German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel arrived in Teheran with an economic delegation. Other European powers were expected to follow. Gabriel, who is also German Vice Chancellor, urged Iran at the start of a three-day visit to improve its relationship with Israel if it wants to establish closer economic ties with Germany and other western powers, saying that Germany would like to act as a mediator : "You can't have a good economic relationship with Germany in the long-term if we don't discuss such issues too and try to move them along." Gabriel was speaking to a gathering of German and Iranian business people in Teheran. "Questioning this state's (Israel's) right to existence is something that we Germans cannot accept," Gabriel said. "Really stable, good relationships with Germany will only be able to develop if this is accepted in Iranian politics. I will keep making that clear during my trip to Iran," Gabriel said,adding that now that Berlin and Teheran can re-establish closer ties, it will be necessary to talk about human rights. Gabriel, who will hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and several ministers, said he wanted to talk to human rights representatives in a country that the UN says is guilty of human rights violations against women, religious minorities, journalists and activists. There is a lot at stake for Germany. German industry groups have said exports from Europe's largest economy to Iran could as much as quadruple in the next few years following the nuclear deal. Companies like Volkswagen and Siemens, as well as thousands of smaller family-owned firms, are eager to claw back their dominant role in shipments to Iran; Germany was once Iran's leading supplier from outside the region but in 2007 it lost that position to China, which now sends 15 to 20 times as many goods to Iran as Germany does. Eric Schweitzer, head of Germany's DIHK chambers of trade and commerce, said Gabriel's trip was "a very good sign" for business and while German-Iranian trade would not immediately soar, it could more than double to a value of €6 billion within two years. In the medium term it could even jump to €10 billion, Schweitzer said. ~~~~~ Today, British Prime Minister David Cameron said world powers could now press Teheran on other issues such as its involvement in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad. "We shouldn't be naïve or starry-eyed in any way about the regime that we're dealing with," he said in an interview with NBC News. Secretary of State John Kerry, who led the US delegation to the talks with Iran, was asked on Fox News Sunday why the deal did not provide for inspections anywhere anytime. Kerry said : “The fact is, that in arms control, there is no country anywhere on this planet that has ‘anywhere, anytime’," he said. "There is no such standard within arms control inspections." ~~~~~ Dear readers, we have entered a new era in the Middle East. No amount of promises from Ashton Carter can hide the fact that Israel is now exposed to an existential military and nuclear threat from an Iran that defiantly rejects any form of arms control while welcoming western trade delegations with open arms. The 80 million Iranians are a market too enticing for customer-hungry Europe to ignore. Thinking that any later "snap back" option for economic sanctions can be implemented is just one more fantasy spun by Obama to pull in what he must consider to be a gullible American Congress and public. The truth is that even if Congress stands firm and rejects the Iran deal, Obama has promised to exercise his veto in order to allow Iran's nuclear program to advance while erasing economic sanctions. And the UN Security Council will have adopted a binding resolution to seal the deal internationally. Obama fooled America once by lying about Obamacare and the result has been a serious degradation of available health services that now cost more. With Iran, we are not just talking about the cost and availability of health care, important as they are -- we are talking about ballistic missiles aimed at Israel, Europe and America. Obama will be gone when the threat arrives, and Kerry may have a Nobel Peace Prize sitting on his mantle. But, the threat is there now and will grow. Today, Khamenei twitted that Iran's policy toward Israel will not change. Why would the world - why would President Obama - even consider giving terrorist thugs like the Iranian Ayatollah a nuclear bomb and ICBMs? There is no reasonable answer. German trade deals and the Obama "legacy" cannot be worth the real danger that at some point the West will be annihilated by the Iranian terrorist regime.