Once again Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the man that congressional Republicans treat as if he is their surrogate President of the United States of America, has spoken about what a great disaster the nuclear deal is that the Obama Administration has agreed to with Iran. He compared the inspection process that the Administration agreed to follow in the event that Iran was suspected cheating to that of law enforcement dealing with drug dealers.
In an interview with ABC News the Prime Minister said “Imagine giving a drug dealer 24 days before you inspect the meth lab he has. That, as I say, is a lot of time to flush a lot of meth down the toilet.” Prime Minister Netanyahu knows that what he implied in this rhetorical statement is disingenuous because he knows that it is not a simple task to hide activities surrounding the enrichment of Uranium; especially with the technology that is available now to detect those activities and evidence of the enriched material.
Based on what happened in the US congress in the past when Republicans allowed Mr. Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of congress even though they knew that it was inappropriate and President Obama objected to it, most if not all of these Republicans will fall in line behind the Prime Minister and support him in his criticism of the Iran nuclear deal. Although it is likely that many Republicans have not yet read the complete deal, not to mention not having thoroughly reviewed it, they are already slamming it as being dangerous to America and the rest of the world and accusing President Obama of being totally irresponsible for agreeing to it. Yet I have not seen one interview where any of them have stated in any reasonable amount of detail what America should do if we choose to scuttle the deal. The only other alternative would be to force Iran to cooperate and that would probably mean America would once again have to become involved in another war in the Middle East.
On the one hand, even those who, like me, believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been extremely overzealous in how he has gone about promulgating his opposition to this nuclear deal, if they tried real hard to see things from his perspective they could understand why he chose to take the approach that he has in an effort to assure that an agreement will not be reached and implemented. It still might be a real stretch but they could get there.
On the other hand, I find it all but unthinkable how far congressional Republicans have already gone to block this deal; remember the open letter to Iran signed by 47 Republican senators?, and they still appear to be willing to go further. While there is at least some room to see things from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s perspective, there is no room whatsoever to see them from the perspective of 47 US Republican senators – or those who line up in support of them, who were willing to undermine the President of the United States in the eyes of a foreign country in order to block the US from reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran.
I cannot mention South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and South Carolina State Representative Jenny Horne enough when talking about shining examples that all of our politicians would do well to follow. Even though I disagree with these women on many issues and do not agree with many of the policies that they espouse, I cannot help but to be encouraged and believe that they will always be willing to hold reasonable discourse on issues, debate them based on their merit and come to reasonable resolutions on them that may not always be the resolution that they prefer. This is what Americans want and should demand from our politicians; that they be willing to come together sit down and reasonably discuss and resolve issues we are faced with without having the playing of politics always foremost in their minds.
Whether we like or hate this president or no matter where we fall along the way on that spectrum, he is still the President of the United States of America. He is the president of all Americans. I believe that he is doing everything that he can possibly do to accomplish those things that he perceives to be in the best interest of our country.
There are Americans who for various reasons do not believe as I do that President Obama is doing all that he can do in our country’s best interest. There are also those who for political gains have staked out territory among the nonbelievers although their true feelings are that they believe that the thoughts and rhetoric put forward by these people are nonsensical. That notwithstanding, they flip-flop back and forth between sides in their endless effort to maintain a political foothold that might help toward assuring that they will be reelected.
It is past time for politicians to get back to the job of governance. It is also past time for those of us who find it too inconvenient to stay informed and get out and vote to stay informed and get out and vote. Let’s participate in our democracy, which is the kind of democracy that is envied and sought after by many people around the world because of the privileges that it affords us.
Eulus Dennis