The Iran deal

Smells to high heaven. Trump's unseriousness is mostly, but not entirely, to blame -- the country he leads is too soft and complacent to meet its challenges, but it deserved better leadership.

The outlines of Trump’s deal with Iran are now pretty well known. Not to put too fine a point on it, they stink. A Facebook friend of mine, M.A. Rothman, summed it up in words I’ll paraphrase:

What exactly is Trump celebrating? The one question that overshadowed everything else — Iran’s nuclear program — was never resolved.

The MOU has essentially nothing to do with the nuclear content we’ve been waiting on. That’s been punted to a Part 2. It’s been relegated to a sequel; a to-be-continued on the most dangerous material on earth. So we get an agreement to keep jabbering.

Wonderful.

And listen to how it’s being framed. Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst, doing his best to report it as a win, still had to admit the catch out loud:

“𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭... 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘶𝘻, 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘎𝘶𝘭𝘧, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘐𝘳𝘢𝘯’𝘴 𝘯𝘶𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭.”

Read that last line again. 𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐧𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐮𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥. We have not finished the nuclear talks; indeed, we’re just now going to start them — after agreeing to give away such leverage as we have had, namely, the blockade on Iran’s ports and the prospect of further military action, in particular an attack on Kargh Island and on dual-use infrastructure.

The stupidity of it is breathtaking. This would be true even if Trump hadn’t been spending the last few weeks (or is it years?) advertising himself as The Great Deal Maker.

Part 2 — Iran’s nuclear program — is the exact hinge point many predicted the mullahs would never surrender. Their entire theology is built on the destruction of Israel, of Jews in general, and of Christians after that. “Death to America” for the eight zillionth time. They haven’t given that up now and they’re are not going to bargain it away in a follow-up meeting in Switzerland. Indeed, they’re not going to bargain it away ever, because this is the only version of “civilization,” to use that world loosely, they know.

So look at the trade. They say they’ll reopen Hormuz, which they had no right to close to begin with. We lift the naval blockade. We hand back the single piece of leverage that actually cornered Tehran — and in return, so far as the present or any realistically foreseeable agreement has it, the enriched uranium stays buried in Iran, unaccounted for, with no inspectors, no commitment to hand it over, and not even a promise to refrain from getting more if it ever were to be handed over.

My dog can make a better deal than that.

We give up the chokehold, and they keep the bomb fuel with a promise to talk about it later.

Ringside readers know that, while I have criticized Donald Trump, I want him to succeed and, for the sake of the country, I want his presidency to succeed. But I refuse to try to put lipstick on this. The conclusions we are left to draw now are devastating. He went to war because he felt like it, with no visible plan about what the outcome would be or how he would get there even if a plan had occurred to him. He then stopped the war, also simply because he felt like it, and also with no visible plan about how victory would be achieved.

He made no serious effort to bring the country along. Posting a few paragraphs every now and again on Truth Social is — let’s just say it — pathetic. How about an address to the nation tracing Iran’s barbaric conduct back to the embassy seizure, its hand in killing hundreds of Americans, and, more broadly, its (literally) religious mangling of ideals of freedom, humanity and basic decency that hail from the Seventh Century.

Yes, America is soft and complacent. We got the vapors because the price of gas went up. When Oprah has shaped the culture for decades, what else is going to happen? But Trump’s failure to make the case and to treat the citizens like the adults we need to become basically forfeited such chance as we may have had to rise to the occasion.

My experience, now that I’m an old man, is that a person’s flaws eventually catch up to him. I’m afraid, very afraid, that Trump’s unseriousness and bluster-substituting-for-thought have caught up with him and, ominously, with our country.