How stupid are Republicans? Plenty stupid, and in few places is this so visible as their visceral reaction to President Obama’s Iran deal. They can’t get past 30 years of “Death to America!” chants and do business with Iran. They’d rather throw away American lives and treasure on another questionable military adventure than reap the fruits of a sanctions strategy that has succeeded in bringing Iran to its knees and the bargaining table.
Believe it or not, there still are some level-headed conservative thinkers out there. This is what the editor of Barrons, an investing magazine with a strongly conservative editorial slant, says about it in this week’s issue (4/13/15, p. 7):
“The new framework calls for scrapping much of Iran’s uranium-enrichment capacity, shipping out Iran’s existing enriched-uranium stockpile, and vigorous inspection and monitoring of Iran’s entire uranium supply chain. Overall, the proposed pact is designed to keep Iran a year away from developing a functioning nuclear device for the next 10 to 15 years. Even this is less ominous than it sounds, [because] Iran lacks the technology to build a deliverable weapon, [which] would take many more years.”
Why would Iran agree to this? Because “the American-led sanction programs have devastated the Iranian economy,” and Iran’s new president has broad public support for cutting a deal that trades nuclear weapons for economic revival. Whaddya know, the sanctions worked. And having worked, Republicans who can’t think want to throw those efforts away and are beating the war drums. This may play well to the red-meat mobs comprising the GOP’s grassroots, but thinkers in the conservative camp are rolling their eyes and shaking their heads along with the rest of us.
(Cross-posted from Horsesass.org)