Rejoining The Iran Nuclear Deal
By: Robert Potter
Tags: Biden, Iran, Trump Administration, Nuclear Weapons

Are nuclear weapons worth going to war over? If you ask the Trump administration, the answer is likely less. Some might wonder how that answer squares with the Pentagon’s recent announcement concerning US troop drawdowns in Afghanistan and Iraq. As with most things in foreign policy these days, the response usually amounts to a shrug, the reality being that there are no overarching goals in foreign policy, only individual use cases.

For Iran specifically, the mission has been clear for a while: prevent Iran from constructing a nuclear weapon. Much hay has been made stretching back even to the Bush administration about Iran’s potential to develop nuclear weapons. John Bolton has been recklessly advocating for strikes against Iran for decades to prevent such a thing from happening. Conservatives have been chomping at the bit to turn the heat up on Iran for years, a desire that has exploded in recent years. Dealing with war and suffering in such casual terms should be alarming to anyone paying attention, especially if that war is in the name of global safety. These are some of the people who complain about endless wars in the Middle East in the same breath.

I know we all are numb by the two decades of military occupation in the Middle East. Still, when I watched the video of Iranian missiles raining down on a US military base in Afghanistan in response to the US assassination of Iranian General, Qasem Soleimani, my heart dropped. Thankfully Iran and Trump stepped back from the brink, but next time around, that may not be the case.

Barack Obama knew all of this. In 2015, on the eve of the Iran Nuclear Deal’s implementation, he gave a speech saying, “ What’s more likely to happen, should Congress reject this deal, is that Iran would end up with some form of sanctions relief without having to accept any of the constraints or inspections required by this deal…Now, because more sanctions won’t produce the results that the critics want, we have to be honest. Congressional rejection of this deal leaves any US administration that is absolutely committed to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon with one option — another war in the Middle East…Without this deal, Iran will be in a position — however tough our rhetoric may be — to steadily advance its capabilities…Does anyone really doubt that the same voices now raised against this deal will be demanding that whoever is President bomb those nuclear facilities?”

Let’s check the tapes. The Trump Administration announced its withdrawal from The Join Comprehensive Plan of Action (The Iran Nuclear Deal or JCPOA) in 2018. Since then, we’ve come to the brink of war with Iran about a half dozen times now, with the New York Times recently reporting that in the last week, Trump asked for Iran strike options but then eventually was persuaded against following through on any plan of attack for now. Additionally, the Trump Administration continues to ratchet up sanctions because Iran keeps finding a way around them, and Iran has been steadily increasing the amount of enriched uranium it controls since it got rid of almost all of its stockpiles when it entered into the Iran Nuclear Deal.

Supplanting a nuclear deal, specifically put in place to prevent Iran from gaining the means to create atomic weapons, with an overly aggressive package of sanctions and potential strikes against Iran was always a bizarre way to ensure stability. Now, we have two years of proof. All of this bluster and strongman schtick from Trump and his cronies has been woefully ineffective. They have failed to come anywhere close to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and are even now working to make rejoining the JCPOA politically untenable.

What’s the goal here? The American public is beyond tired of war, and concerning our objectives abroad, we are basically back to where we were in 2015. The only conceivable reason I can think up for the Trump Administration to continue to act so brazenly is a reckless refusal to admit they were wrong and a political calculus that values legacy over people’s lives. Frankly, I’m surprised Iran hasn’t told the United States to suck it and overtly race to develop the bomb. They could easily pull a North Korea and use a nuclear stockpile as a pretense to finally stop the US from jerking the country around.

To their credit, Iran has signaled a willingness to rejoin the JCPOA in response to a US lifting of sanctions. Biden has also stated multiple times that he would commit to doing this within the first few months of his administration as well. Still, it’s frustrating and reckless and pointless to realize that the level heads of Iran and not the US are the ones prevailing and that ultimately, we’re the ones who need to be brought back to the table instead of them. Nevertheless, here we are, and the first step is clear. It’s time for Biden to get back into the Iran Nuclear Deal. Everything else is secondary.