Dear Mr. President

Iranian missile, perhaps a type that could reach Israel with a nuke

Note to readers of this blog: I am about to send the following message to President Biden, with copies to my senators and congressman. I have no realistic hope that the president will read it, much less that it will sway him. But it raises important issues that I feel strongly about, particularly the impending deal on Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. I hope my friends and others who read it will give these thoughts serious consideration. Thank you.

Dear Mr. President:

Let me begin by saying I was impressed by the resolution you showed about the defense of freedom in Ukraine in your State of the Union address, which I watched with great hope and interest. I’m glad we’re supplying weapons to Ukraine and sanctioning Putin. I want the U.S. to do everything possible to support the Ukrainian people in their struggle to defeat Putin, whose hope for victory seems to rest purely on slaughtering civilians and leveling cities.

The U.S. must stand firm in support of freedom, democracy and the thousands of innocent people — not only in Ukraine, but Taiwan and Israel as well — who are the targets of the rapacious regimes in Moscow, Beijing and Tehran, the 21st-century Axis.

However, it saddens me to see that your commitment to our nation’s democratic allies lacks consistency. I’m thinking in particular of your administration’s quixotic intention to re-enter the fatally flawed Iran nuke agreement (JCPOA), which would pave the way in a few short years to Iran’s finishing the development of and then employing — please stop kidding yourself — nuclear weapons.

The blood-soaked Iranian regime, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, has one overarching use in mind for nukes — the obliteration of Israel and its 6 million Jews. Does that number ring a bell, Mr. President?

Iranian nukes would also drive a stake through the heart of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — mortally damaging a vital U.S. interest — and play havoc with the independence of all other states and societies of the Mideast. These are additional compelling reasons the U.S. should avoid reviving this terrible deal.

But from everything I read in the news, the U.S. is now on the brink of re-entering the JCPOA, whose “sunset provisions” make it a toothless, worthless charade. Moreover, the financial and sanctions relief it appears the U.S. is prepared to grant Iran — including removing our terrorist designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (the mullahs’  counterpart to Hitler’s Waffen SS) — in return for minimal concessions is nauseating.

What are you thinking, Mr. President? Why greenlight nukes for the mullahs? And why give them billions in sanctions relief and cash? President Zelensky could use that money to save free people’s lives.

Why are you so eager to appease Iran, Mr. President?

I don’t expect good answers from you. I’m writing primarily to register my disgust at the path you are on. However, I have a shred of hope that if you get enough disapproving mail, you might yet change your mind.

I’m not too optimistic on that score, however, since I’ve also read numerous reports about how — to replace imports of Russian oil — you’re hoping to buy oil not only from the odious regime in Iran, but also from the Venezuelan tyrant, Nicolas Maduro.

Surely there are other options, Mr. President. If only you’d put your opposition to fracking and the Keystone Pipeline on hold. The climate has been changing for decades now; pinprick measures to slow it are like trying to empty a bathtub with a teaspoon while coal-burning China refills it with a fire hose. Surely these measures can wait a few years. Putting our efforts into producing and procuring additional oil and gas in North America would be a small price to pay for denying succor to our country’s sworn enemies. Remember “Death to America,” Mr. President? They’re still chanting it in Tehran.

Mr. President, how does it benefit the United States and the free world to give the mullahs our blessing (through a renewed JCPOA that’s approaching “sunset”) for an approved path to nukes in just a few years? If we truly want to stop Iran from arming itself with weapons it will use to vaporize our democratic ally Israel, we must stop pretending that a bad deal with the mullahs is a good way to reach the goal of a nuke-free Iran. If we truly want to stop Iran’s march (rather than slightly slow it), we need sterner measures, including crippling sanctions and credible threats of force.

Just in case you’re somehow unaware of all the impending deal’s repulsive consequences, I’m attaching links to two recent articles about what your negotiators have been up to in Vienna — https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/03/find-someone-who-looks-at-you-like-rob-malley-looks-at-iran/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=blog-post&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=more-in&utm_term=third&fbclid=IwAR0yAbv4wE9Q04cCDmVMjLnEBBT26CMD1RRx2FKgNN_YlOZSvxhjkkdR6NM  and https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/this-isnt-obamas-iran-deal-its-much-much-worse?fbclid=IwAR3CsbhVOcLwc3P3YAg1JE_BSfSwa3vmHQkyUdSgl6CUm9UBBITKsDWV-0k.

Since I expect no favorable action from you, I’m sending a copy of this message to my senators and congressman. And to Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Menendez, who seems to have a better grasp than your negotiators in Vienna of the foolishness of the path down which the U.S. is plunging.

Sincerely,
Howard E. Daniel