Obama Losing His Own Party’s Support On Iran Deal

 

President Obama has Difficult Time Selling Iran Agreement
August 13, 2015
By John Ubaldi

Contributor, In Homeland Security

After last week’s address at American University, President Obama is now facing opposition from his own party as New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer came out against the nuclear agreement with Iran.Iran nuclear deal

Other Democrats have joined Schumer in his opposition to this agreement, including the ranking House Democrat on the foreign affairs committee, Rep. Eliot Engel, and top Democrat Rep. Nita Lowery of the appropriations committee, and other Democratic representatives such as Reps. Grace Meng and Kathleen Rice.

At American University, President Obama laid out his vision of why this agreement is in the best interests of the U.S.

Obama tried to link the two periods of history with Kennedy’s test ban to his recent nuclear deal with Iran. One has to be careful in utilizing a historical period to compare contemporary times, far too often politicians over use history to fit their present day narratives.

The president has to be careful how this is placed in historical context, as Kennedy’s atmospheric nuclear test ban was also in the back drop of the Berlin crisis and the Cuban missile crisis, which had the world on the brink of nuclear war.

President Kennedy had broad based support for his effort, unlike today where opposition is fierce against the nuclear agreement with Iran, mostly coming from Republicans and now some key Democrats, who have signaled their opposition to the agreement.

On Thursday, during the Republican presidential debate, Sen. Schumer issued a statement detailing his opposition of the agreement, while the White House immediately began to marginalize the senator, commenting how he supported the Iraq War, and is now wrong with the president on foreign policy.

The president did not help his cause when he stated last week, and continued to double down on his comments in various media interviews that, “In fact, it’s those hardliners who are most comfortable with the status quo. It’s those hardliners chanting “Death to America” who have been most opposed to the deal. They’re making common cause with the Republican caucus.”

The president is not winning friends to his side by his linkage of the opposition to the leaders of Iran. First he did it with Republicans, now he is adding Democrats to the mix. This linkage will not build bipartisan support for this agreement; it will just harden their position even more.

Invoking the legacy of the authorization to use force in Iraq, one has to remember that both Republicans and Democrats voted to go into Iraq, including Vice President Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, and incidentally, both voted against the first Persian Gulf War and then voted for the Iraq War authorization.

Even former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraq War, to include Senate minority leader Harry Reid, so one has to be careful when placing events in historical content.

Schumer’s opposition stems from Iran’s nuclear ambitions that might be thwarted in the first 10 years, but after that it is open-ended.

On Tuesday, Schumer stated, “That means the United States and all the governments in the world say it’s OK for Iran to be a threshold nuclear state.” Schumer also mentioned that the agreement allows $50 billion in sanctioned money to be released, allowing its usage to be sent to terror groups around the Middle East.

Schumer continued to lay out his objections to the agreement, with the Wall Street Journal reporting his concerns over the 24-day delay of inspecting suspected nuclear facilities during the first 10 years of the deal. He also complained that the U.S. couldn’t unilaterally demand inspections, and instead would be dependent on building support from a majority of an eight-member bloc that includes Russia, China and Iran—essentially forcing the European members of the group to agree.
 
“It is reasonable to fear that, once the Europeans become entangled in lucrative economic relations with Iran, they may well be inclined not to rock the boat by voting to allow inspections,” Mr. Schumer said.

An additional concern of Schumer is the billions of dollars which would flow to Iran once sanctions are lifted, to be used by Tehran to give to its proxy forces across the Middle East, since the U.S. has identified Iran as a state sponsor of Terror. Schumer is concerned that the Islamic Republic “would undoubtedly use some of that money to redouble its efforts to create even more trouble in the Middle East, and, perhaps, beyond.”

If the president is going to secure this deal, he and his administration are going to have to do a better job of lobbying Congress, otherwise he will lose.