It's difficult to get a straight answer from today's media. They are so froth-mouthed with seething hatred for everything Trump that they can't report a factual story. The same is true with their reporting on the "Iran Deal" also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or BARJAM برجام / برنامه جامع اقدام مشترک‎ among the Iranians.

First, what did the "deal" entail? Did it actually benefit America? Was it really stopping the Iranians from building nukes? At the core of it, the Iran Nuke Deal was supposed to curb Iran's development of nuclear weapons for about 10-15 years. In exchange, Iran was supposed to get "relief" from the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations; especially in the form of lifting the sanctions the U.S. had imposed on Iran (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Comprehensive_Plan_of_Action & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctions_against_Iran)

IRAN & NORTH KOREA

In 1994 then President Bill Clinton struck a similar "deal" with North Korea called "The Agreed Framework" (see https://www.history.com/news/north-korea-nuclear-deal-bill-clinton-agree... ) However, we see how this turned out. Despite all the concessions the U.S. made and the promise of verification, North Korea continued its pursuit of nukes and now has them. The situation with Iran looks no different. Basically both North Korea and Iran have been blackmailing the world. "We won't be crazed bullies if you give us some of your lunch money."


What has been done with North Korea and Iran has been a form of appeasement and containment. It is what has been termed as "leading from behind" -- letting the bully dictate terms. We are told that if we didn't negotiate, the only other result is war, however that has not happened with North Korea. The idea of deterrence is a "Cold-war" tactic that is not well suited for today's world.


FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Michael Mandelbaum, the Christian A. Herter Professor at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, wrote that nuclear nonproliferation in the Middle East ultimately depended "not on the details of the Vienna agreement but on the familiar Cold-War policy of deterrence". Mandelbaum added that if President Obama will leave office without Iran building the bomb, "the responsibility for conducting a policy of effective deterrence will fall on his successor."[493] Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz expressed his view on deterring Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons as follows: "Nothing currently on the table will deter Iran. Sanctions are paper protests to an oil-rich nation. Diplomacy has already failed because Russia and China are playing both sides." -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Comprehensive_Plan_of_Action#Review_...

In fact, even AFTER the "deal" (which is NOT an official treaty since that would have required passage within the U.S. legislature and most likely would not have passed), Iran tested ballistic missiles with help from British companies!

ALLAH TOLD THEM

Four days after the deal was implemented, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said:

"The Americans say they stopped Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. They know it's not true. We had a fatwa (religious ruling), declaring nuclear weapons to be religiously forbidden under Islamic law. It had nothing to do with the nuclear talks." -- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/11748176/Ayat...

Yet in 2018 when President Donald Trump has finally removed the U.S. from the bully and bribery "deal" and instead reestablished sanctions, now some Iranian officials are threatening to ramp up uranium production. Which is it? Did Allah tell the Iranian nukes are against their religion or will they get nukes to kill the "Great Satan"? As we can see, they can't be trusted any more than the North Koreans that pulled a fast one on Clinton. If Allah told them not to use nukes then why did we need to make a "deal" with them not to use nukes? Don't they obey their own god?


The bottom line is that the U.S. experienced this blackmail diplomacy during our founding when the Muslims attacked our trade ships in the Mediterranean even though we'd done nothing to them. (see Barbary Wars). At that time, we at first followed what the Europeans had been doing for 200 years and paid ransom to the Barbary pirates to not attack our ships. But eventually we grew a spine and kicked their butts and freed Europe and ourselves from the bribery pirates. It looks like we will have to do that once again.