All you bots who keep claiming that is was solely Obama's deal seem to be conveniently omitting that five other nations as politically diverse as Britain and China and France and Russia also thought it was a good deal and signed on.
21
What is it with you Roger? You are an Englishman in New York and I'm an American in London and have always tried to read your articles on subjects that interest me. That said, I cant remember a time when I last agreed with you... on anything. You seem to feel that it is your job to criticize anything Israel does (or anything done in the world that might align with an Israeli government position) but it ends up making you sound dogmatic and slightly laughable. Supposedly you fly around the world talking with these world leaders who you name drop in your articles (Zarif, Jubeir etc) but do you ever actually glean any useful information from these people? It seems like you always come to the wrong conclusion. Dont get me wrong, I dont always agree with everything the Israelis do but I dont make it my mission in life to criticize them or poke holes in their world view. This "nuclear deal" was a joke. You cant compartmentalize a country's bad behaviour on one issue from its behaviour on a host of other issues in the "hope" that you will "chip away" at them. The Iranian hardliners never intended to obey the spirit of the deal though they've had a chance in the last few years. Instead they've looked for every other way (aside from the nuclear option supposedly) to cause mayhem throughout the region. Awful deal and poor attempt by Obama to leave a "legacy" in the middle east.
13
Obama to Iran: No matter how much you violate our agreement, I've got your back
8
If trump murders merkel, may and macaron, europe will still do nothing. America’s economic power and market are very big and it can bully,blackmail and intimidate the world, other than russia(trump is putin’s poodle. Putin has s lot of dirt on trump and can topple him in a minute).
1
LOL. The article title is laughable! Who's word is worthless? Iran has been ignoring the deal, continuing to develop ballistic missile tech, the Israelis found a literal ton of evidence that Iran has been lying, and America's word is worthless?!?!?!
Come back from the unicorn farm and take a reality pill.
9
It was really Obama's word, and that indeed is worthless.
9
'Trump to Iran: America’s Word is Worthless'
America didn't give its word, Obama did.
Thus illustrating the fecklessness of the Obama presidency.
Had America given it's word... it would have come from an actual treaty voted on by the Senate.
"I've got a pen and I've got a phone...and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions." - Barack Obama
Hey Barack... how'd that work out for you?
9
Trump to Iran: America’s Word is 'Shape Up Or Ship Out!'
4
Netanyahu can sit in his prison cell in the near future and regale his cellmates with how he pulled the wool over the eyes of the President of the United States and made him drop out of a deal that was good for all involved parties including Israel.
10
Trump to Iran and the World: Obama's word is worthless. This "agreement", was so easily disposed of because it was never brought to the people's representatives and made law by a treaty because this scam would have never passed under scrutiny. It was nothing more than a treasonous act to strengthen the world's greatest terrorist supporting government and Obama brought along all the swamp creatures in Germany, France and the UK with payouts stolen from the American Taxpayer. The light has been turned on this rats nest of traitors and the fallout will be cleansing. Obama, Clinton, Kerry, Rice, Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Lynch and the rest of the swamp creatures including treasonous Republicans are being exposed. Scores of congressman and senators resigning or not running for re-election is just the tip of the iceberg coupled with all of the corrupt DOJ, FBI and CIA officials being forced out. Trump is the greatest gift to this country in my lifetime. Those who dug the pit for Trump are falling into it themselves.
7
Trump's word is worthless, but we already knew that. The sooner America is rid of him the better.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
Trump is a traitor doing Putin's bidding. No other explanation holds together.
6
Gee Roger. The only way the US makes agreements with foreign countries is by treaties. Look it up
in the Constitution. If you mean Obama's word is worthless, we all knew that 9 years ago.
8
Roger.....I assume that you are aware that the whole iranian mess was created by USA way back in 1950, when we listened to jealous, greedy British Oil Kingpins...and at their behest, overthrew an Iranian Democracy because the Iranians wanted a 30% cut of the oil revenues instead of the previously agreed to 10%. You are aware of that, arent you?
In another perspective.........the Iranians broke the agreement.
Our reaction was completely stupid, true....but it doesnt change anything........the Iranians broke the agreement.
In more recent stupidity, the Obama Administration manufactured an agreement that would make even Hitler say "Dayum....I was too easy on Chamberlin."
Iran, and its previous incarnation, Persia, suffer from permanent complete misunderstanding from East, West, North, and South. At once very progressive and obstinately traditional. Praised for its treatment of jews and Cursed for its treatment of jews.....? You figure it out....I cant. In the modern world...it would seem like Iran would be Israel's biggest ally. But Nope. Most of the carnage and disaster in lebanon, syria, iraq, originates largely from Europes failures to understand how to create oil empires...they just werent very good at it.
3
sad day in america when a porn star and her attorney serves more as a monitor of ethics on government than all the Republican members of congress--while the president plays out his psychopathology of destroying all in the effort to make himself look good based on his twisted mind.
10
Obama drew a Red Line in Syria and then didn’t enforce it. That’s why America’s enemies and allies thought our word was worthless
7
Wrong, Obamas word is worthless, he did not get a treaty. Why, because the democrat and republican senate would not approve the Iran deal. Even good ole chuck shummer would not approve the Iran deal.
7
Iran should tell President Bone Spurs they are not interested in dealing with him and he should go........well you know.
4
Frank Marshall, an early 20th century chess master; some would call him a “reckless gambler.” His moves often times seemed quite stupid to most, downright idiotic to others. He though; had a knack and a particularly imaginative penchant of rescuing a difficult, if not lost, position. I suppose that’s what’s lost to the US these days; imagination. Bottom line; too much polarization and not enough sense can tear a country asunder. Unable to imagine the possibilities, so trapped by ideological blinders, is worse; conservative or liberal. Sometimes a losing position becomes a win; case in point, Donald Trump. A reckless gambler that won the election (I still can’t believe it) and kept to his word, worthless or not.
1
Good. There isn't one America speaking out here. There are hundreds of millions. Your "worthless" is someone else's standing tall.
------
What about what the leaders of other nations might think? Who cares what they think? If.. they think. See: opinion columnists.
2
Another totally dumb, atrocious and catastrophic trump decision. What will he do next ? Pull out of nato, seato, nafta, and all the remaining treaties ? No country is going to trust the US again. Trump is the absolute worst in US history
2
This man's hatred of and contempt for Barak Obama rules his narcissistic libido at the expense of the citizens of this country. He alone is wreaking havoc and destruction by his vengeful acts, and causing harm to the entire planet with his reckless decisions. Everything negative he says about someone or something is truly descriptive of the man himself.
4
Mr Cohen, it is not America that has made a mockery of the value of its signature on an international agreement, it is Donald Trump that is responsible. He only represents about 30% of our population and WE WILL make America great again when he is gone! Blue Tsunami 2018!!
2
to say trump has a plan is absurd. his plan is to make more money and get lots of press in the mean time. he cares not for America or any other country. he is a traitor not only to America but to all humans.
4
Actually, it's Iran's word that's worthless. You can't reasonably expect the US to go on honouring an agreement that Iran has been violation since Day One.
3
Shimon Peres once said that the United States never said "No" to Israel. Whatever Israel wants, Israel gets. They want the U.S. to invade Iraq--hey, you got it! They want the U.S. to destabilize Iran, --we will do our best. They want the U.S. to invade Iran, which would have the bonus of pleasing the Saudis, well wait and see. If Iran take the bait and retaliates for the Israeli killing of Iranians, hey, the US must retaliate with bunker busters. How did we get to this horrendous situation.
3
Once again, Roger Cohen's is the voice of reason in a bleak desert of insanity. The Middle East is an enormously complex place, with permutations of culture and history that tax the limits of the human intellect fully to comprehend. The invention of nuclear weapons is an almost biblical invocation of the swords of fire that guard the way against a return to Eden, that is, unmediated purity and innocence on anybody's part, including such myths about U.S. and Israel. To get control of those weapons--which Israel absurdly insists on keeping to the exclusion of all other regional powers--to get any kind of control of them was a monument to peace and sanity in that region, Now it is all thrown away in the rage of a childish fool, bent on vengeance against the first black President of the U.S.
3
"America's word is worthless."
This so called agreement was never submitted to the Senate for ratification and was passed by democratic filibuster by 42 votes. More suspiciously it was never signed by any of the principle countries. Not to mention the "side deals" that were never made public. A complete & utter sham.
The article should have been titled "Obama's & Kerry's word is worthless."
6
Trump has proven himself adept at destruction; Obama care, Paris accords, DACA and the Iran nuclear treaty. Now we get to see how adept he is at creating something better.
Sent from my iPad
2
Five hundred Indian Nations could have told anyone interested in listening, just how much "America's word" is worth.
4
America's word was Obama's not ours. Now it's Trump's word.
1
Cohen, as usual, gets it exactly wrong. Some of our abstractionist elites would prefer a disaster down the road to some discomfort in the near term caused by actually addressing the problem. It's not about keeping the word of our former abstractionist-in-chief, it's about correcting his gross foreign policy errors. We can never allow the idea of consistency to supersede common sense or prevent us from fixing bad policy. And you can trust me, Roger--our allies know that a nation that won't defend its own interests won't be of any use to them.
2
Walks like a treaty. Talks like a treaty. Must be a treaty, yo? Hmm, I can't find the Congressional record to show this was ratified by 2/3 of the Senate. Can someone help me find it ? :( Else would recommend a title change: "Trump to Iran: Obama's Word is Worthless" Or would like enjoy seeing mental contortions of someone trying to demonstrate this treaty is not a treaty. Certainly the very fact is was not implemented as a treaty allowed Trump to do what he just did. There, isn't this a good lesson on why it's good to follow the Constitution? And taking Constitutional shortcuts actually puts you farther behind? Now if we can also get Congress to declare war before throwing bombs at other countries.... also in the Constitution.
3
Extremists everywhere (in Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the U.S) are happy this morning. That's all one needs to know about this decision. Vintage Trump.
3
Mind your N's and Q's! John Bolton et al have been trying to go to war with IraN forever! They can't wait to follow in the footsteps of Cheney and Rumsfeld who created a pretext for invading IraQ. I am sure the Iranians will welcome us as Liberators. We should easily be able to pay for a long war with Iran by lowering taxes on the 0.1% and cutting all social programs. Oh sorry, it will be short an cost next to nothing..similar to Iraq
3
Generally good Op-Ed, Roger, but Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, is the last person who should be advising anyone on combating terrorism as his nation is the worst offender, and in spades.
1
Obama was weak and negotiated a bad deal. Iranians got billions from Obama and the consequence was an emboldened Iran supporting Syrian genocide of their own people and threatening Israel. Trump doesn't tolerate bad deals. This is what happens when you try to bypass congress by making agreements not ratified by majority of our elected representatives.
3
The Republican Party is about hate not governance. Donald Trump is serial liar, who has often broken his word on business deals, so why does anyone expect anything different as President?
Whether one looks at Taxes, Voter ID laws, or even the laws they pass against abortion which are always end runs built on lies, around a woman's right.
The Republican Party is not a party with integrity. It is a party that prides itself on lies and cons.
And sense America has elected them where they can, and appointed justices in their name. (with dubious tactics there too) This is apparently what passes for American Character.
2
TRUMP'S WORD Is worthless! It's extremely dangerous for him to be shooting his mouth of to antagonize enemies of the US who are determined to undermine our homeland security. At what point to Trump's madcap tweets and cockamamie, crazed, cockeyed ideas constitute proof that he is medically incapable of fulfilling his official duties, and the 25th amendment? Nothing will happen until after the 11/2018 election and the seating of the new Congress, which may significantly change the balance of power in the legislative branch.
1
Dear Sir,
Your comments are well taken, however you have made an error in suggesting the enmity between the U.S. and Iran began in 1979. It began in 1953 when the U.S. CIA and British Intelligence created a covert coup and overthrew the Democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh and replaced him with their puppet the Shah.
In 1979 the Iranian people overthrew this despot and regained their independence, much to the chagrin of the U.S. and Britain.
The 1953 coup d'etat was to protect British oil interests which Mossadegh was going to nationalize in order to create the funds necessary to lift his country's citizens.
2
No, Obama's word was meaningless, as was this "deal" from the start.
2
". . Netanyahu, Saudi fury at Iran, the pressure of conservative American Jews who support him and his iron principle that whatever Obama. . ."
(He was also taking a knee to evangelical Christians who have been foaming at the mouth for a big M.E. war. They see it as Rapture time. )
“. . .We want Iran to comply with international law. We want Iran to stop interfering in the affairs of Arab countries. We want Iran to stop supporting terrorists. We want Iran to stop harboring terrorists. We want Iran to stop attacking our embassies, to stop killing our diplomats. We want Iran to not give ballistic missiles to terrorist groups. Simple. Once they do it, it’s a different Iran.”
(You could replace 'Iran' with 'SA' on several of those items, no?)
1
Read American history and/or ask Native Americans what the word and signed agreements of the American government are worth.
Answer: less than nothing.
5
Proof positive that if an international agreement is worth doing it should be submitted to the Senate as a treaty.
4
It was Obama's word, not Americas. The deal was never ratified in congress, because it would never have passed.
3
Nobody can be sure what Trump believes. He seems not to believe anything, for to believe something the believer has to know something. Yet Trump is proudly and stubbornly ignorant. Any doubt about this is rapidly dispelled by asking his senior advisors.
So we appear to be facing the choice either of Iran re-opening its nuclear weapons development in 15 months time rather than 15 years, or having that development halted by a "victorious' Israeli-American military strike.
Such a strike, of course, would be about as "victorious" as America's invasion of Iraq in 2003. With victories like that, who needs defeats?
2
This is what happens when you use a pen and a phone. This should have been treated as a treaty, but Obama know that the deal was so bad that it would never get approved as such.
Even people in his own party disapproved of the deal that didn't address Iran's role in terrorism in the middle east, their missile program, or the sunset clause that will allow Iran to do whatever it wants in a very short period.
And Iran's response is that they will accelerate its missile development program. They have the $128 billion that Obama give them on a night flight, so no problem fund it.
While there are issues here, the deal was a win only for Iran. It should be clear to N. Korea, they this is not a model for any agreement.
5
One when the middle class of a Nation becomes substantial in # they tend to prefer a stable orderly country where there is sufficient respect to individual rights.The middle class love life and they are far less into confrontational policy.The country will also be inclined into getting along with other Nations.The deal will be instrumental in making Iran join the mainstream part of World Com.Two,when looking at things logically why does it makes more sense to assume that Mature and Wise Govs and people like UK,France,Germany,Russia,China,etc.and Pres O.'s Admin are all wrong at the same time and only Pres Tr.' policy shapers have the right instinct?.When trying to predict what a certain policy's future may turn out to be logical and clever approaches are the fitting tools and the deal seemed to be based on these to begin with.Iran need to be pressured into acknowledging Israel's right and sovereignty and dissociate from Gps and entities that try to threaten Israel's security.But,lone boycotting of an agreed upon deal by highly respectable International lead Gp may turn out to be counter productive.In such a deal being a team player is the only responsible and prudent way to go, since it was built via a protracted + cautious deliberation, it looks.TMD.
"The agreement put a ring fence around Iran’s nuclear program into the second quarter of this century."
Let me unflower this statement so you understand what it says. The next quarter century starts in 7 1/2 years and fences do very little in the face of nuclear weapons. The Obama Administration said at the time of the deal that Iran was within a year or so of being able to produce a nuclear bomb. That means with this deal fully in place Iran can continue to create mayhem in the Middle East and around the world, continue to develop ballistic missiles and in about 8-9 years have the ability to equip them with nuclear weapons... best case scenario... with the full approval of the U.S. and the world, not to mention significant financing by the U.S. and the world.
And before everyone like Cohen blasts President Trump for his actions I would have you look up the voiced opposition to the Iran Deal in the Senate by the likes of Schummer and Menendez. There is a reason this "deal" is an Executive Action and not a binding Treaty. Because no one except the Obama Administration believed it was a good deal.
And it's humorous to me how the same group that screamed how worthless and dangerous Trump's "Rocket Man" diplomacy was 6 months ago, are sitting here dropped jawed at the progress being made on the Korean peninsula and today welcoming home the long held U.S. captives. Yet somehow we should all listen to them now as they extol how worthless and dangerous his Iran policy is.
4
The premise of this piece is intellectually dishonest. If a party to an agreement with the United States wants that agreement to have lasting force, it must be approved in accordance with the treaty clause. An agreement signed only by a President is not an agreement with the United States. It becomes an agreement with the United States only when it is approved by the Senate. Obama signed an agreement which he knew would not be approved by the Senate. What arrogance to later allege that this reflects on the US. The fault lies entirely with Obama for enterting into an agreement which he knew would never be approved as required by the Constitution. It lacked the requisite domestic support. The United States did not go back on its word. Trump honored his word.
6
Roger you know too well the 3 individuals who are behind this policy, David Friedman, Jared Kushner, and Sheldon Adelson. They would do whatever it takes at the behest of Israel. It has nothing to do about America but everything to do about Israel at its supremacy in the Middle East. So that it can do what it wants to do and when it wants to do. It is rather routine for Israel to cross international borders and bomb neighboring countries whether it be Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, or Sudan. This international rogue nation is totally supported by our Congress, I wonder why? We are told by our political leaders that others are terrorist nations but Israel is only doing it in self-defense.
Hopefully saner minds shall prevail and this action by the President would embolden Israel into another foolish action of invading/attacking Iran.
No one in their right mind thinks that Iran is going to use nuclear weapons when they do not even have one nor do they have the capability to make one. This deal ensured that it would not happen. The discussion is with regards to Iran's capability of conventional weapons, why would they not have the defensive capability when they live in a neighborhood where there are countries who routinely invade other sovereign nations and bomb them. It serves as a deterrent. It maintains peace.
1
The US policy is now: you get nuclear capability and we might talk to you, otherwise we'll bully you until you do, and then we'll talk to you. North Korea is doing just that because it makes no sense to negotiate with the US unless you have the bomb. Iran sees this clearly now.
The 'realpolitik' idea that the US can force regime change in Iran has historical precedents as first the British forced out the mullahs and then later the US forced out the mullahs and installed the incompetent Shah of Iran along with his state police. The Iranians know their history. My guess is that they would rather eat dirt than allow the West for a third time dictate who is in power in their country. They are a very sophisticated well educated people with a long long history, not just 300-400 years but >3000 years.
2
The International community can rely on the United States to uphold its treaties and commitments in the same way the United States can rely on the president and Congress to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." It's not happening anymore, because Washington is now filthy with the corruption, greed, and putrefaction of the Trump Administration -- and a smugly-indifferent Republican kleptocracy on The Hill.
Poppycock. World leaders are well aware that the President as an individual does not have the final word on foreign policy. Any agreement without consent of the Senate represents a shallow commitment that can easily be abandoned by the next President.
5
"America has made a mockery of the value of its signature on an international agreement."
Stuff and nonsense. President Obama, and several of his predecessors, have tried to take for themselves unilateral rights to mold the foreign policy of their successors. An individual President, whether you like him or not, does not have this power. A presidential signature is not "Amerca's signature."
A deal struck with a President is a deal struck with that President. A deal struck with the Unites States is called a treaty, and requires ratification in the Senate. Every person in the world of diplomacy and international relations knows this. I cannot believe Mr Cohen does not know this as well.
A central premise of the article being so obviously in hyperventilating error, it becomes difficult to take the rest seriously. Which is a shame; he may have some good points to make about the value of the agreement and why President Trump should have continued it. But any valid points get lost when accompanied by such foolishness and authorial overstatement.
5
Now Trump wants a deal that will curtail Iranian foreseeable hegemony in the Middle East. That "hegemony" pushed ISIS out of Syria. Don't those Iranian understand that the only hegemony allowed in the region is U.S/Israeli domination.
1
America's word is expressed through treaties. Not executive agreements that everyone knows can be undone by the next occupant of the White House. The Iran deal was then President Obama's word. Not America's
5
Given that the agreement hasn't been ratified, only Obama's word was made moot. Considering the weakness of his bargaining skill (Any Deal is Ok as long as we get a deal) it is not a significant loss.
We don't get to inspect them ( they collect samples for IAEA to test)
They get 8000 new high capacity centrifuges and dump their old inventory of 12000 smaller cap centrifuges for a net gain in production capability.
and they get to keep their nuclear program after pausing it for 10 years.
...and they get 50 to 100 billion of assets freed up.
The outcomes? A 10 Year pause. That's it, and then they get they Nuclear program sanctioned.
It is a garbage deal, especially when compared to the back channel deal they offered Bush in 2003.
Lastly, where was Roger Cohen when Obama violated pacts we had with Libya and turned that nation into a chaos strewn cesspool?
4
Trump is all about bringing others to their knees to worship him. He has no sense of the past or the future only thinking to be the one with all the glory.
Peace requires small humble steps we take together. Trump can not declare it, but he can declare a senseless war which he has done against the entire world.
Who do you think will gain sympathy and the upper hand in this battle of ideas and words? Iran and the rest of the signatories who compromised and worked so hard to achieve this step. And our bumbling president and our nation will gain nothing but approbation and shunning from the rest of the world.
Trump to the World: America's Word is Worthless.
Iran Agreement.
Paris Clilmate Accords.
TPP.
NAFTA (well, not the world, but two of our largest trading partners).
Korean bluster (just wait).
Almost every statement Trump made in his comments yesterday regarding the Iran agreement were false.
Two cliches apply to this regime: Follow the money. Who benefits? A Follow the Money bombshell dropped yesterday. The Who Benefits story may take time to unfold, but my guess is that the Iran decision will ultimately benefit Russia. Israel thinks it will benefit them, but all it does it increase the risk of conflict.
We are now little more than a rogue state, and the world is, rightfully, moving on without us. Whether we can rejoin the rest of the developed world will depend on the elections in 2018 and 2020.
Trump's reasons for his action are obvious: He desperately needs some form of major violence or even war in the Middle East in order to take Americans' attention away from the daily news about his financial corruption and that of his co-conspirators like Cohen. He would probably even welcome a nuclear attack by Israel on Iran's nuclear facilities to even heighten the chaos. He's leading America directly into WWIII and the GOP is helping him do so. He needs to stopped, NOW not in 2020.
It was particularly grotesque to hear Trump intone into the camera. "When I give my word, I keep it."
If only he could see the excruciating irony of keeping his campaign promise and despoiling the reputation and credibility of the country he leads.
Iran will not violate the deal unless it becomes clear that the Europeans are unable to keep their word in the face of US bullying.
Trump's mock sober expression and bombastic delivery of complete falsehoods and naked appeal to fear was eerily reminiscent of dictators of yesteryear.
Trump's word, not America's, is worthless. America's word will be worthless if congress doesn't change hands in the 2018 election and the presidency in the 2020 election.
Mr. Cohen, you can't "overlook your way" to a meaningful and enforceable agreement. Terms that obviously provide little to no oversight are perilous in this context, and we are obligated to NOT perpetuate the same type of negligent Obama Administration Middle East policies that have already resulted in hundreds of thousands killed and millions displaced from their homes.
1
Among the many false Fox News tropes that Trump loves to parrot is that the Iran deal Obama negotiated isn't working. It is working, and the US negotiated with a coalition with the UK, Russia, France, China, Germany and the European Union. Now the US is isolated and no longer trustworthy. What a catastrophe!
Come now. "America's word" was, in fact, the word of a feckless foreign policy amateur who lost all of his negotiating leverage by telegraphing his desperation for a deal at any cost. And, as Bret Stephens rightly points out, Obama deliberately side-stepped Congress in signing this deal, and did against the will of a bipartisan majority. So no, the Iran deal was not "America's word."
5
I've never been so ashamed to be an American, and I am happy my parents never lived to see this.
1
The Iran "deal" was not "America's" deal, it was an Obama/Kerry deal. If the 0bama /Kerry foreign policy wished to make it binding on the US, a treaty would have been proposed for ratification by the US Senate. It was not, instead a ludicrous framework of non-binding congressional approval was cobbled together. The recent revelations by Netanyahu make hash of the claims that Iran was observing the "deal". To believe that an aggressive regime which is accelerating development of ballistic missiles will not eventually arm them with nuclear weapons is unrealistic.
4
Let's hope Iran has the good sense to realize how much there is to gain be continuing biding the accord, how Europe and China are the new world leaders and order.
The US, through the Electoral College and erratic behavior patterns of 45, has now been reduced to being a bit player on the world stage, with the world present when it will benefit their agenda and on a greatly reduced platform where it will benefit the US.
We as a Nation, are no longer considered reliable in the World's eyes, but is that any real surprise when the person working the pedals is a known for stiffing contractors, declaring bankruptcy or paying hush money for "favors"?
MAGA? Yeah, sure. Maybe after a generation or two in the future, when the bad taste of diplomacy by amateurs has been replaced by competent management again.
1) Iranian-American enmity goes back further than 79. Let's not forget that the American government orchestrated a coup against Iran's democratically elected government in 53.
2) "Regional power propping up a failing government in a brutal civil war and funding terrorist groups" applies to Saudi-Arabia as well as Iran. Somehow in one case it's the source of all the evil in the world and in the other case the US can't sell them bombs and missiles fast enough.
3) Am I the only one who was reminded of D. Rumsfeld when Netanyahu presented his 'evidence' against Iran recently? If this doesn't look like trying to justify a war, I don't know what does.
4) Isn't it odd how the Middle East never seems to become more stable no matter how often the US sets it on fire?
3
I think the title is apt. The Iranians had to give up most of their uranium and centrifuges, hard concessions, for waiving of sanctions and unfreezing of their assets. They received a portion of their assets, but without any longterm relief of sanctions, apparently. To an Iranian, it clearly would appear to be a con job by the U.S. of A. An interesting way to enter into nuclear negotiations with the North Koreans.
Breaking agreements is unfortunately not a new Trump phenomenon.After Clinton's nuclear agreement with the North Kpreans they blew up their main nuclear facility at Yongton. But the incoming Bush administration influenced by Bolton cut back on the agreed food deliveries and restarted the military exercises with the South Koreans. It led to Pyongyang's nuclear development of today.
I wonder how much Kim. no babe in the woods will make us pay for it.
2
"America has made a mockery of the value of its signature on an international agreement."
The agreement didn't have "America's" signature on it. It had the president's. We're supposed to be one of the countries where that distinction still means something.
To have "America's signature" on it, an agreement requires ratification by the Senate. Had President Obama followed the process the constitution calls for, President Trump would have had no power to act unilaterally.
The folly of replacing real leadership with "pen and phone" posturing was apparent to some of us as it unfolded. Others have had to wait for days like today to understand.
6
Mr. Cohen should understand that, to be an expression of "America's Word," an international agreement needs to be approved by Congress. An executive agreement is only as valid as the influence of the executive who negotiates it. That influence isn't great with the Trump administration.
5
In truth, this has more to do with Trump's animus towards his predecessor and his own thin skin than any considered view of the Iran deal. The latter was Obama's signature foreign policy achievement, therefore, it must be abrogated. The ACA was Obama's signature domestic policy achievement, therefore, it must be unraveled. The ACA has proven more durable than anyone expected and destroying it has proved tough, although efforts to undermine it continue. Withdrawing from the Iran deal he could do himself.
This is what we've been reduced to. Foreign policy based on pique and petulance.
3
To be fair, a lot of foreign policy and nuclear non-proliferation experts were on opposites sides of this issue. Opposing what Trump did because of animosity toward Trump, no matter how heart-felt, is not a good reason to view this issue unobjectively. I'm willing to wait and see how this all plays out. The relationship between Iran and the U.S. has a long-term horizon; I doubt that this action or any one action short of war will be the deciding factor, ultimately, in how the 2 nations can co-exist.
3
Correct except Iran being disruptive in the region. The regime change crowd have set the Assad regime for destruction. They have unleashed murderous jihadists on the Syrian civilian populace. Hostile powers have occupied Syria's territory. Iran is an ally of Syria whose gov't is internationally recognized and has mutual self interests in a hostile neighborhood. Especially since the US invaded Iraq and unleashed the furies of the Syrian Civil War. The US and Israel are committed to the destruction of Assad's regime. Anything less would be an unacceptable defeat. The Islamic regime in Iran is a quasi democracy ruled by a corrupt theocratic sometimes violent elite. Iran is by far preferable to the violent nasty Saudi regime that is bludgeoning Yemen in a genocidal war.
Let this be a lesson in American Government for all. The American President is NOT the head of governing party or coalition. He is not a king, anointed every four years. Any time any action is not by a law or a treaty passed by Congress, is subject revocation and change. And it can be done easily.
3
Ah, the joys of Monday Morning Quarterbacking. So many opinions, so many disagreements. The sad fact, unfortunately, is that our opinions count for nothing after the event. Nor before, if we’re being honest.
So what is any of us achieving by discussing Trump’s decision? Zilch, as far as I can tell.
So maybe the relevant question is how we give our opinions some consequence. And, as far as I can tell at the moment, the answer to that question is to return such decisions to the citizens of the democracy in which we live rather than handing them over to someone else.
Here's my question, since when does/ should Iran care what we think or do? If Iran still thinks this deal is in their best interest and if "the other signatories, including France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China" think it's a good deal... then keep the deal whether or not we stay in it. Both before the deal and since the deal these countries were the ones primarily trading with Iran anyway. The U.S., by ourselves, have had very little economic influence on Iran, with or without the deal.
So... if it's such a great deal then Iran and all these other countries should just continue it and nothing will change... Right? Continue the restrictions, continue the IAEA inspections, continue all the other provisions of the deal... just leave us out. How does that affect the course of the next 8 years? Why is it so necessary for the U.S. to participate with a deal with a country who so openly hates and undermines us? Anyone???
1
I have been to Iran and a majority of the people do not hate us, although Trump is trying his very best to see that they do.
Iran is an ancient country that has existed for more than a thousand years before the U.S. came into being. They were a democracy until overthrown in 1953 for their oil.
The majority of Iranians want peace and to join the western world, but Israel, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are dead set against it.
Hopefully they will keep the agreement intact with the other signers whose word has value and the next president of the U.S. will have better sense and strike a peace agreement that has value and cannot be destroyed by a fickle narcissist pathological liar.
2
This is a logical extension of an illogical man in a position of which he isn't capable of mastering. The Law of Unintended Consequences will be the trademark of this Presidency.
I'm afraid we're going to war again, or at least sending lots of armaments to rain down on SOMETHING in Iran, and since their nuclear capacity has been verifiably crippled with the sanctions, the only thing left is their oil producing capacity. Get ready for astronomical oil prices. And profits, for American companies who are awash in fracked and offshore oil, and can now sell it on the international market.
1
The audacity of the Saudis to claim that Iran harbors terrorists knows no bounds when radical wahibism started in Saudi Arabia. It has spread to all parts of the Muslim world and may be one of the roots of Isis. 15 of the 19 terrorists who were behind 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia and the Saudis are also behind the relentless bombing of Yemen civilians, with our backing.
The only countries that are happy that Trump got us out of the Iran Deal are Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United Arab Republic. So Trump has jeopardized alliances with our allies and made the situation in the middle East even more dangerous to side with countries that are already itching for a war with Iran. I doubt very much that the Saudis or Israelis will send troops or money to fight a war in Iran. If that does happen, it will be mostly our young men and women who will be sent over there, some never to return, the loss of hundreds of thousands of Iranian lives and billions of dollars to fight a war that won't be anymore successful than the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. What a price to pay for Trump's spite against Obama and everything he stood for.
3
I think Trump made a huge mistake pulling the US out of the Iran deal. But I don't dispute at all his right to do so. The Iran deal was not a treaty because the Senate never approved it (a 2/3 vote is required). Indeed, Obama never even presented it to the Senate, because he knew Americans' support was very low (less than 25%, as I recall). I think Americans should have supported it, but there's no question that they did not.
If a "deal" becomes a treaty, it's harder for the next administration to change it. If it doesn't become a treaty, though, it's pretty easy. That doesn't mean it's wise, but it's pretty easy.
The Iran deal never really had the US public's support. It had my support, but I always understood I was in the minority on that deal.
3
I wish Cohen had expanded on this statement "the pressure of conservative American Jews who support him and his iron principle that whatever Obama did must be bad." Perhaps I run in different circles but that seems like a pretty sweeping indictment. I would like to know more about what he's really trying to explain.
Also, I'm not so sure that Trump was hoodwinked by Netanyahu. Without knowing the exact conversations, I could just as easily reverse narrative. Netanyahu was coerced into the Iranian presentation in order to help Trump justify his hostility towards Iran. More likely, the arrangement is a quid pro quo between two leaders trapped in a desperate search for legitimacy. I'm reminded of the "Blame Canada" song from "South Park." Perhaps "Canadian Bacon" is more appropriate.
Either way, the compliment goes to Canada as they are the country comedians always spoof when demonstrating myopic self-serving international diplomatic policy. Canada must be doing something right. I can't say the same thing for Trump and Netanyahu right now.
1
Trump has every right as President to overturn policies of his predecessors. Everyone who negotiates treaties or contracts with the U.S. government knows this, yet they continue to do so. Why is that?
3
With the word of the U.S. government becoming less reliable, many focus on how other governments will be less inclined to rely on it in possible agreements. In addition, another effect is how the American people might find it less reliable.
Suppose a major crisis requiring austerity measures, will the U.S. government reduce Social Security payments to people who paid in their entire lives? Or, increasing your retirement age beyond your life expectancy, contravene earlier solemn convenient promises?
Will its Medicare program deny some expensive operations, decreeing them of little or no benefit, violating the patient's autonomy and life?
The U.S. government accumulates vast amounts of data on Americans. Can we be sure it won't use this information for blackmail or extortion, or smearing critics it deems unfair?
Since the George W. Bush gang fooled the people about the second Bush War Against Iraqis, when the U.S. government says anything, I always wonder, "What independent reliable evidence supports its claims?"
Now, with the U.S. government's word less reliable, whenever it makes a promise, we must ask, "What assurances do we have that it will keep that promise - and for how long?"
2
Roger Cohen's words are priceless, he's right on just about everything, but a trifle misleading about Iran gettting a cash windfall. Long before the deal, Iran had paid for some Boeings; they would not be delivered, but the US still held the cash. It gave Iran back its own money.
Certainly Iran will not buy any Boeings any more; they can get airbus to sell them. And I strongly doubt that the main holders of airbus stock (France, Germany, Great Britain) will agree to NOT sell to Iran.
This Trump NO deal is not going anywhere.
4
When we enter into ratified treaties "America's" word is excellent. This agreement was not "America's", but rather President Obama's. You can ask him why he went ahead with an agreement that not only he did not seek Senate approval as a treaty, but even could not get Congressional support passed for it. He took for good the idea that Congress could not find 2/3 votes to override his veto of rejecting the agreement. Entirely on Trump that he took us out and entirely on Obama that Trump could do that. We needed an President who would negotiate a treaty that would get the needed support but we did not have one.
4
Yes, withdrawing from the Iran deal is stupid and harmful, but it was a major commitment that ignored our Constitution which requires a 2/3 vote to approve treaties. Obama knew he could not get such approval on the Iran deal or the Paris Agreement on greenhouse gases, but went ahead anyway on grave subject matters, which should have been subject to Senate approval. He chose to gamble on the next administration; he lost. He is the one responsible for the embarrassment that comes from the withdrawal from agreements, that were never really binding in the first place.
Legislation by Executive Branch fiat is wrong and weakens our government. Obama engaged in this to an unprecedented extent
-- agency interpretations on sensitive issues (threatening agency enforcement, but bypassing rule making procedures) and expansive definitions of agency powers land other pronouncements. Is it really surprising that the next "emperor" reverses his predecessor's fiats?
Really important matters should be resolved by binding actions by Congress. If Congress won't act, then wait until it does.
2
Dear world: When you have an “agreement” with the US that is not a treaty, is not a signed document, and had clear indications it would not be passed by the Senate, what do you really have? An agreement made by the President at the time, which can be undone by a future President. Seems to me Europe should be pondering not our ending this agreement, or “keeping our word” but rather how they will dal with US that’s not at their beck and call.
2
It's not America's word that is worthless. It was Obama's word only. The so-called agreement with Iran was just an agreement with Obama. This was not a treaty and it was not submitted to the Senate for ratification. It was "approved" by Congress by default after the Democrats filibustered the resolution of opposition. If you want it to be America's word, than you submit it to the Senate for approval. It was & is a bad deal and one of the reasons why Trump is now president and a Democrat is not president.
3
The Iran deal was an extremely flawed compromised signed by Executive Order, never submitted for ratification to Congress. As such, it represents only the desire of the then President, Barack Obama, and not the will of the American people as represented by the Congress. And, the fact that Iran was in compliance with it means absolutely nothing as, in the deal proposed by Obama, they got most of what they wanted. And, since the IAEA did not have access to military sites, we do not even know if they were in compliance.
Yes, scrap a bad deal and start fresh. And, make the sanctions bite since it is the only thing that might get Iran to actually change.
2
Whatever else may be wrongheaded in Trump’s “reasoning” (an oxymoron for sure), reversing a former president’s treaty commitments, is not itself the issue. Any country that makes a deal with so vibrant and politically diverse a nation as the US ought to be aware that this kind of reversal is possible. Negotiate accordingly or should I say, caveat pactor. Trump’s backtracking on free trade deals and climate should have forewarned us that this was coming.
No Roger it is Obama's word that is worthless.He was a coward and did not ask Congress to make his lousy deal with secret codicils a treaty.Obama failed to just like with DACA and many of his exeecutive actions go through the logical constitutinal process.Worst president ever even thought that HRC will win.Of course did nothing about Russian inerference in our elections.
3
Trump is a foolish poser. He has no plan, just an insatiable need to draw attention to himself. The United Staes will be diminished by his actions. The only question is how much damage will be endured and how long (if ever) it will take to undo.
Hopefully, the adults in the rest of the world can save humanity from his choices.
1
"America's Word is Worthless."
Obama could have made this "America's Word" by submitting the agreement to Congress. He refused, and the word now made worthless is Obama's word. But we knew that.
4
Of course he didn't take it to Congress. They were just as obstructionist then as they are now. But funny how countries as diverse as France and England and China and Russia did (and still do) buy in.
1
Cohen, America's word is only given when a treaty signed by the President is ratified by the Senate. What was given in the Iran Deal was Obama's word. And we all know what that's worth.
2
"America's word"? I don't think so. The Iran Deal was nothing more than Obama's personal, unilateral, un-ratified pipe dream.
4
The Iran Nuclear Accord was an agreement with the Obama administration, not the US. This is an important distinction Mr. Cohen glosses over. It was never a treaty, was never signed by the US and was never more than an agreement with no legal underpinnings. By going around traditional channels and by passing Senate ratification, the agreement had no more permanence than an administrative regulation. Obama even went to U.N. first, not Congress. The blame should be placed on the Obama administration not Trump. The deal was rammed through without building support. As for our European allies, their recent comments, especially Germany, show that they are in this for the money from Iranian trade. Given their greed, I would quickly discount their protestations. Here in Dubai, support for US exiting is overwhelming as it is in most of the Arab world.
3
Obama by making this very bad Iranian deal emboldened Iran. Sanctions were removed, they were infused with 100 billion dollars which they used to meddle in the affairs of Iraq,Syria,Lebanon and Yemen. At the same time they continued there nuclear program and ballistic missile program. They pledged to destroy Israel and were arming their proxies in Syria and Lebanon. The Revolutionary Guards and Mullahs are laughing at us and threatening us that if we interfere with what they are doing there will be consequences. They don't care about there people as exemplified by the death of 500,000 during the Iran-Iraq war while defusing mine fields. Human Rights are non existent in Iran. Iran refused inspections of there military sites where nuclear research is continuing. It's time to push back Iran and start actively meddling in there nefarious plans. With the Obama plan we were living under borrowed time. Making deals with terrorists is only a ban -aid solution that will never work.
4
Three points:
Obama did not want to stop Iran from getting nuks. He only wanted a deal to add to his CV.
The world has zero idea as to wether or not Iran is in compliance since Iran does not permit any inspections of its military facilities. I wonder why?
Only a ratified treaty binds the US to any agreement.
2
Mr. Obama’s personal “executive agreements” like the Paris Accord and his surrender to Iran, which he refused to submit to Senate for approval, are neither law nor the word of the United States.
Our allies and enemies know or should know the requirements of our Constitution concering treaties.
1
The Iranians can now point to all those treaties the United States entered into with the Native Americans throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries and say with clear authority that the word of an American is worth the junk bond its written on.
1
I have been an advocate of détente with Iran since the 1990s, and I supported the Obama administration's policy wholeheartedly. I published a couple of articles along these lines about 10-12 years ago. It has always seemed crystal-clear to me that the American and Iranian peoples have much in common, whereas we share little with (and are basically hated by) most of our Sunni Arab "friends."
However, I see a plausible case for ending the nuclear accord:
1. The sunset provisions, which basically allow Iran to pursue a bomb again in the future, constitute a major flaw.
2. The regime is on the ropes, because the Iranian economy is in free-fall. Why prop it up when re-imposing sanctions might topple the so-called Islamic Republic?
3. The Saudi Crown Prince's reforms in Saudi Arabia create the prospect of a truly friendly, modernized regime there. We should be encouraging them to keep moving in that direction, and supporting them against the current regime in Iran is part of that dynamic.
I probably would not have withdrawn from the agreement, but there is a logic behind doing so. Although admittedly a gamble, it represents an acceptable demarche that could end happily for us, the Gulf States, the Israelis, AND the Iranian people.
2
Are thee no limits to Trump's downright ignorance? Withdrawing from the nuclear agreement with Iran is one more demonstration that this fool is absolutely unfit to occupy the Oval Office. If he won't go willingly, he needs to be removed before he causes more catastrophes. Make America Great Again? He's destroying it step by ignorant step.
Let's get a couple of basic facts out here. First of all, in order for an international agreement to carry the force of Law it must be approved by the Senate and signed by the president. It is then a TREATY which no future president can cancel on a whim.
Of course, this wasn't done with the Iran Nuclear deal. Like so many things under Obama he just approved it himself with is "pen & phone". That's why Trump can cancel it with a snap of his fingers.
Why didn't Obama run it through the Senate in accordance with the constitution? Because it NEVER would have passed; too many Democrats in the Senate (e.g. Menendez, Schumer, etc) were adamantly opposed.
So....as in so many things these days, don't blame Trump; blame Obama.
4
Americas word has more value now, then at any time probably since Jackson; when a person could say what they mean and be elected. Would Trump have been elected 30 years ago? Twenty? Yet his essential message has remained constant. He has not flip-flopped for political expediency, e.g. Jerusalem, trade. While forerunners waffled their way atop polls; politicking America to QE's, and constant threat of nuclear destruction.
On the morning of the 8th of November 2016, America was easily arguable at its lowest point since the burning of the White House. On the brink of descending further into social chaos, and fallout shelters. Thousands of people were taking to the streets at a moments whim; to confront the feel-good 'cause du jour'. Now, that energy is being directed -- thru leadership, to more productive causes. America needs to be productive; assembling to disrupt commerce is not a way. Perverting the intent of protest from using a voice, i.e. vote, to being obstructive and consequently destructive in assembly, contributed to bringing America down to her lowest point in two centuries. When has anybody heard President Trump ask the American people to use their voices by taking to the streets? For such requests are those of immature revolutionaries, not mature democratic visionaries.
2
One of the undervalued benefits of the original deal was that as sanctions eased, the Iranian economy grew, the populace began to enjoy "western" living - this is waht will lead to the overthrow of the religious fanatics in Tehran - people yearning for freedom.
This concept is way too deep for our imbecile in chief.
His Donaldness has now opened the door for Russia and China to take over the leadership role internationally.
1
"Now all that has been thrown up in the air by Trump. Through an act of utter petulance, he has done a grave disservice to American interests and alliances."
Funny, I didn't see that kind of language being used to describe Obama when he canceled Bush's Europe-based missile defense system. Our European allies were baffled that he got nothing in return and saw Obama as weak. Then of course Russia invaded Crimea, many say due to Obama's kowtowing to Putin.
"Petulance" is the perfect description of Obama and his feckless foreign policy.
3
Actually, what Trump and the GOP have done is tell the world the words of Democrat president are worthless because the Democrat President would never do this to a Republican president.
1
Roger Cohen’s analysis is one of the best I have read. What a shame that Trump supporters and many Republicans will not read it or absorb the facts about the JCPOA. Many of the people cheering Trump’s demolition of this agreement are under the mistaken impression that it was a bilateral “give away” by Obama, rather than an agreement negotiated painstakingly for years by diplomats and nuclear scientists that includes China, France, Germany, Russia, and Great Britain. I see many comments that are ignorant of the extent of the inspections authority, the true nature of the sunset provisions, and a profound misunderstanding of the agreement. A sad day for the US as Trump continues to destroy our bonds with traditional allies and creates conditions that set the stage for explosive international crises.
4
This is why I voted for him. To make on his campaign promises. He did.
1
No rogie, YOUR word is worthless, along with the rest of the atrocious editorial board.
The NYT's is a national disgrace; you apologize and hide the vile iranian regime's outrageous crimes against its own and the people of the mideast because of the financial relationship you have with the regime, as exhibited by the iran tour business you conduct.
The lack of NYT coverage of the widespread Dec/January iranian people's protests against their regime was despicable, and your repetitious, appalling apologies for the regime and its terrorism, violence and war across the region so you can earn money as a tour guide in iran make you complicit in its War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.
I pray that when the regime falls, and it will soon, that you personally are held to account, along with the others in the editorial board, the lowlife european officials like sigmar and federica, for acting as regime shills to earn a nickel doing business with it.
If there is ANY justice in this world rogie, you will be in a docket at the Hague.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/2/while-defending-regime-t...
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/197447/washington-post...
This is about as productive as soiling a bed where Obama once slept. But it's so typically Trump: childishly vindictive and pointlessly destructive.
1
You, Mr. Cohen, are as ignorant as the great majority of U.S. citizens when you state "The nuclear accord, reached in 2015, was a watershed. It was not intended to end Iranian-American enmity, virulent since the 1979 Islamic Revolution".
The enmity began much earlier, in 1953 when the U.S. CIA, led by Dwight Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers, along with British Intelligence, led by Winston Churchill, overthrew Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh to protect British oil interests. They installed their puppet the Shah who was a despot and it was not until 1979 the Iranian people regained their independence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27état
We, the United States, in our arrogance, do not teach our low points in school as it interferes with our misplaced belief that we are a superior enlightened nation.
It is very unfortunate that even smart people like yourself do not know or tell the facts about the genesis of our "enmity" with Iran.
1
"America’s Word is Worthless"
The real question Americans should be asking and the NYT should be reporting on is how worthy is Iran's word? But that wouldn't fit with the left's anti-Trump, anti-America agenda.
1
Really, you have the gall to say it was not about Iranian interference in neighboring Arab states or about its ballistic missile program. So what do you call US interference is Iraq, Libya and yes Syria. What about Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar (yes Qatar). Are they too not interfering in neighboring Arab states? Are they not bombing Yemen with weapons supplied by USA and UK and also the ‘intelligence’ provided by USA? So why is that different from interference by Iran? Why do you have this double standards and always refer to Iran being a bad actor in the middle east, what about USA are they no too bad actors? Why only hold Iran to different standards? At least Iran is interfering in their own neighborhood, what is USA doing by interfering in countries thousands of miles away?
1
Don't just blame Trump. Blame also the Republican Senate during Obama's second term. Obama should have negotiated the Iran agreement as a treaty and submitted it to the Senate, but couldn't because the Republican Senate would have voted it down. Because of this, Trump alone had the power to renege on the agreement.
The rot in American politics runs much deeper than Trump.
4
"Iran remains a repressive and disruptive regime, with a hideous human rights record, . . ."
Yes, it does, but our own human rights record is hardly sterling since about 2003, and if Trump is reelected, let's see how repressive our own regime will become. It is already disruptive to a high degree.
Trump doesn't use his brain which is incapable of any thought beyond avarice, which woman has the largest breasts, and his hate for the very idea that a black man could be president of the US. If a Republican had negotiated that deal he would be slobbering all over it. But a black man did and thus it must be terrible. He thinks that whatever his sick mind believes is right no matter what. There is zero ability to think through anything beyond the most base thoughts. I know that I am supposed to pretend that he offers something other than ignorance and demagoguery to the white working class but I just can't see beyond the ugly heart of a lifetime con artist.
Though Donald Trump likes to make it seem he acted alone, performing as a maverick, when he trashed trade agreements, the Paris climate accords, and now the Iran deal, we should remember that he is acting in harmony with his party. Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and friends.
For eight lazy years the Republicans maintained power by insulting Barack Obama and promising to return America to true blue Americans once that Black Muslim interloper was gone. They bad-mouthed all the policies Obama and his allies had put in place, and attacked The Affordable Care Act with ferocity.
Then they got into power. Still preaching individual self-reliance (cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security), American nationalism (forget the Europeans, who needs NATO? NAFTA’s a rotten deal, immigrants are criminals), and the evils of Obama.
But it turned out that during their eight years of leisure, Republicans hadn’t developed alternate plans to provide Americans with healthcare, or repair our infrastructure, or protect and educate children. They scrambled to write legislation at the last minute, in secret, not knowing what their bills actually said, scribbling in the margins.
So. Trump is a true Republican. He preaches resentment, despises diplomacy, loves military parades, and trashes complicated legislation without having any idea how he might replace it ... or how his macho behavior threatens the lives and safety of people. He doesn’t care.
Hail the GOP!
A fine analysis, Mr. Cohen. Under Trump, we continue the conceit that the United States can make countries behave in ways of which we approve. This is absurd, and has never really worked, except in violent conflict.
Anyone who thought, even for a minute, that Donald Trump would honor his or the country's commitments hasn't been paying attention. Trump has long demonstrated, more than amply, that if it suits him to abrogate agreements and contracts to which he is a party, he will do so, regardless of the damage done to others.
In his private business, he routinely ignored his contractual obligations, demonstrating time and again that the consequences to his good faith business "partners," lenders and paramours to be of no concern to him. In this case, the damage is being done to the country, if not the world. He doesn't care.
It's typical Trump, except that he's now playing chicken with our national security, which he holds in trust for all Americans. One can only hope that the price paid by the country isn't too high, because now he's writing large checks out of our account, not his own.
To get a deal America transferred $150B, gave $1B in cash and allowed Iran to start and sell oil, thus strengthening Iran enormously. Iran used the money to help terrorist groups and to destabilize Middle East. It also started to expand its missile program to achieve the capability to carry nuclear warheads. Meanwhile Iran continued its secret nuclear research and kept its nuclear infrastructure for the purpose of starting nuclear bomb making when the deal sunset after 10 years. They have been doing all these while chanting death to America and Israel. Under these circumstances it is foolish to give Iran 10 more years to strengthen itself and to face a bigger threat. As such it was a better decision to pull out from the current deal now and to try to get a better deal when Iran is weak. The two countries, Israel and Saudi, that face real threat from nuclear Iran like Trump's decision. That is the best proof that Cohen is not believable in this case.
2
So Trump declaring war against Iran denounced as terrorist State and last on the list for demolition. Iran and Syria two of a kind posing direct threats to the US today; or more precisely opponents of Israel and Saudi Arabia? Saudi Arabia implicated in 911 but that was 2001. Europe may just refuse the invitation to flatten Iran which now seems set in motion; default setting?
If regime change is the goal, Trump should not be surprised if the Germans, French, the Brits and the Russians refuse refueling privilege for US planes. And without refueling privilege there can be no regime change.
1
From Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq to Syria and Iran, America's word aka the President of the United States has always been worthless. American interests and values have always been beholden to callous, corrupt and cynical hypocrisy.
"... hope for the best."
Sorry, but the only consequence this terrifying narcissist cares about is keeping himself the center of attention at all costs.
The chicken hawks are back, this time in the form of "Bone Spurs" Trump and "Mussolini-stache Bolton." Hide your children. The logical sequence of events in ending the Iran Agreement lead to war. Checks and balances are gone in this country.
No single American the President included can renege on a Deal sent to the
Senate and ratified as a Treaty. That was left undone. Why? Had that been done it would have sealed the Deal as an American Deal. It was a deal negotiated by President Obama. But by failing to sell it and get it ratified he stopped short of locking it in. Trump may well fail in his aspirations. But for the lack of ratification, he could not have tried. Governing by phone and pen isn't sufficient under our constitutional government, the Senate must approve deals cut by Presidents...otherwise the deal is undone and can easily be undone. One failure may well lead to another.
2
Donald J. Trump has no credibility; and our nation is suffering
because Trump is seen as representing ALL of us...but he
is a despicable man; and the GOP in the US Congress is letting
ALL of the USA down....because...the GOP in the US Congress
is doing the bidding of their campaign financiers.....
Citizens United ...the tool of the oligarchs in the USA ...maybe
the tool of those who funnel campaign funds for those who
do the bidding of the oligarchs who are from other countries.
Well...NYTimes isn't it about TIME to investigate who is
holding the GOP hostage with Citizens United..
Answer this question: Why is there silence in the GOP which
gives Donald Trump the power to rule without any regard for
the lives of those who are NOT represented...those of us who
are NOT the slaves of the .01 percent.....How about reporting
on the TRUTH of who is really running our country...how about investigating the demise of our Republic through the tool of this unconstitutional law....sic. Citizens United...please !!!
1
Mr. Cohen is dead wrong. It's Iran's leader's words that are worthless. In fact, many of their words over the years have also proved hateful of and destructive to human rights. Those words have not infrequently spawned actions overtly hostile to women, gays, and pretty much any segment of the global population that declines to view the world through the same "religiously" warped lens that they do. It now appears Iran's overlords have repeatedly breached the questionable agreement Obama struck with them. Look, I'm now fan of Trump. But it's increasingly disappointing to realize that the Times fever-pitched antipathy toward him renders it incapable of accepting the reality that just occasionally he gets something right. Even a blind squirrel...
34
" It now appears Iran's overlords have repeatedly breached the questionable agreement"
And where did you see this information? All indications are that Iran was keeping within the boundaries of the agreement.
52
If we refuse to negotiate with countries that have abysmal records on human rights, there is not much hope for the future. Just two points: 1)There is no single set of attitudes by Iranian leaders (just as Iranians themselves are divided on these issues.) The hope has always been that improvements in the economy and a gradual re-integration with the world community will shift the balance of power within Iran away from the hardliners. Of course that's a gamble, but the alternative is worse.
I'm sure that, like a blind squirrel (or a stopped clock), President Trump sometimes gets something "right." But certainly not on this issue.
2)More critically, Mr. Johnson makes the statement: "It now appears Iran's overlords have repeatedly breached the questionable agreement Obama struck with them." Other than Fox News , Benjamin Netanyahu and rabid advocates of war like John Bolton I know of no knowledgeable experts who accepts that statement. Even many of the critics of the Iran accord grudgingly acknowledge that they have lived up to the narrow terms of the agreement. The "fever pitched antipathy" which Mr. Johnson decries is not an irrational one. It is based on the record of a narcissistic President who is intellectually and temperamentally unfit for leadership and a threat to our nation.
43
Iran is much less hostile to women, and the global population than the Saudis. Women have rights in Iran. Iran actively opposes the state of Israel and Saudi dominance but does not promote terrorism per se elsewhere unlike the Saudis, remember 9/11?. Iran feels let down by the lack of help from the international community when Iraq under Hussein invaded Iran, hence the development of a nuclear program to offset the presence of a Sunni nuclear enemy on its borders, Pakistan. Context is important when evaluating Iranian activities.
36
Roger, you present the Iranians as choir boys. We should trust any country who consistently chants "Death to America?" and you think they can be trusted to keep their word. as for France and Germany, they couldn't wait to sell them airliners and help them with selling their oil, all at America's willingness to commit soldiers to the mid east while they almost sit idly by. IF it was such a good deal, why did Obama have to use an executive order? and what about the secret planes loaded with cash? It was obviously a ploy by Obama and Kerry at some sort of legacy. remember who said this:
"elections have consequences"
"Your side lost"
1
Trump means to destroy Obama's presence and legacy in the White House.
In fact, his lack of decency, sense, honesty, and competence underlines and highlights it.
Just one problem there Roger. The Senate did not approve this "treaty" so it is Unconstitutional by our laws.
Boils down to this: Obama made this deal, the Senate did not vote affirmation, Obama is gone, deal is over.
2
So we side with the country that gave us the 9/11 terrorists against a country that never attacked us. Is this is how to MAGA.
Trump has no moral compass and no overriding value in anything but himself. It shows in his lack of knowledge about details, it shows in his personal life, it shows in his disdain for opposing views or the loyal opposition. He is the quintessential showman -- it is all about him.
Now the country he says he loves has no moral compass but America First. In reality it is Trump First and America Second or Third or who really cares.
With America out of the hard won, almost universally endorsed save Israel and Saudi Arabia, Agreement with Iran, we are, like our President, alone on the world stage. Our word, our signature on a diplomatic agreement means nothing any more. When weighed against the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China along with the European Union and the United Nations, our Number One status slips down the scale quite a few notches. Our sanctions will mean nothing to Iran as the rest of the world picks up the slack and as a reward they will enjoy the increased business. Say goodbye to Boeing's deal to build aircraft for Iran, Airbus and China can handle it. Way to go Trump.
Only a massive defeat of the compliant Republicans in November will begin the grueling process of restoring America's position in the world. We need to clean the House and the Senate, not just the White one. We need to resume the struggle for the high moral ground.
Deep down the Current Occupant knows, as we all do, that Barack Obama is a real man, while he himself is a fake man. His frantic attempts to destroy the real man to make himself look real would be pitiable if he weren't breaking all the china in the shop with his wild flailing. His resentful, fearful supporters are drowning in the tides of change, not having learned to swim, and have mistaken his bluster for a life-saver. They haven't yet realized that he is only and ever about himself, that they are so much flotsam, useful to him only as long as they serve to keep his own personal boat afloat.
OK--mixed metaphors there--but one look at his face in videos of the roast at the 2011 White House Correspondents' dinner tells us all we need to know about what's really behind this "decision": nothing but vengeful payback.
The shallowness of President Trump's ending the Iran agreement speaks to his incredible ignorance and stupidity about international relations, indeed, relations of any kind. After years of contentious relations with a complicated country, a country with competing secular and religious representation, John Kerry and Iranian negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif, did an extremely difficult feat: they brought these two blood enemies closer to reconciliation. Negotiation is not about winning, it's about moving ahead. Trump, in a stroke of the pen, has set us backwards, yet again.
If it makes America look bad, so be it. That’s what we get for putting Obama in the WH. He made such a flawed deal, he knew it would never fly with a confirmation process.
Good riddance to him and the deal.
1
The words are significantly different. America's word must include Congress. The President by himself cannot make a deal or the next one can change it. That is how it should be. If Obama had been able to usher the deal through Congress, Trump would not have been able to end it. Obama could not, which meant Trump could end it. Our allies, and the people we dealt with know this about our laws and governmental structure. The yells and screams of how terrible this is come from the progressives here and in Europe. Everyone else shrugs their shoulders.
1
Iran should honor its agreement with the other parties, and forget about the US. Did they ever trust the US anyway?
I doubt that Iran buys much from the US, or sells much to us either. Direct sanctions have lost their bite.
The US will try to blacklist foreign companies and banks which deal with Iran. But its time that the rest of the world stood up against this tactic. In this case, sanctions are less about security or human rights, and more about appeasing domestic pressure groups.
Two things:
Just because Trump backs out of the treaty does not mean the rest of the countries who signed the Treaty will. They may all thumb their noses at Trump and continue on. Any sanctions against our allies will have an impact on American workers.
Iran may now fast forward on nuclear weapons development. Unlike North Korea, once Iran has nuclear capabilities, it will never suggest giving them up. Probably many hardliners in Iran are applauding Trump.
Iran kept its end of the bargain but Trump weaseled out of his obligations, probably because of the Obama connection. In this regard, Iran is more honorable than is America under Trump. We have reached a sad state of affairs.
1
An unsurprising article from an Obama apologist.
America's word is codified in treaties.
Cohen is using a straw man construct to avoid the real issue.
Obama deftly avoided passing this lousy agreement through the senate when it became clear that the support required for approval was not there.
4
American didn’t break its word on the Iran Deal because it never gave its word on the Iran Deal. It was a non-binding agreement between the Obama administration and Iran which the present administration was not obligated to observe. While negotiating the deal, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the agreement didn’t need to be approved by the U.S. Senate because it wasn’t “legally binding.” “We’ve been clear from the beginning: We’re not negotiating a, quote, legally binding plan,” Kerry said. In a November 2015 letter, Julia Frifield, the State Department assistant secretary for legislative affairs, assured Congress that “The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is not a treaty or an executive agreement, and is not a signed document.” Forty-seven senators signed a letter warning Iran’s leader that the next president could cancel the deal “with the stroke of a pen. This, of course, is exactly what happen. The Iranians and other signees knew President Obama has no authority to make a deal without Senate consent.
2
Iran should be racing now to make a bomb. If Israel has nukes, then her enemies in the region need to be thus armed.
If you want peace, work for parity.
Nevermind this "who can we trust??" bleating from the sheep.
Bravo. The counterweight - or demolishment - of the ill-considered attempt at justification by your editorial page colleague Bret Stephens, who astonishingly makes the assumption that some serious planning was already in the works for next steps on Iran. From the Trump administration? It's just more reckless withdrawal from world leadership by the head-in-the-sand MAGA crowd.
You know, if Iran knew of a way to deliver a surgical strike sure to hit the White House with President Bone Spurs in it, I would happily give them a hearty Good Job! This ignorant, sorry excuse for a president is ruining the western alliances and endangering the entire world. We have painted ourselves as the face of World Stupidity, and it will be a long time, if ever, before we are trusted again by the rest of the normal world.
1
Trump to Iran: Obama's word is worthless. Now you know what Americans know.
1
"Trump has done what he likes to do: express his anger, break things and hope for the best."
I concur with the first two tendencies, but I see no evidence that Trump hopes for the best outcome for anyone other than himself. This trio of habits may best be completed with "and feed his voracious appetite for self-importance."
This was not “America’s word”. It was Obama’s word. He could have subjected it to Senate passage in order to make it America's word. But, he did not. Do you know why? Yes, you do. It’s because America did not like this deal and it never would have passed the Senate. So, this is what you get when you rule America by executive order.
3
This was as much about wrecking the Western alliance as anything else. Expect Trump to pull out of NATO before 2020.
Just doing Putin's bidding ... as usual.
1
“Utter petulance.” Hmm. Is it the same person with (vulgarian) fingers on the nuclear button? Congress needs to urgently put a child lock on that.
Seriously, when is America going to recognize that "regime change" hasn't worked since World War II? And those were genuinely aggressive regimes that were changed at the cost of millions of lives. I would never consider myself an isolationist--we all have to live in the world. But the impulse to meddle to make things "just so" for America has been idiotic for decades.
1
Thank you President Trump for your courage and your common sense. You are saving the country and the world.
1
This would be a good time for Kim to announce that he is no longer interested in meeting with a man who refuses to honor the validity of an agreement in business or in international law, and that he will only deal with South Korea and China in the future. And make it very clear to the entire world that anything that Trump does against North Korea would be unprovoked aggression at this point and would entitle NK to UN military intervention on its behalf similar to the support given to South Korea in the 50’s. It is time somebody actually punched the counter puncher once.
This, as Mr. Cohen points out, has FAR less to do with Trump's feelings about Mr. Obama than it has to do with his slavish devotion to the foreign leader who fought so hard to prevent Mr. Obama from signing the accord in the first place. And, no, that's not Vlad Putin.
This makes the world more dangerous, and that's exactly what the neocons who rushed us into Iraq and who have always dreamed of rushing us into Iran ("Anyone can go to Baghdad. Real men go to Teheran," Dick Cheney in 2003) want.
This country was created as an alternative to empires, but the neocons are determined to have us become one. Mike Pompeo? John Bolton? What's next, Richard Pearl and Paul Wolfowitz?
On its terms, this op-ed doesn't make sense. Cohen wishes to characterize Trump's decision as some petulant personal act; then Cohen lists all the bad influences (Netanyahu, Bolton, Pompeo, Saudi Arabia, conservative American Jews, and so on) who apparently agree with Trump. This is almost exactly the criticism of Trump that occurred when he was calling Kim Jung-un "rocket man" - it all looked terrible and drew endless catcalls from various sources in the NYT, until, lo and behold, some short time later, it appeared to work. Trump's attitude toward this deal has always been constant and never prone to modification - and why would anyone justify a deal that funds Iran to build ballistic missiles and engage in systematic sponsorship of terrorism around the Middle East? Obama's Iran deal had all the warm encouraging earmarks of the Munich debacle which encouraged Hitler to continue his aggressions toward his central European neighbors. I have no doubt that if Cohen were commenting on that international treaty in 1936, he would be praising Neville Chamberlin to the skies, and traducing Winston Churchill for being so reactionary and scurrilous.
1
There is a racist streak in all American political discourse, even in the NYT. Roger Cohen writes about Iran like it's a one-dimensional dysfunctional regime, suppressing human rights at home and spreading terrorism abroad. The very same could be said of the US. The current US president is a bombastic buffoon. But the NYT, at least, should stop painting such one-sided pictures. Iran is a nation trying to navigate complicated, often hostile, Middle East politics. No one nation in this region has a monopoly of good or bad. Let's stop using bombastic terms of good and evil. Let's respect Iran as a nation before talking about negotiating agreements.
1
One person made this deal without the consent of Congress. So one man can end this deal. It’s what happens when you have a president like Obama who tries to do things outside the normal constitutional process. If it were a good deal that actually accomplished its stated goal, it would not have been overturned. As for America breaking its word ..... nonsense. Iran lied about its nuclear program so the deal was broken by Iran before it was made. Further, Obama deceived the American people in order to make the deal. That’s two massive lies that the deal was based on. Finally, Iran could be, at this very moment, continuing its nuclear program in violation of the agreement and we can’t know because we cannot inspect as the world needs toand as we were told. It’s not the USA that has broken its trust. It is Iran and Obama.
2
Trump's word is worthless. Just ask his subcontractors, casino investors, condo buyers, and Trump University students. Now he speaks for the United States.
Trump epitomizes the worst used car salesman stereotype. And, based on his lifetime record of lies and broken promises, there is zero chance that he will tell is the truth about any "deal" he reaches with North Korea.
Bull in the china shop - Trump breaks it - we own it.
Our international credibility, including potential written agreements with North Korea, and partnerships with trusted allies have been dealt a serious blow. If each U.S. administration can rescind bilateral or multilateral formal agreements which conflict with campaign promises, the incentive for repeated clandestine foreign interventions in American elections has just been substantially increased.
Except it wasn't America's word, it was one person's. Not persuasive, to me.
1
Your wrong, Obama made the USA's word worthless with his "Red Line". Trump is restoring it.
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Roger, I believe you missed a couple of behind-the-scenes actors (who might have talked Trump down from the ledge on this if they didn't want it themselves): 1) Mike Pence and the rest of the "Christian" psychopaths in the "Left Behind" crowd are marching us toward Armageddon in the Middle East because they "know" they are "saved" and they are itching to bring on the "End Times"; and 2) the oligarchs--especially those in the fossil fuel biz (Koch bros...) who know there is (even more) money to be made if we escalate tensions in the ME--they have been just itching for higher oil prices.
America’s word is worthless, is nothing new, as the Native Americans discovered, in the 19th Century, when they signed treaties with the United States government.
America's word is worthless because our president is worthless. The sooner this ignorant man is thrown out of office, the better. His hatred and bigotry is beyond the pale.
If anyone thinks that Trump knows what's in the deal, I've got a bridge downtown that goes into Brooklyn to sell you. This had nothing to do with the content of the deal, it had to do with the first black president who signed it. The drug store cowboy in chief couldn't shine Obama's shoes.
1
No Mr. Cohen, your writings are worthless. We gave Iran an incredible opportunity through sanctions relief to rejoin the community of nations. They chose to use the money to expand their military interventions and to fund terrorists and more ballistic missile tests. They chose this and they will reap the rewards. Your Neville Chamberlainesque routine is tired. Only a strong American response can convince the Mullahs that they had better negotiate before they are overthrown by their angry population.
2
Trump, with the assistance of Bolton and Pompeo have put the United States in the unenviable position of changing our image as a reliable ally to our World partners. At the rate Trump is going, we will soon be considered the world's enemy.
He has done more harm in the last 17 months to our reputation of a country to trust, than any other President in our history.
Trump is putting all of us in harm's way not only with our enemies, but with our friends as well.
At the rate Trump is going, we will be ally free by the end of the year.
Not a position we want to be in. Trump is a one man destruction crew.
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Agree with most sentiments here, however a crucial point is that he is not "one man wrecking crew". It takes a legion of Congressional enablers" to make this a go. He's not just a loony at the end of the block. He is aided, abetted by others. We should be going after the enablers night and day.
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A typically wonderful column from Mr. Cohen. My only disagreement is with this early line: "Only Trump can believe that makes sense." Sadly and frighteningly an overwhelming majority of his party believe the same. One need look no further than the word "courageous" in the Stephens column. Trump is the symptom of a destructive illness.
I think Roger summed this up very well. I believe the two reasons this was done was to stamp out Obama and to please Israel. Its clear trump has no idea what the agreement says or does as even he could get so many facts wrong on purpose.
1
It's like watching a hostile foreign power invade and take over your country. It's how the Germans must have felt in the 1930s... their world just changed under the new regime. where are the street protests? The real push-back? Are we just going to sit this out and wait for him to be re-elected?
1
Trump fancies himself this amazing dealmaker. So where are the amazing deals? Other than breaking stuff, what has the Trump administration accomplished? Every day he remains in office our standing in the world plummets. How are we going to make great deals when our word is worthless.
Iran is an old society with cultural depth unequaled by many countries. Watch some Iranian cinema and you will understand. Saudi Arabia is a new and rough country built on the riches of oil and the Dollar. It created Wahhabism, Bin Laden and its sequels. Israel is in a quagmire : a dual society both with culture, freedom and entrepreneurship, but also with radical religion and the obligation to survive in a very hostile environment. The USA (Trump) who likes clear cut bad guy/good guy situation designated Iran as the latest official evil state (North Korea was probably not up to the challenge). One can expect that the old continent (Europe and Asia) will side with Iran who probably has suffered enough since the Carter era. Overall I am not sure this will help make America great again.
DT is setting the stage for a war which once it gets going, will ensure him re-election in a couple of years. Americans don't tend to elect a new government in war time.
"Only Trump can believe that makes sense. But believe it he does, with a vengeance. From Day 1, it has been the deal Trump loves to hate. He knows who authorized it: Barack Obama. Whether he knows its content is another matter."
This statement Mr. Cohen sums up this little man's entire decision to end this international agreement.
The day he took office, his primary objective was to systematically destroy our black President's legacy, Barack Obama.
Remember the 2011 White House Correspondent's dinner and President Obama's Roast to Donald Trump? If not, here's a link;
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TwRmX6zs4>
This is the moment trump decided that his revenge would be sweet and prolonged.
He grows more dangerous with each passing day and continues to lead all of us down a really dark hole. He has got to be stopped.
.....possibly, buy our military might remains unquestioned, so there's that.
Trump worked harder at promoting his Iran announcement, than he did on having a plan to announce.
Two thirds of Trump's actions are commercials for the next episode of Celebrity Apprentice White House.
Stay tuned! Tuesday at 2:00 PM!
The only thing more fake than Reality TV is Donald J. Trump. He has no plan for Iran because no one has written that script yet. And when Trump gets it, he'll ad-lib anyway, much more entertaining! His performance is what matters, the applause, not the results.
Vote Democratic on November 6th.
Worthless, Mr. Cohen?
You flatter ourselves.
America's word is meaningless, unintelligible, arrogant,
and daffy.
You would have to be as clueless as Donald Trump to believe that anything he says can be taken seriously. His withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear treaty marks the US as a volatile and untrustworthy player which does not honor legally binding agreements.
I wonder how a Constitution that was drafted to prevent the US from ever having a king became so corrupted that we now have Donald the First ruling over us all.
Honoring previous presidents' signatures on international agreements is a long tradition that greatly increased presidential power. With this foolish move, Trump has reduced his own, and future presidents', ability to get anything at all done in foreign policy.
You're absolutely right, Mr.Cohen. Is America's word worthless? The Trump Administration's decision on the Iran deal is beyond reason, no matter from where you look at it. One conclusion for sure is his advisers are pretty mediocre.
1
It always seemed to me that during the duration of this accord, Iran would grow its economy. As a result, a generation would grow up with goods and services that they otherwise would not have. This would change their social culture. By the time the accords ended, the Iranian people would not want to go backwards economically, which would occur with new sanctions that would be applied if Iran did resume its nuclear program. This would be a social benefit of the accords that would support the political benefits. Trump has now taken away that social benefit, taking away any hope that Iran might evolve into a more responsible nation in the hear future. That has probably been set back fifty years. Trump's hatred can only reap hatred in return. What more is to be expected from putting a foolish, ignorant, and unstable man in power than foolish, ignorant actions that increase instability. Chaos President, indeed.
This deal is how President Obama earned his Nobel Peace Prize. The one way walking away from this deal adds one more reason why Trump is the Worst President Ever.....
1
So Trump has now proven America's word is worthless and will soon be heading to North Korea to negotiate denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. At the forthcoming meeting of the bad haircuts, does anyone expect an agreement negotiated in good faith?
Trump says that the Iran deal was the worst agreement ever. Did he ever read it? I don't think Classic Comics has an Iran Treaty edition.
1
Trump doesn’t care about the country he leads. He only cares about trump. He bleated to his base that there were “bad deals” and they bleated back in the affirmative. This man only works for himself and what is politically useful for him. In a sense he works for his minority base, who will revel in the promises kept even when they’re ill conceived and rashly done. He doesn’t have a bit of concern for America and even less for the Mid East.
President Obama chose not to send the Iran deal to the Senate in the form of a treaty. If he had then the next president couldn't simply reject it. Same thing with his executive actions on DACA. Obama couldnn't be bothered with finding bipartisan deals so he did things by executive fiat and now they are all coming down. A good lesson for the current and future presidents. America's word isn't worthless. But the promises of a past American president not confirmed by the legislative branch are as they should be of only limited value.
3
Interesting to see the impact this has on the price of oil, coupled with higher interest rates in the U.S. Trump has his hand picked team to cinch world peace, wrapping up a quick meeting with the North Koreans and then reformatting policy in the middle east. Historians will have their work cut out for themselves in charting this bold approach for international policy. Voters increasingly like what they see, or so primaries are indicating that for now.
"Trump apparently believes he can bring Iran to its knees, perhaps even precipitate regime change, through new and restored sanctions."
And if it takes a war to do it Trump seems willing.
Seems to me that it's much too early to predict how this is going to end , but Trump's decision to scrap the deal should come as no surprise.
Sadly Roger, you are 100% correct in your analysis of what Trump's decision means for us and the Middle East. Fasten your seatbelts.
1
Appeasement has to stop.
Bad Deal is No Deal.
Iran has had a choice,it chose the path of belligerence & confrontation.
Iran’s tone of language is unfit for a cultured Nation.
“Death to America “,”Anhiliation of Israel “
The range of our missiles covers all of Israel today. That means the fall of the Zionist regime, which will certainly come soon.
- General Mohammad Ali Jafari,
This is not the language of a law or agreement abiding nation.
The accord was appeasement & deservedly got torn up.
The President took a decisive decision.
Time will vindicate the correctness of the decision.
In voting in a corrupt,racist Commander in Chief,those Americans who can still prevent other people from voting have voted for War.
1
I would think the "World's Greatest Deal Maker" would want to construct a "real solution." However this is Donald Trump who has has shown his solution is invariably shout a bit, wag a finger and throw it away.
The title of your piece demonstrates your lack of understanding of the JCPOA. The only nation whose word is worthless is Iran. The U.S. and its allies were fraudulently induced into entering a deal. Lied to by Iran regarding the extent, depth and intentions of its highly advanced nuclear program - the sole intent of which is a nuclear arsenal. Under the JCPOA Iran has continued unhindered in its program. With no inspections called for or even allowed by the IAEA at military sites, Iran has been free to work on its nuclear program, enjoy financial benefits (Billions of U.S. Dollars), sanctions relief, deceive the world, and continue to be the world's largest funder of terrorism. Think for a moment how aggressive Iran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard have been since the JCPOA was reached.... and then think for a moment how terrifying the world would be today if they in fact reached the goal of a weapons grade nuclear warhead. Do not be deceived. America's greatest allies in Europe agree with everything Trump said. France did not want the deal as is, but was led to the table by a deceived U.S. President. And America's greatest allies in the Middle East fully support and agree with Trump. America stands as the voice of freedom, and the strongest voice against a radical and monstrous regime whose intentions is to destroy what Iran lovingly refers to as "Big Satan," e.g., you, me, our children, family and friends, via a nuclear war head ballistic missile.
"We want Iran to stop harboring terrorists" says the Saudi foreign minister. An ironic statement coming from the country that gave us Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 crew.
Trump's "signing statement" (probably written by Bolton and/or Miller) has done more than tell Iran that America's word is worthless, it tells the entire world the same thing. The only one who seems not to care is Netanyahu, who put the last word into the eager ear of Trump last week--without any data to back him up.
Trump has made me embarrassed to be American. Netanyahu is a walking shame on the Jewish people, of which I am one.
"America has made a mockery of the value of its signature on an international agreement."
It wasn't America's signature on this agreement, it was Obama's signature. Obama never submitted the deal for Senate ratification. As the WSJ notes in an editorial today:
"Mr. Trump is walking away from Mr. Obama’s personal commitment to Iran, not an American commitment."
4
If BO wanted a lasting legacy, he should have submitted his "deal" to the US Senate for ratification as a treaty. That is how you give America's "word".
4
Cohen, you’re simply wrong. Again.
Obama’s forcing of the Iran deal to completion without going through the Senate or involving citizens of differing perspectives (Republicans) in the process was a colossal mistake. Obama’s chickens have come home to roost.
2
Roger, "There are two sides to a coin".
The other 'side' is: Obama/Kerry eagerness to achieve a 'deal' on the eve of Obama administration's end, be that 'deal' as flawed as it evidently is. (the West admits this, does it not?)
E.U. complicity, hoping for 'future business' with the world's arch-terrorist Iran....
Any more words needed?
Mr. Trumps actions validate the Israeli and North Korean (as well as India and Pakistan) strategy to “get nukes first, then talk forever”. Now that’s the only path forward for Iran.
1
Who in his right mind would want an agreement with an American president expecting that his successor will feel free to cancel it? A very dangerous precedent!
1
Trump understands one thing and one thing only. He just shredded another arrangement by That Man. For him and his base, end of story.
3
Yes, but he and his Base barely give Obama a nod at the 'man' part. Obama is a better man, every day, than Trump has Ever been in his entire life.
1
Petty vindictive abused men run our show and we better get wise to it before they destroy the rest of us.
1
The entire Trump policy on Iran is based on lies -- be it his comments about the effectiveness of IAEA inspections, what he calls Iran's support for "terrorism", and his support for the likes of Netanyahu and the reactionary Arab regimes.
If unchallenged, Trump's lies will increase the chances of conflict in the Middle East and hasten the decline of U.S. global leadership.
1
Thank you, Roger.
"America's Word is Worthless." Nonsense! Your headline should read "Barack Obama's Word is Worthless."
A treaty signed by a US President is not binding on his successors, nor is it binding on the American people, unless and until it is ratified by the US Senate. President Obama signed a treaty that he knew the Senate would never approve and they never did. It's his word, his signature, that was and is worthless.
3
McConnell, Senate Leader, tried for 8 years to make Obama a one term president, and has worked another year and a half at the same job of Anti-Obamaism. He told the Nation he would Not let anything Obama did become a legacy if he could at all stop it. Trump is just continuing the same racism based destruction of what were actually decent compromises between what the People Need, and what the Right Wing is tolerant of letting out.
The fact that the US worked with several other Sovereign Nations to come to an agreement concerning Iran, and NOT just an "Obama Initiative", and the fact that the money was Iranian money, and never the taxpayers, dating to before the revolution and spent on weapons (which we would, of course, not deliver) so the money, plus interest, was returned, as was required by standard International Law. This seems lost on most Trump supporters.
Also, just because WE pull out of the accord does not mean that Iran or Europe will, so all Trump does is effectively isolate us and put us in the position of having to curtail trade with Allies since they will still trade with Iran, as per the Accord.
Obama's word is mightily better than Trump's any day, especially since you never know what Trump will lie about, when and about what he will change his mind, and Obama's speech was always coherent and engaging conversations, rather than 3rd grade Tweet level ranting and raving at imaginary or misunderstood 'injustices'...mainly to his ego.
Throw the Bum Out, Please!
1
Please describe one "great deal" that Trump has made since becoming president. No deal to replace Obama care, no deal with Mexico and Canada, no deal on climate change, no replacement for TPP. No deals at all.
Trump the Destroyer, Trump the Petulant does not create agreement; he destroys it. He does not plant trees; he lays waste to whole forests.
Donald the Deplorable and his insane "base" are incapable of building consensus. They are blind men who see only their own interests, their own "truth," and their own hatred for Obama and for Others who are not like themselves.
They are driving us toward disaster.
2
One should note that he is doing it heavily at the behest of BiBi Netanyahu, who in 2001 openly admitted (you can find for example video on Youtube if you search Netanyahu + Oslo + Accords) that he deliberately set out to renege on the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians:
They asked me before the election if I'd honor [the Oslo accords]... I said I would, but [that] I'm going to interpret the accords in such a way that would allow me to put an end to this galloping forward to the '67 borders. How did we do it? Nobody said what defined military zones were. Defined military zones are security zones; as far as I'm concerned, the entire Jordan Valley is a defined military zone. Go argue.... Why is that important? Because from that moment on I stopped the Oslo Accords"
It is hardly surprising that led by Netanyahu, Trump has followed the same approach to a major peace agreement.
When Trump is out of office, it is time for the US to reconsider the nature and terms of its relationship with Israel - because it has become infected by Netanyahu-ism and Likudism.
1
Iran-American enmity was not initiated by the 1979 Islamic Revolution but in mid-950s when the democratically elected Mosssadegh government was brought down by CIA and MI-6 machinations to insttall the Shah and grab the oil.
1
The problem being Donald Trump offered no alternative. Iran agreed nuclear treaty by using IAEA inspectors in good faith. Long memories: 1979 all over again. Now thanks to some pressure from various quarters namely Saudi Arabia the US President has released the hawks from their perch. China will defy the US and buy oil from Iran. For Europe they now know where they stand in the US big league rankings; in the closet shelved as adversaries. Israel on war alert. This is not what we wanted....Russian roulette with Iran.
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To be accurate, Trump has offered to renegotiate the agreement. This is offering an alternative. Saying that the decision was caused by "some pressure from various quarters namely Saudi Arabia," is also not accurate. Many U.S. foreign policy experts (albeit a minority) across the political spectrum oppose the Iran deal, and Trump's platform was to exit the deal. We need not be so afraid of taking calculated risks. This is a long-term game. If the U.S. ultimately succeeds in getting a better deal (a forever ban on Iran nuke capability), the Europeans and others will applaud and all will be forgiven... and the U.S. will be geopolitically stronger.
4
Trump has no plan. There was no replacement for Obamacare, DACA, or any other of his grand deals he promised to make.
American didn’t break its word on the Iran Deal because it didn’t give it word on the Iran Deal. It was a non-binding agreement between the Obama administration and Iran which the present administration was not obligated to observe. In negotiating the deal, Secretary of State John Kerry testified that the agreement didn’t need to be approved by the U.S. Senate because it wasn’t “legally binding.” “We’ve been clear from the beginning: We’re not negotiating a, quote, legally binding plan,” Kerry said. In a November 2015 letter, Julia Frifield, the State Department assistant secretary for legislative affairs, assured Congress that “The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is not a treaty or an executive agreement, and is not a signed document.” Forty-seven senators signed a letter warning Iran’s leader that the next president could cancel the deal “with the stroke of a pen. This, of course, is exactly what happen. The Iranians and the world were forewarned.
1
"America's word is worthless..."
Just like the red-line-in-the-sand in Syria...
People should go back and trace the track of nuclear proliferation linked to Pakistan, China and Russia to the technology originally acquired by Iran. Then make your judgmental comments.
Um, not only Trump thinks this all makes sense. An opinion writer at this paper does as well. It's remarkable. One can make oneself believe anything, it seems.
Trump loves to place blame... and act as if he ( who has no expertise in anything except how to cheat ) has all the best answers.... well... he will have to own his mistakes. This is not Obama’s or Bush’s or Clinton’s “worst deal.” This decision is Trump’s.
2
Gosh durn it; we dun gave our word! Do you read your own columns, Roger?
Just apply that logic for a second: you and an auto shop agree they will work on your car. You know the only thing wrong is a bad alternator.
You also know they are running up the tab and can see them tearing out every bit they can to charge you the most, because you agreed to let them do “work” and never really defined the scope or penalties.
But you gave your word so I guess PSA to all auto shops in the eastern seaboard that this Roger Cohen fella will shake on a terrible set of terms and pay anyhow no matter what.
The Saudi foreign minister’s comment — “We want Iran to be a good neighbor. We want Iran to comply with international law. We want Iran to stop interfering in the affairs of Arab countries. We want Iran to stop supporting terrorists. We want Iran to stop harboring terrorists. We want Iran to stop attacking our embassies, to stop killing our diplomats. We want Iran to not give ballistic missiles to terrorist groups. Simple. Once they do it, it’s a different Iran.” — crystallizes the problem with the Trump position. They want a fantasy, but more fundamentally, even if Iran were to sit down and entertain each of these demands, what would the Saudis or Donand Trump, Mike Pompeo, or indeed Netanyahu give in return? An equivalent concession by Saudi Arabia, the US and Israel would mean that all of those countrIves would be changed fundamentally, to the point that they would cease to be the same countries. And that is unacceptable to all three.
1
Why should Canada trust Trump with NAFTA? As President, he has already broken deals with Iran on nuclear weapons, American Dreamers with the repeal of DACA, his own supporters and all Americans with the dismantling of Obamacare, and on and on. This on top of his terrible record of meeting his commitments in his business career. Finally, he lies as he breathes, and therefore can't be trusted to hold up any deal.
I trust our PM will be very wary of dealing with America on NAFTA and any other "deals" during the Trump era.
2
What if Trump-Pompeo-Bolton-Netanyahu-Mohammed bin Salman will over time be proved right and Roger Cohen-Khamanei-Obama-Kerry will be proved wrong? In my view, Mr. Cohen is a bit too sure of himself.
America's word to the world is useless. Poorly educated, poorly informed, poor neighbours with no sympathy for the poor. A great many Americans are proud of this legacy. Kanye West is in the news for being all of the above, and seems proud of this.
What is worse, a smart regime with nuclear ambitions or a moron with an arsenal?
Editor’s note: This comment has been anonymized in accordance with applicable law(s).
2
It's BEEN worthless. Since November, 2016. DUH.
I agree with this column except for one thing:
“Only Trump can believe that makes sense.”
Actually, your colleague, Brett Stephens, thinks so to.
Which demonstrates that an impetuous ignoramus and a well-educated intellectual can fool themselves into embracing the same lunacy.
trump is utterly shameless and thus bestows shame upon America every hour he desecrates the office of POTUS. He is a reckless shell filled with calamity.
What a crazy upside down world we live in. The guy with the beard and the turban sounds like a well informed well reasoned and thoughtful leader and our President sounds and acts like a bully high school dropout. We need to adopt an amendment requiring a minimum level of intelligence for our elected leaders.
1
Candidates for President should have to pass the same Civics test that Immigrants have to, along with basic Geography, Geology, Science, English, Math, Actual History (from multiple viewpoints) AND real data on the US Constitution, none of which Trump seems to have a clue on.
I prefer that any candidate for any office have a clean Police record, no bankruptcies, Show 10 years worth of tax data or more, on top of the standard making sure the candidate is a legal, natural born American just so that NOBODY can go calling That into question as a distraction and eventual epithet.
We also need to make sure that the person running is a Decent, Caring Human Being, with compassion, feeling and understanding for those of ALL walks of life, just as Christ and any other religious figure has Required. We can ill afford to have a thief, liar and bully holding our Highest Office, domestically or abroad.
Mega millionaires and billionaires seem to be very poor politicians as they have WAY too much self-interest and conflict of interest to ever be able to do the right thing for the Masses. While NO Money is a vast barrier to most people who would be Very Well Qualified to run for office, and instead we have these interlopers who pay to become High Office, and then make sure that they profit WAY more than they paid.
Perhaps a wealth cap for President/politicians needs to happen too, for basic fairness and returning Free Speech for All, not just those who can afford to pay mightily for it.
1
The first isolationist thought I've ever entertained is now front and center in my mind: It's time for the nations of the world that want peace, value diplomacy, and understand the essential nature of compromise to turn their backs on the United States. We're the rogue bad actors now, and those who are willing to do the hard work that might get us to a livable future (if they hurry) need to get on with it, without us.
1
There is one, and only one, overarching principle in all of trump's policies (if you can call it that): whatever President Obama, that N....r who mocked him at the White House Correspondence Dinner, put in place, the Iran Deal, the ACA, the Paris Climate Agreement, fuel efficiency standards, DACA, environmental protection, financial regulation, internet neutrality, etc, it has to go. Trump is a racist, so are his core supporters and frankly a good number of GOP legislators in the House and Senate.
2
More like Obama's word is worthless because he wasn't acting from a position of strength. Obama's fear/appeasement driven diplomacy has led to an 'open marriage' type of Iran nuclear deal. The media types were critical to Trump's confrontational stance on North Korea and they are in the middle of being proven wrong. This is North Korea 2.0.
2
"... with a vengeance." Not dissimilar to the war inciter-in-chief from Israel, Bibi - not just Bolton. Netanyahu egged us into a war with Iraq in 2012 guaranteeing a positive outcome (see https://nyti.ms/1JNWfXW) and he has been inciting us into another war with Iran for years.
In the doubtful chance trump succeeds in disarming Mr. Kim of his nukes, Mr. Kim may offer the Iranians a good deal on unused nuclear weapons complete with ICBMs that can reach America's east coast from Iran. Or maybe Kim will have Xi look after his nukes with the assurance he'd get them back if trump reneged again.
America's word is like trump's word - worthless. We are officially the country of trump. His lies about Stormy and Iran are that - lies. Next he will claim that we can keep Iran's oil too (as long as he keeps a cut as the conqueror).
Since impeachment is not a viable option under current one party rule, and it is too dangerous and possibly catastrophic to wait until the next election cycle, the only solution is a recall election - with such a mechanism added as the next amendment to our constitution to protect us from an unchecked monster leading our country down the abyss.
3
No one is paying more attention to this than Kim Jong Un. Does Trump really think that he can get North Korea to agree to give up its nukes in return for promises from the US, when he's reneging on promises the US made to Iran just three years ago?
1
Needless to say it is a very very sad and horrific time in America and its history. Almost as if Trump wants to erase every accomplishment of President Obama. And why? Don't think you have to be an FBI profiler to figure out he doesn't like Black people. That's why after Charlottesville he said good people on both sides, many sides. Ya see Trump and his father were sued in the '70's for not renting to...
Sorry, I usually like your column but your statement is Factually WRONG.
On March 9, 2015 : Senator Tom Cotton and 46 other senators sign an open letter to the Parliament of Iran. The letter warns that any deal reached without legislative approval could be revised by the next president “with the stroke of a pen.”
The agreement, when submitted, failed both in the House and in the Senate.
Iran knew, that continuation of the agreement was the prerogative of the next President of the United States.
And he choose, not to. You can argue that this was unwise, but you can NOT argue that America's word is worthless.
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheet/Timeline-of-Nuclear-Diplomacy-With...
1
This loathsome, reprehensible reprobate did not receive his parent's love and Roy Cohn entered to fill the gap and all the poison that was in Cohn was absorbed by Trump.
60% of the country want to operate in the world in a just and reasonable manner but is perversely chained to ignorance and bigotry.
Why, in the world, do we want to instigate conflict and unrest? The end-game can only be war. It is no exaggeration to say that nothing good comes from Trump. He is a poison pill that all of us Americans, good and bad alike, are being forced to swallow. And the world is being forced to partake of the insanity as well as they watch international agreements being shredded.
1
We ain't seen nothin yet. Watch the fun when Netanyahu incites Trump to start a war with Iran.
Our fake "Christian" Republicans are getting closer to achieving the Armageddon for which they have been praying and voting.
2
Iran to the world: We never wanted nuclear weapons. It goes against Islam. It's immoral.
So let's see if they now restart the program they said they never wanted. Possibly with centrifuges we didn't know they had, in some military facility we didn't have access to.
Trump to North Korea: America's Word is Worthess, specifically when someone says they'll give up their nuclear weapons program.
It was not America's word. It was only President Obama's and it was not approved by Congress.
Oh, please. When Trump's Democrat successor cancels one of Trump's deals, you'll claim it's the greatest thing ever.
You just don't have guts enough to recognize your hypocrisy.
1
Of course, America's word is worthless - everyone knew that already. When they promised Russia not to expand NATO to its borders, did they keep that word? When they said that UN resolution on no-fly zone over Libya was only to protect Benghazi civilians from Qaddafi, did they really mean it? Of course, they didn't - that was another lie. As was the claim about Saddam's WMDs. As was the claim about Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons - that lie is their particular favourite, they used it not once, not twice, but three times. How naive one has to be to believe anything US government says or signs. I believe the new idiom is "naive as the Iranians".
2
Soon enough US and Israel will launch air strikes. Israel has been itching to do so. A pretext will be found, there will be a somber talk to the nation from the White House (albeit with 3rd grade vocabulary) and the Ametican flags will sprout on the pickup trucks across America. But unlike America’s 72% support for invading Iraq in 2003, and unlike supine Democrats jumping on the bandwagon (think Kerry, Clinton, Biden), this time most of us will not buy it. If Iran fights back effectively, say by destroying an American aircraft carrier, Trump would think nothing of escalating with nuclear weapons. This cruel, malevolent man will ever be a stain on the United States.
2
Actually, for a guy who needed 20 years to wake up to the fact that his darling "partner in peace" Mahmoud Abbas is nothing but a repackaged Jew-hating, Holocaust denying, Jewish history denying delusional crank who Israel has as much chance of achieving peace with after signing a deal as it would trying to open a tourist office in Tehran (Cohen's last poor misunderstood regime until it also blew up in his face ... while he was there in fact), I'd say it more likely Cohen's opinions on anything in the Mideast are worthless. He is out of his depth and should concentrate on subjects he is good at ... such as French culture issues.
2
Mr Trump,
You can toss it and turn it: You cannot hold a candle to Mr. Obama, not by any stretch.
Does that hurt? I thought so.
Now get lost.
3
I am sorry, but America did not agree!
Barack Obama agreed.. John Kerry agreed, Susan Rice agreed.. we the people did not!
This never went to congress.. never.. it is not a treaty.
The deal was nothing more than”peace in our time deal!”
Iran gets money( which they invested in ballistic missels, Assad and Hezbollah.
We cannot check military sites..
COME ON MAN!
I hate Trump, but this is a good move.
3
More like, "Trump to the World: America's Word is Worthless." How do you suppose our NATO allies feel tonight knowing that Trump would walk away in a snit and not honor our obligations if he thought they weren't giving him the proper strokes.
3
And what is the message to N. Korea about making a deal with the US over its nuclear arms?
Trump is motivated by his sick wish to destroy anything that Obama achieved. And not coincidentally, to please his master, Putin.
As for Bolton, he has been an epic failure at all he was tasked to do. He killed the talks with both N Korea and Iran that preceded their nuclear capabilities. He still believes that going to war over false pretexts in Iraq was a good thing. And the N Koreans despise and mistrust him. Don't hold your breath on any good coming out of the talks with N Korea, if they even take place.
1
do any americans appreciate the irony of calling OTHER countries 'rogue' when they are at or near the top?
it's more obvious now, but precludes the ignorant egomaniac in power.
1
Bolton has no desire for peace and again continues on a path in which our military will get stuck fighting a useless war. And we are not even out of Afghanistan yet. Bolton is a warmonger using other's children to feed his ego. He is looking for his Dick Cheney moment to start a war with Iran.
1
"Nuclear wars are good and easy to win" - take it from the worlds biggest sewer rat.
1
this is like watching a mean little kid kicking over a castle made of blocks
1
"What are Trump's alternatives now?" Mr. Cohen asks. Here's the answer - Trump doesn't care. He has no interest in pursuing any "alternatives" except for waging a war that will be catastrophic for this country and the many millions of civilians in the Middle East.
But we must remember who is responsible for this debacle. It is Trump voters. They don't care that with Trump's withdrawal from this accord, the world will be a more dangerous place, and this country will have even less influence on the international stage. They don't care that he has turned this nation into an international laughing stock at best, and a fascist threat, at worst. His voters have never understood the gravity of their collective decision to put this deranged, unfit man in the White House. Their support of him is still rock solid. They simply do not care how much damage Trump does to this country, and they never will. Why don't they? Because he's told them that as whites, they are the "deserving" Americans, and the rest of us are lesser citizens than they are. This is the only reason. He has told them that the KKK and neo-Nazi's are some very fine people. And does anyone seriously believe that Trump would have pulled out of an international nuclear accord if it were a European nation that was developing nuclear weapons? But because he's dealing with brown people in the Middle East, he wants his white, racist base to continue to feel superior. This is all they want. This is all they've ever wanted.
1
Mr. Trump who knows nothing about the Iran agreement is backing out because it was signed by our first black president. Trump's obsessive need to decimate the legacy and accomplishments of President Obama is simply racist. Trump's ignorant malevolence is damaging the wellbeing of the entire planet.
The more Trump says and does, the better Obama looks. Obama is looking better every day. We will never forget him.
1
It is patently obvious now - the usa is also useless.
America's word is worthless? Did Mr. Cohen think it was worthy? Ask Taiwan.
Now that we have established this, pray tell, who keeps their word? Trump is totally keeping his word to his supporters. Or does that not count anymore in America?
Trump's ability is display his complete and total fecklessness, frivolity, unfamiliarity with truth, and general loutishness coupled with compulsive lying at all times. All to thundering applause from half of Americans and all of republicans.
N. Korea is seeking our assurance; but what N. Korea is right now - is plain scared witless. He said he would rain fire on them; both Un and I know, he would without hesitation. Fear of Trump is our foreign policy. It is working in N. Korea, it will work in Iran, and it will work in China (I will take a bet that it will work in Russia too, but that is another complication).
I would read your article either as comic relief, or as a rather befuddled naivety. But, this is a serious issue. You do know we are talking about Trump; do you not?
Never mind other countries fearing US, I fear Trump. He may press the button just for the heck of it; so he can tell a story while hanging out with his buddies (Fox and friends). I do not fear what he does to Iran, I fear what he is doing to our education, justice, environment, and industry.
How do you contain yourself, Mr. Cohen? For my part, I want to scream. A primal scream at yet another example of Trump's fecklessness, ignorance and stupidity. Where has he left us with respect to Iran? Back at square one with *nothing* to show for it except appeasement of his... "base". His presidency has gone from the merely absurd right down to the patently dangerous. Russia is complaining, but that's a masquerade. Inwardly, the RF cheers yet another stumbling backward step toward the abyss of "America First". As for China... enough! Suffice to say that Air Force One is leaving a monstrous vacuum behind it wherever it goes.
Congratulations, democrats: you got your Hillary Clinton.
There is a good chance Trump's actions could, among other disasters, end up crippling the American Financial system.
The unintended consequence of trying to impose sanctions on Iran that threatens European and Asian continuing commerce with Iran by seeking to block their access to the US financial system might well be that the rest of the world will discover that they can do quite well without the US financial system. Europe and China both have financial systems in place that can work without reliance on the US.
18
There’s also the real possibility that the other nations will develop the necessary infer structure to eventually eliminate any US interference and sanctions. This would be painful at first but very beneficial in a post US dominated future world. Just what Russia and China have been working toward. All Russia do is let Trump be Trump. It will be interesting seeing the value of U S shares if Europe, Russia and Chine along with Iran work together.
5
Like the Iran deal or not, and like the way it was implemented or not: this move devalues our nation's diplomatic currency.
28
Roger Cohen has rare, first-hand knowledge about the European and Middle East leaders now confronting or savoring the crisis caused by Donald Trump’s decision over Iran. He provides a frank analysis, concluding that Trump is being reckless.
Donald Trump has been badly counseled by those around him, and his ego and his aversion to hard study prevent him from seeking the truth.
The Iran nuclear deal or JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) was the product of the best minds in six nations with nuclear weapons – those nations, including the United States – have very diverse interests. They agreed, however, that creating major obstacles to Iran gaining nuclear weapon capability was preferable to a stark choice between doing nothing or igniting a war sure to enflame the region.
Roger Cohen looks at the Iranian theocracy and recites its many faults. The JCPOA never intended to solve or address Iran’s support of Hezbollah or Hamas or the regime in Syria. In fact, nothing in the JCPOA limits the United States or Israel or Saudi Arabia or anyone else from opposing Iran militarily in those arenas.
Donald Trump’s childish jealousy of Barack Obama or his self-image as the heroic lone gunslinger or his need to divert attention from his personal misconduct cannot excuse this disastrous move.
Congress needs to stop this foolhardy adventurism. The Republicans need to step up and display an integrity which has been missing in action for several years.
35
"He provides a frank analysis, concluding that Trump is being reckless."
Yes, our President is a reckless, uninformed, bigoted, wannabe despot, and the Republicans in Congress think they have to go along with him to keep their jobs. What a sad situation and the only remedy will be to vote out the Rs this November.
The world has learned a valuable lesson. US Government promises are binding only when they are legally approved by the US Government - i.e., submitted to the Senate and approved by a 2/3 majority. Otherwise, they mean nothing. The only pity is that it's taken this long for this lesson to be learned.
14
Tsk, Iran already knew this. It is North Korea and the ex western European allies that Trump that have learned about t Trump's America.
2
Several points to be emphasized. Nuclear deal with Iran, as pointed out in Mr. Stephens's fine essay, never had Congressional support and roughly only a fifth of persons polled approved, or even knew what safeguards were placed on IRAN to insure compliance.Iranian authorities required advance notice before allowing inspectors in.Moreover,how could we possibly support a regime that lends its weight to Syria whose regime has killed a half million of its citizens and counting?Moreover, any nation which has the capability to go nuclear will do so eventually anyway, so why not kill a deal which is worthless, "tout compte fait!"EU members and our Boeing Corporation may like it for trade possibilities, but morally speaking to deal with the Islamic Republic which is aiding ASSAD to massacre his own citizens should be unthinkable! RECALL what JP Sartre wrote about "niveaux de culpabilite!" TRUMP is the ultimate deal maker and this was a bad deal.Still waiting, by the way to hear from Mr. Cohen why his father, Aaron Cohen, decamped, left his fellow fighters for social justice in S.A. to resettle in G.B. Should have remained with Tambo, Ramaposa, Mandela, Suzman, GORDIMER to fight against repressive nature of the verkrampt Afrikander government of the National Party. No offense where none intended, but Mr. Cohen owes his many, faithful readers an explanation.When I brought up Cohen pere's name in a conversation with Alan Paton at a book signing in 1975, I was met with stony silence.
4
Correct. No one knew what safeguards were placed to insure Iranian compliance, because one doesn't insure compliance (except, perhaps, with a professional liability insurance policy).
3
I am reminded of something I read many years ago --that is when Lee Iacocca was fired by Mr. Ford from the Ford Company, Iacocca asked as to why he was fired, Ford Simply said because he did not like Iacocca. Hopefully, what the President states as his reason to withdraw from this Agreement are indeed the cogent reasons persuading him and his Advisers to do so. Now as the Ball begins rolling, why on Earth, North Korea or any other country will enter into a Negotiation with an Administration which may be in the White House for only Four Years?
3
"America has made a mockery of the value of its signature on an international agreement." This attitude, expressed by Cohen and others, show a contempt by him and his brethren for the Constitution of the United States.
The Constitution wisely prohibits one person, even the President, from binding the country to a deal with a or many foreign nations. All treaties must be ratified by 2/3 of the Senate to be an actual deal.
However, the Supreme Court has allowed so-called "Executive Agreements," which can be signed just by the President. The concept behind that is that such an agreement would be just for relatively small matters, and that they really don't bind the U.S., because any subsequent President would be free to repudiate it.
But the Iran deal was a major agreement that by any rational view was a treaty. It should have been presented to the Senate. And now Cohen and his ilk want to say that when one President, like Obama, enters into a deal like that, no subsequent President should ever back out, because our word would no longer be any good. So he wants one man to bind the whole country forever.
What a perversion. And if other countries want to rely on a deal with the United States, they should insist on a treaty, not a deal that binds no one. By the way, Iran was warned of this possibility in an Op-Ed in this very paper.
15
Would Mitch McConnell even allowed an Obama initiated treaty to be discussed in the Senate? Ask Merrick Garland.
37
If the JCPOA were actually Unconstitutional, the Congressional Republicans would have been in court forthwith. Fanciful legal musings aside, no "contempt" for the US Constitution can be proven.
Irrelevant. So many people seem to think that if Congress would not do what Obama wanted, he had no choice but to do it unilaterally. That's not how it works. If a President needs Congressional action in order to do something, and Congress won't do it, then the President is supposed to accept that, not exceed his authority. If I wanted to do something that the law prohibited, and Congress refused to change the law, I would not have the right to do what I wanted to do anyway. Why should it be different for a President?
Trump is hastening the end of the American empire. And honestly, that is a good thing. American-style cowboy capitalism, consumerism, militarism, racism, and technology has been the bane of the planet since the rise of the "American Century" following World War II. America - more than any other nation - and its brand of neo-liberalism - is responsible for so many of the world's problems, including climate change, the demise of species diversity, the Middle Eastern mess, Israel's uncompromising politics, plastics pollution, etc.... Mr. Cohen - think long-term - the diminishing status of America may be a good, good thing.
7
Spoken like a true American...
Not.
Typical snowflake, anti-American statement....
Obama gave his word, not Americ's. It is only the word of the United States if it is ratified as a Treaty and President Obama did not do that. Its that simple
See the quote from Article IV below with CAPS ADDED.
"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; AND ALL TREATIES made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, SHALL BE THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND;"
From Article II Section 2:
"He shall have Power, by and WITH THE ADVICE AND CONSENT OF THE SENATE, TO MAKE TREATIES, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur;"
A "pen and a phone" are not the same as a Constitutional Process.
Joh
8
In the rush to condem Mr.Trunp it appears many readers are forgetting Mr. Obama did not submit the agreement to the Senate for confirmation. Accordingly, he was speaking for himself, not the American people. Frankly, I would like to see a deal reached with Iran, but I believe the current deal was poorly constructed, and retuning effectively all of the embargoed funds, a portion in actual currency, was misguided and should have been tied to specific performance by Iran over time.
9
“The question has always been: Do you change Iran by isolating it or by engaging it step by step?”
We signed the deal and tried for a couple years to engage it. It changed Iran all right, except for the worse:
Since the deal was signed. Iran has installed militias throughout Syria in partnership with the animal Assad who uses nerve gas to kill children en mass. Those militias attack US allies such as the Kurds, and they threaten Israel. Iran has moved hundreds of missiles to Syria to attack Israel our ally. Iran is helping the rebels in Yemen shoot missiles into our ally Saudi Arabia. Iran has jailed dozens of Westerners that visit the country. Iran continues to support Hezbollah.
4
Roger Cohen writes: "Perhaps something can be salvaged by European powers. I doubt it. Trump has done what he likes to do: express his anger, break things and hope for the best."
I doubt Trump 'hopes for the best'. I seriously doubt that he concerns himself with outcomes at all. He has this peculiar perspective of the undiluted narcissist: anything that goes well is his doing, his genius; anything that fails is the fault of somebody else (and he knows who exactly). Difficult to lose if that is your world view, although such a perspective must be propped up by wild configurations of the facts and a complete disregard for the truth. Does anyone acknowledge that approaching talks with North Korea while already talking about a Nobel Peace Prize....well, North Koreans have TV's and now they have leverage. Trump wants glory. What American values is he willing to trade for it?
8
The idea of the Current Occupant getting a Nobel prize is disgusting. He has to have it because Obama has it--end of story. You could argue that Obama's win was premature, but if this malignant, ignorant, feckless dolt (thanks, Larry Eisenberg) gets it, it will no longer be a Prize. He soils everything he touches. Sad.
I think that the significance of this goes beyond the value of America's word. Right now an old question that most people thought long to have been answered is being asked with increasing urgency: is Democracy a viable form of government? Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the Iran treaty for the silliest of reasons is one of the best pieces of evidence so far that there is nothing special about democracy.
By the same token, some governments around the world have been wondering, Are the current nuclear powers really serious about keeping other countries from joining the club? Trump's action is once again evidence for the doubters.
And, of course, as the meetings with North Korea are coming up, Kim and the other parties have less reason than ever for believing any agreement Trump or the USA might put before them.
5
They could insist on a treaty, which binds the United States, and not a deal with whomever is President at the time, which does not bind the United States.
2
If the US can't hold to their agreements treaties are just so much wasted paper. Who knows what the next congress will vote.
America has gone back on its word many times in its history. Ask small countries how reliable a partner the U.S. even in combatting drug trafficking. If it is not a U.S. priority, don't count on the U.S. to meet treaty obligations. One can only wonder how North Korea is looking at this.
3
I believe this decision slaughters any possibility of a positive outcome regarding negotiations with North Korea, for obvious reasons. It would be no surprise if the meetings were canceled by Kim before they begin.
7
Correction: "Trump has done what he likes to do: express his anger, break things and ..." expect someone else to fix the mess. So sad.
4
The part I don't get from Mr. Cohen (no relation) is the part where he thinks the Iranians would behave themselves down the road. Their returned sanction money, as I understand it, built not one road, school or hospital. Instead, it helped the Guards build their terrorist necklace around the region.
I know, I know. You negotiate with your enemy and get the best deal you can.
But this one has left us, as I understand it, with a leaky inspections regime, a growing terrorist network funded by returned money, better ballistic missiles, while Iran, probably, has curtailed its nuclear research until sunset. Come sunset, readiness is just a hop skip and a jump.
Unless the regime has moderated or been overthrown. If that's what you believe, I'm happy to have the Easter bunny and the Tooth Fairy come by to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, or if you prefer, land in Florida.
5
Fix it... don’t nix it. It appears to me that Trump wants to erase everything that Obama created.. that’s not the reason to do cancel this plan. Work with your allies to improve it.
5
All this winning is heading the US to war.
DT wants to be a war president to get re-elected.
The war machine is getting started.
8
While they may support them now, as they have been pushed, but as I remember there were NO Iranians on the 9-11 flights: They were nearly all Saudi Arabians. So it is extremely hypocritical for the Wahabbist encrusted Arab nation to be going and calling the same shame down on Iran. First get out of Yemen and then talk to the Iranians about Syria.
Iran also has the Sovereign Right to defend itself, AND it's allies, as by treaty. Something Trump tears up and throws away, along with any trust in our Nation that any other Nation might have once had: Wasted.
Treaties take time, energy and a lot of money to complete, Trump just wasted a couple years worth of a few thousand people's time as well as the money and investigations and checks...Trump is frankly too Stupid to get it, 'if Obama had his hands on it it HAS to be bad', yet, Obama told a total of 16 basic lies in his whole time in office, Trump can do that on a bad day, averaging at Least 5 per day.
Where is the outcry from the right? Where is the voice of sanity in the Congress? Just because he decides to relieve his personal Tiff with Obama he goes and tears down a workable edifice that Could have been changed IF and Only If Logic, Calm and exacting Fairness were brought to the table.
Iran is a Nation, no less than the US, with the sovereign right to develop nuclear power, and even weaponry, if any other Nation in the area does so, and we ALL know that hostile Israel has several hundred nukes in deliverable form.
15
Ugh, the NYT needs to cleanse these russian/iranian shills and their repetitive talking points from their forums.
The title should feature the more important message:
"Trump to North Korea: America's Word is Worthless."
I am sure that Kim can add this to the examples of what happened to the dictators of Libya and Iraq after they gave up their nuclear programs.
9
The lesson is not limited to Iran. This is a President who has made his life's work reneging on agreements and promises. Given Trump's long history of defrauding investors, stiffing contractors (and lawyers) and lying to customers, to expect him to modify behaviors that he sees as the core of his repertoire is simply not rational.
The question will be, how long will our allies and our adversaries, any of them, be foolish enough to accept our word for anything at all. Suppose Trump does sit down with Kim; the North Korean's have a fairly loose acquaintance with the truth, so perhaps is will be a meeting between true equals. But, I see no reason whatsoever, that Kim, or anyone else will place any credence in what Trump says. He continues to build a foreign policy that, like everything else in the man's existence, has its foundation firmly anchored in the fetid swamp that is Donald J. Trumps moral fiber.
7
"Do you change Iran by isolating it or by engaging it step by step?"
No and no, let Iranians decide how and when to change Iran.
2
"Do you change Iran by isolating it or by engaging it step by step?"
We do not live in an ideal world Mr. Cohen. While you are waiting for Iran to "change" through a cultural and economic revolution and become benign capitalists, there are wars already raging. You may have noticed that Israel is already at war with Iran and Assad's Syria in Syria,
How easy to talk about change and to allow Iran to go on its merry way in Syria and Lebanon et al. while "waiting", especially as the deal helps Iran''s economy and enables their military colonialism in Syria and elsewhere.
Yes, with Iran nothing is simple. Let them get out of Syria and desist from their attempts to Israel from Syria. Just last night Israel took out the Iranian missiles aimed at it and ready for attack.
If you don't mind, we'll wait for Iran to change in a different way.
"Now all that has been thrown up in the air by Trump."
And if that helps stop Iranian missiles aimed at us, good for him.
4
Some of Trump's supporters hope earnestly for The End of Days. Let's hope that his "decision" doesn't make their wishes come true.
8
Well, it’s time to break out the 1950s Civil Defense manuals, the ones that told you what to do in the event of a nuclear blast and/or radioactive fallout. The advice was pretty useless, but it made people feel better, as though they could protect themselves from a nuclear strike, when in reality they couldn’t. And the manuals didn’t go into the details, such as the facts that radiation poisoning is a most unpleasant way to die, and that if there were a nuclear war, the living would envy the dead. (There may be people who are reading this comment who will find out, in real life, whether this is true.)
2
It's really sad to see this one man doing so much damage to the world based on impulsive whims. No place else in the world will see this as "leadership" or an America that is "great" again. Just as sad, and more frightening for its scale, is that tens of millions of Americans - trump voters - don't care what the rest of the world thinks or how it is affected by these actions. They are content to let others suffer so they can indulge their gripes and fantasies; an aggrieved, bitter and vengeful people who are no longer on the sidelines but walk the halls of power.
It used to be that a powerful - "great", if you must - America was a source of hope and stability for much of the world. But Americans' definition of "great" has come to mean something much different: a nation that is prepared to wreak havoc on a global scale at will, regardless of who - friend or enemy - happens to be in the way. It's mob mentality brought to the highest possible level of expression.
20
As Senator Moynihan said, one is entitled to ones own opinion, but not to ones own facts. Mr. Cohen would do well to heed that advice. Whether one believes the Iran nuclear deal is good and should be honored or whether one belives it is a bad deal, it was and is decidedly not America's word. By not having the Senate ratify the treaty, almost certainly because it would not have garnered the necessary 2/3 majority required by the Constitution, it was Obama's word, not America's word.
10
Rarely has one political party deliberately undercut and sabotaged the country’s diplomatic efforts, but such is the willful intransigence of the Republicans. This stupid, rash move is typical Trump, all boasting and preening; but it was set up and nurtured by a GOP which had no compunction at subverting the legitimate government of the United States. Have no fear, Bernard - my mother ways said what goes around comes around. The GOP will one day rue it’s vicious behavior to claw its way into power. I just hope we don’t all have to pay the price .
Yea well it's not a treaty .. too bad all you knuckleheads seem to miss that.
1
Russia and China signed onto the deal? Oh, they are sure to enforce compliance by Iran. Right?
But what about the 3 European countries? They still expect Iran to comply. Satellites will pick up new activity outside the suspect nuclear plants; is Iran prepared to cheat on those 3?
We understand our current Administration may not have a plan for what's next. But that doesn't mean the advisors, or Congress, won't.
2
If President Obama had submitted the deal to congress for ratification President Trump could not have rescinded it. But he knew the deal his facilitator John Kerry got would NEVER survive inspection. So he just took the short cut with it and coughed up the cash too.
He made three bad bets…
1) Iran would reform
2) Democrats would win the next Presidential Election
3) No one would dare change it after it was in place
You hope for a President that can see around corners. Unfortunately, the last one couldn’t see half way up the block.
11
Barack Obama was the legitimately elected president of these United States. He won both the popular vote and the electoral college by decisive margins - twice. For the Republicans in Congress to willfully try to negate his diplomacy was disgraceful. Now, of course, the GOP has a truly iffy president. He lost the popular vote by millions and there is consensus that a foreign government meddled in the election, with the possible complicity of the Trump campaign. The Republican Party is anti-American and corrupt to the core. So fitting that they are led by the imbecile DJT.
1
The US is now officially a rogue state, that cannot be trusted to maintain international agreements. The system should have been resilient; however, by allowing to elect a syndicate rather than a proper executive branch, something is seriously wrong, for now and for the future. Even if after this syndicate a proper executive branch will be elected, any international treaty negotiated with that branch cannot be trusted as a next syndicate might nix such treaties again. In other words, perhaps in order to regain trust perhaps the power of the executive branch needs to be vastly reduced. Alas, I doubt if such will happen in a near future. Hence, it seems more likely that the role of the US as an international player will be reduced, if not is already
6
There are many reasons to argue against Trunp’s decision, but saying that America’s word is worthless because we are abrogating the deal is not one of them.
The world knew very clearly that our willingness to abide by the deal was a personal commitment by Obama, and was never submittted, let alone confirmed, as a treaty by the Senate.
In fact, in a letter to the leaders of Iran, Senator Corker and about 20 other senators explicitly said that the deal could be reversed by any future president.
If Obama wanted the full backing of the US for this deal, he should have gotten treaty ratification.
Trump simply took an opening that Obama gave him.
12
Simply proves that all Republicans are mendacious and were unwilling to give Obama support on anything.
Boy, Donald Trump can't do anything right in Roger Cohen's eyes, can he?
Iran's government is corrupt and its economy is in shambles. Yet Barack Obama and John Kerry gave Iran's government access to billions which it spent on military adventures.
Yes, it was Iran's money, and yes, Iran is living up to what it agreed to, but no, the United States is not benefiting from the Iran deal. We should get out of it.
Will other governments trust us after this? Iran can't say it wasn't warned. Several Senators sent a letter to Iran's government warning exactly of this possibility. Iran signed up anyway.
This move is bold and risky. It may not work. But it's good to take risks. You never get anywhere without doing that. And it's better to back out of a deal that isn't working than to stay in it just to honor your word.
7
Wasn’t a basic plank of Trump’s campaign his promise to draw America back from foreign entanglements. Why, yes it was.
Now, by pulling the U.S. out of the Iranian accord, he has no discernible “what’s next” plan. But his national security advisor, John Bolton, has a plan, right out of the 1950s: regime change! How will that be accomplished? Let Bolton count the ways: tough new economic sanctions; fomenting unrest against the ruling mullahs; CIA-Mossad led assaults against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard . . . in short, leading the U.S. into an effort to topple a sovereign nation’s government. To be replaced by . . . ISIS, perhaps? Years of civil upheaval and many fatalities? More than likely.
That’s the plan, as far as anyone can tell. Strengthen Saudi Arabia at the expense of Iran. Strengthen the corrupt Israeli government of Netanyahu. Lead the U.S. into another, deeper quagmire in the Middle East. And all this just to get back at Obama.
This isn’t government, or policy, or foresight. It is sheer madness.
93
Trenchant, comprehensive, and concise. Thank you Mr. Cohen.
You've also released into the literate world a coinage writers can envy:
"He [Trump] succumbed to Iran derangement syndrome, a well-known American condition."
You sound like Samuel Johnson.
Bravo!
15
Stop. All the Failing NYT journalists said the same for North Korea. And now there is real opportunity for a lasting peace. You guys can never stop. The only thing you can said and write is all about anti-Trump. The people of this country knows your game and they will punish once more in Nov
7
North Korea talks haven't even happened yet.
What exactly are you talking about?
1
The people of which Country? Quebec?
I continue to question my own sanity...because I am old enough to remember a time when it was unthinkable - impossible! - that we would ever end up with such a vulgar, both ignorant and stupid, narcissistic totalitarian as president. Shame on these United States.
120
"Me Too".
Well, he didn't do it by himself. The the craven silence by the self anointed "patriots" of the Senate and the House made this possible. Honor, wisdom, love of country, nowhere to be seen.
Do any of these shrinking violets care enough about this country to rein this nitwit in? They really should because, if they let him continue like this, there won't be a K Street left to finance their retirements.
25
I think Mr. Trump wants to go to war with Iran. It will cement his reelection bid. These are scary times.
24
The message is not just for Iran. It is a message for everyone negotiating with the US: Canada, Mexico, North Korea, etc. No point in signing an agreement with the US. It means nothing.
49
The existential error of withdrawing from the Iran deal( JCPOA) underscores the appalling fundamental ignorance of the Republican Party, and its trifecta of incompetents, Bolton, Pompeo, and Trump, in the area of American Foreign Policy. James Mattis supported the JCPOA 1) The price of oil is already starting to rise. 2) It undercuts Iranian moderates like Hassan Rouhani 3) It gives the IRGC hard liners a much needed domestic political victory 4) It creates a schism between the U.S. and its closest allies 5) It strengthens the global influence of China and Russia 6) It destroys American credibility and may effect the negotiations with Kim Jong un 7) Netanyahu may be indicted soon and may be ramping up a crisis with Iran and its Hezbollah proxy to increase his political leverage. The Israeli military leadership and intelligence heads have endorsed the JCPOA. Last week's disingenuous, shameful, power point presentation by Netanyahu had nothing to do with Iran and the JCPOA. It was simply a repackaging of old news and tacitly depended on viewer ignorance 8) Since the U.S. violated the JCPOA,( Iran has obeyed the JCPOA protocols) Iran could expel the IAEA inspectors 9) It raises the specter of the perfidious 1953 American and British overthrow of the democratically elected Mossedagh government 10) The critical period will be when the reimposition of harsh U.S. sanctions begins to impact the already suffering Iranian economy. What will the IRGC do?
Sent from my iPad
11
I think the Iranians should just ignore this president wannabe and continue to abide by the requirements of the deal, including inspections, exchange for continuing to do business with the rest of the world! After all, the United States has never been that important for Iran's economy! Iran should not bother to dance this dance with Trump. Just ignore the "genius deal maker" as if he doesn't even exist.
21
Back on March 4, 2010, Roger Cohen wrote the following: “Remember, Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, is the “Guardian of the Revolution.” Job No. 1 for him is preservation. Iran will not build a bomb — forbidden by his own fatwa — if convinced its price is the revolutionary regime itself.” President Obama and Secretary Kerry also told us about this fatwa. Since the US withdrawal can be interpreted, as it has by some, as targeting the regime's continued survival, then you would think that Cohen would be supporting Trump, not arguing against his decision.
But we do know two things. First, the Iranians lied about their research and claims that it is in compliance are disingenuous. The "deal" has no inspection regime with any bite, although we were promised it would: 24 days notice limited to sites Iran has declared and no inspection of anything on military bases or at sites Iran didn’t declare - when all we now hear is the circular argument that Iran lies which is why we need this "deal".
Second, that famous fatwa that was used to sell the "deal" never existed - updating the age old question "what did Obama, Kerry and Cohen know, and when did they know it?”
Obama gambled that during the deal's term, democrats would replace Iran's genocidal theocrats who now control Iran and see that the costs of developing and maintaining nukes would be against their interests. Trump's actions might fuel Iran's economic freefall that has begun and lead to the regime change Obama was hoping for.
6
Iraq, Libya, Syria, Careful for what you wish for. Chances are we will not like what comes next.
Trump has driven another wedge between the United States and its allies. Russia is a major benefactor of Trump’s action in this matter and many others. Mr. Trump is a Russian stooge and the United States is no longer a united country with allies willing to limit Russian influence and aggression. Vladimir Putin will have no opposition from the United States when he moves Russian troops into the Baltic or further into the Middle East.
10
An intelligent, clear-eyed assessment of the folly of Donald Trump's decision to withdraw, written by someone who was no great fan of Barack Obama's foreign policy.
What particularly galled me were the snide shots Trump took at the Obama administration, including: "Today’s action sends a critical message. The United States no longer makes empty threats." How completely unnecessary, and counter-productive. Clearly, Trump has never heard the dictum that politics stops at the water's edge. For Donald Trump, politics never stops. Because that's all he's got.
11
The agreement was not a treaty. Agreements are between people, not countries. Treaties are agreements between countries.
Obama, being the constitutional scholar that he was, probably understood that distinction.
12
That is not just our message to Iran - it's America's message to the world right now, particularly North Korea. You can make a deal with us, but it may not last very long.
I feely very badly for Mr. Kerry and all our diplomats and staffers who labored so long (with the Europeans) to create a workable agreement.
Instead of being guided by experts in diplomacy and treaties, we have a President guided only by racial animus; that is, when he isn't sexually harassing or assaulting women.
We now have a leader with a mixture of the meth-using former Toronto mayor; former Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, and various African dictators.
10
Thoughts this evening are with The Honorable John Kerry, and some of us remember how hard he has worked to come to an understanding with Iran. A moment in time to pause to tell him that his endeavors for an Entente are appreciated.
8
Don't feel that bad for all those who made a huge mess in the ME that costs million of lives from Libya to Syria, to Iraq. I wish to hope Trump will do better, but I do remember "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/winston_churchill_135259
Just like his business life Trump wreaks destruction and simply moves on. Leaving his “fixers” to clean up the messes he makes. He never looks back at the wreckage nor bothers to be concerned about the lives destroyed in the process. War is a great deal more complicated than casinos, steaks, airlines or a fake University. Woe to the American people.
25
I don't know if I have ever been more ashamed to be a American as I am today. My word has always be golden and having my President renege on our word just makes me so upset. I guess there is nothing we can do. America's words aren't worth the paper they are printed on any more.
23
It takes guts to see things as they are and act accordingly. Trump's generally disgusting behavior aside ( and that's tough) this is the right move. Iran is causing havoc in Syria and starting to threaten Israel.....which of
course has already begun to deal with it. The Iranians have now just lost their leverage and will now be dealt with as they should....an adversary and corrupt dictatorship.....with religious fanatics running the place. The so-called inspection regime of the agreement was a joke with all military sites off limits.
8
Iran was invited into Syria, their neighbor. Iran helped us and is still helping the United States rid Syria & Iraq of ISIS. And it has never threatened Israel for at least 10 years. While Israel has not only threatened but in the last two weeks have killed at least 20 Iranians.
trump is a tiny little boy with a tiny little mind at a kindergarten desk making tiny little decisions with enormous global impact, both metaphorically and physical.
We are ALL in real trouble.
He thinks his perceived enemies will kowtow and admit "We're not worthy." What if they say "What have we got to lose?", and launch?
Yes, we will likely obliterate them, along with a few hundred million innocents.
Nice way for trump to say "I told ya so!!!".
5
Trump thrives on NOISE. The more the merrier.
The more noise Trump gets, the more powerful he gets.
Sabotaging the Iran deal will surely generate lots of spin.
The timing may be perfect to aid Republicans in Congress, to help them to maintain control.
Perhaps, after the congressional elections, he can reverse himself and go back to the Iran Deal. Trump trumps, again!
2
The article is entitled "Trump to Iran: America's Word is Worthless"
Question to Roger: But Iran's is worth something? Please write an article praising Iran and it's truthfulness and honesty. Come on, who in their right mind would believe the ayatollahs and their gangsters?
Make believe Trump isn't the President, Roger. Would you still write with such venom?
7
Well written
3
My Zaida, a humble, honest immigrant and farmer would say "to have a good name, to be a person of their word, that's the most important thing ".
How far we have fallen.
I suspect karma is right around the corner.
Sad.
5
President Macron of France sounds too bright to have come away believing that America under Trump would keep The Iran Deal.
With this President, nothing is a fait accompli. Macron might even have sensed that Trump when telling him 'Oui', was in fact and reality planning to do the opposite.
Notable for this reader is that nearly all the columnists at the NYT have addressed this evening this latest news. Some of us might not understand the importance of what has happened.
Notable for this American is that there remains little in this Presidency and its Foreign Policy for Trump to stamp, demolish and trample on.
It is rare that I listen to a clip of Trump, but it is his last sentence 'I keep my promises' that is worth debating for this voter. His promises have never been mine. Thirty years ago he was an American Icon for some of us who wanted to achieve success.
Trump is not well. There is a dark shadow standing tall behind him, and he possibly is being manipulated. More important is how Americans react to this last fall. When it comes to Trump's Foreign Policy, what is the first action he has taken that comes to mind. Off the cuff, and do not give yourself more than five seconds.
While we can not ask the Nations of the World to put America on hold until Trump goes, he has enough distractions on the Domestic Front to keep him occupied, and as for this Congress in a state of political paralysis, perhaps it should be fired at the end of his Term.
3
"America's word" would have consisted of a treaty ratified by the Senate, in accordance with the Constitution. President Obama chose not to undertake the trouble of convincing the rest of America to support him, so what we're taking about here is an empty promise from a president who is no longer in office.
5
Is that the same Senate that refused to even consider the nomination of Merrick Garland to become a Supreme Court judge? That Senate?
30
or was it the previous senate that refused to bring anything up for a vote that Harry and Nancy didn't like?
we don't need aussie opinions
Trump's view on life is derived from the perspective of a one-percenter.
Who likes the Iranian leadership? NO ONE, but more concerned men accept imperfection to help the general population, whether here or in Iran.
The deal's not great. But, better than nothin! As you point out Trump is solution free! His big stink arouses the Mar-A-Lago crowd and the angry, thoughtless little guys who have it tough in life. They need people, places and deals to displace their angst.
9
"He knows who authorized it: Barack Obama."
"It" and the C-5 filled with dollars was Obama genuflecting to Tehran. Seems obvious.
Be interesting to see if Obama or Bush come out of hiding to attack Trump over this if it is so dramatically bad for both Americans and Europeans. Or perhaps Brennan and Hayden leaking to the WP. Our Sovietized New York City media certainly is up to it, e.g., NYT, CNN, et al.
But the real question--Iranian citizens and their economy: They're on the edge of revolution--will the clerics survive?
2
America’s word is indeed worthless but it isn’t just Trump. We’re also the nation of #metoo, where leadership figures and moral authorities like Bill Cosby and Schneiderman present carefully cultivated images of themselves for decades but lead lives of utter hypocrisy.
4
Trump's word isn't the only thing that's worthless.
12
That should read "Trump to the world."
1
In he South they used to lynch the black soldiers that came back from the wars, specially if they had earned medals for valor. The idea was to keep the blacks down, to erase the memory of great deeds by black people.
Trump is on the same path. By destroying Obama's legacy, be it Healthcare Reform, DACA, the Paris Agreement, Emissions Regulations, etc..he is trying to make the US forget that a black president took us all out of the 2008 recession.
If he gets his way Obama will soon be erased from history books.
10
I propose the following. Iran will give up any nuclear weapons program they might have if Israel gives up the nuclear weapons they now certainly have. Fair?
80
There was never an agreement between the US and Iran. It was merely an agreement between Obama and Iran. Treaties have to be ratified by the Senate. Obama is gone and so is the terrible agreement he signed. Good riddance to both.
2
You conveniently forgot to mention that Germany, France, Britain, Russia, and China were all party to the agreement. Maybe you should explain that oversight. And while your at it explain why the present U.S. Secretary of Defense also wanted to keep the agreement.
104
they need to understand what Obama told his foes...."elections have consequences" and "your side lost" Hillary's side that is
War is inevitable, trump wants one and Netanyahu needs one. The Saudi's having been building themselves militarily by buying US arms in preparation for one. This seems to have become the Republican legacy, perpetual war, but it keeps their military industrial donors fat.
19
steve, war is not inevitable, but we are walking through an historical mine field, and for some reason The Cuban Missile Crisis comes to mind. The Nation was in a state of crisis, one averted but a close call, and America is not walking alone because Civilized Nations across the World are united in understanding that America is off course at the moment.
3
The time has come for the world to stop dreaming about the border lines created on maps, to stop believing one's own god is more important than anyone else's, to stop believing the pursuit of wealth has any value, to stop thinking there is anything heroic in creating misery for others, to stop trying to get away with theft, to stop thinking any of us have a right to any land, to stop allowing people to starve to death.
The ways the rich and powerful of the world act is the way children act, and as parents we tell the children to stop.
It is time to tell them all to stop. For the sake of humanity.
7
Enjoying your wonderful less expensive health care? How about the wall paid for by Mexico? How about the tax cut that wouldn't benefit himself? How about that 3% GDP growth? Trump's word is worthless.
92
As long as US supports Israel unconditionaly, no deal Iran will last...Israel and its lobbyists in Washington will find a way to sabotage it. US needs to break it self of the power of lobbyists and realize that the power in the middle east should be shared evenly between the regional players. Until then, we won't see stability there...
3
No one single person should hold such power to end international agreements that have taken years to negotiate and implement and end them on their own because of their vindictiveness, pettiness and capriciousness. It's immoral what Trump is doing to the nation and he is putting the world at risk again.
Powerful and profound words by an intelligent and well versed man who is able to speak at length about the deal with Iran. Trump would not be able to utter a sentence about the international agreement besides the fact that he does not like it because he thinks Obama was central to the deal. Trump cannot speak of the deal because he is ignorant of its intricacies. He has already been asked why he wanted to leave it and he utters the same three words. We are in troubled time with this man in charge.
542
But you obviously believe it should be in one person’s power (Obama) to create such a deal.
The deal was not submitted to the Senate as a treaty - why not ?
Clearly, because obama knew he couldn’t get the Senate to confirm
28
Exactly.
One person shouldn't be able to commit the entirety of the US and it's territories to a treaty that the Senate will not ratify, or put billions of dollars of taxpayer's "cash" into barrels and fly it over as a bribe either.
1
Well said. Thank you.
10
No, this was not "America's deal." America's deals are called treaties and require Senate votes. This was Mr. Obama's unilateral private deal, a deliberate end-run past the proper constitutional authority. And now it has met its deserved end.
The U.S. instituted sanctions against Iran in 1979. That's 39 years. What makes anyone think that Iran is going to change its behavior over threats of sanctions?
11
For decades the US has mishandled its relationship with Iran. By propping up the autocratic Shah well beyond his use-by date, the US played into the hands of the Islamic revolution, with outcomes that reverberated throughout the region and the world.
When Bush came to power, the moderate Khatami was the President of Iran. There was a chance then of a possible rapprochement but instead Bush declared Iran to be a member of the ‘axis of evil’ and laid the ground for the election of the conservative Ahmadinejad.
It took 14 years to rebuild some sort of relationship and set the scene for a new agreement, but in one fell swoop Trump’s destroyed the goodwil that was built up so painstakingly.
Perhaps Trump thinks that he’s been so successful with his North Korea brinksmanship he can do the same with Iran. But he’s sorely mistaken. He has trashed trust in the US around the world.
12
While I agree Donald Trump's obsession with things Obama influences this decision we must recognize it is consistent with the Trump-Bolton compulsion to act in ways that favor Russia. Bolton has long talked hawkish talk while pushing U.S. policy, e.g. Iraq and North Korea, in directions ultimately benefiting Russian foreign policy goals. And Trump's more recent subservience to Russia and unwillingness to defend US interests threatened by Russia make it clear we cannot expect him to act in our favor.
At this point global peace and American security depend on a united stand by the rest of the signatories to the agreement, isolating the United States. Perhaps Iran should rebuild its airlines with planes from Airbus rather than Boeing, China could sign long-term oil contracts, and Russia sell and support advanced air defense systems. In many respects Iran does not need nuclear explosives if it moves forward to develop chemical and biological weapons or radioactive aerosols able to leave critical areas of Israel uninhabitable. If Iran can make it clear to the United States that any attack on Iran means the utter devastation of Israel that may convince those cheerleading an attack on Iran to rethink their enthusiasm for bloodshed. This is a horrible prospect but it may be the only option we face as long as Trump and Bolton choose to act in Russia's interest. As a sovereign nation Iran has a right to defend itself and a bloodthirsty Israel-US axis requires it to act accordingly.
5
Anybody would sign a nuclear deal if you get $150B and more than $1B in cash, you need only to postpone your program for 10 years, you can do secret researches and keep the infrastructure in place and develop other means to perfect the nuclear arsenal. What we need is a deal that can effectively end Iran's nuclear ambitions and destabilizing activities in neighboring countries. If N. Korea goes Trump's way, there is a good chance that Iran will also come his way.
4
The cash was Iran’s to begin with; US bank accounts owned by Iran were frozen according to sanctions.
7
So America's leader is now a petulant toddler with an angry red face. The Iran Nuclear Deal wasn't a "Munich" agreement. Hitler was talking "lebensraum" outside the boundaries of the Fatherland. Iran isn't talking "lebensraum" -- their nuclear capability was being contained as well as possible by President Obama's and western leaders' Iran Nuclear Deal. The president will do anything in his power to soil President Barack Hussein Obama's legacy. Face it, America voted Obama into our presidency for 8 years. Let's hope Trump - our wannabe big man in training-wheels, supported by his new hawk foreign policy tream, Bolton and Pompeo -- won't last much longer. Trump's reckless act pulling out from our agreement with European leaders will not end well. And it doesn't take a pundit to predict the failure of this presidency. Soon, please!
4
America's secretary of state: Benjamin Netanyahu
17
Liberty and rights are being halved, limited and eliminated by fiat, quota and power. Skip acts of Congress, border arrests, residents roundup, dirty water, gay bias are carried out by the Executive Office, and today, the worst decision, one that threatens world peace, a basic commodity, oil, entered the US into an new era of risk when Trump pulled the US out of the Iran Accord, an agreement to stop Iran's development of nuclear weapons with full, open inspections. Bad move, Trump said. Iran sponsors terrorism.
Iran has always sponsored terrorism, against severe sanctions. The accord takes away Iran's nuclear threat. Bad move, Trump!
7
If you pull out of an agreement with open inspections, with all evidence pointing to compliance, and the machinery and stockpiles of production have been destroyed and diminished, what will you substitute for the agreement to prevent a nuclear threat?
Trump's decision is an economic boycott and blockage when the agreement conditions for free trading and financing have been meet. Trump is using a military threat against a circumstance nonexistent for theft and fixing markets.
5
(2 Parts)
What's next? Focus on five global areas; with notes, about global political economies. One, the Indo-Pacific/China, marked by explosive growth, protests, low labor/high capital, global strategy. Two, the Americas, North/Central/South; strong regional values, craft, capital, and crops; 2 out of 3 in rails; agriculture, resources, renewables and tech are big tickets; Central/South have strong safety nets for advanced progress (income/education/housing), destabilized by corruption and crime, oil prices disruptive.
Three, the Danube States, NATO and non-members from Europe and Eastern Europe; skilled at central planning, political economy of all voices; forward thinking partnerships, skilled capital and retail manufacturing, great GDP rates.
Four, the Oceans; Tanker, fishing, mining and drilling, environmental toxicity and dead zones; technology.
Five, War Zones: the reach of state and non-state violence, reoccurring patterns of police, spree, mass, mental health murders, suicides, genocides, displacement/refugees, imprisoned; targets, bias, global reaction, sexual victims.
(Part 2 below.)
(Part 2)
Key International activities in three regions.
China is building rails, roads, and new ports westward and financing its One Belt, One Road project, connecting Europe, Africa, and Asia through a modern network of roads, rails, and ports, with security and comfort. Sexual assault remains high in India. Vietnam's modernity gives it an advantage.
War Zones continued to be well funded, except in Syria, to former US supported-fighters.
The Danube States are an emerging European center, representing a shift from Germany and EU toward the East. The Danube States are adept in planning and listening, capital manufacturing, personal liberty, state enterprise and are better risk partners, with a trained workforce.
In the Americasm the US main economic fight is over quotas and fiat pricing/tariffs. Ford is eliminating passenger cars from its assemblies. The board and big investors battled at Xerox for control. The black-white income gap (70% M, 80% F) and the employment (2X) gap (the unemployment rate always doubles for blacks) are the overhead of racism.
Use the five to track policy!
This stupidity works straight into the hands of Russia, the new kid on the Middle East block.
Netanyahu played Trump like a child, "Here Donald, have another compliment" ... now, about those nasty Iranians ...
As Rouhani said, this will last a few months .. either until the mid term elections, let's all wait and keep laughing until then.
6
For whatever reason (possible indictment?) Jared Kushner,
Trump's anointed Middle East fixer, has dropped out of the picture. Maybe it was the loss of his security clearance, maybe he's desperate to find financial help to save his real estate boondoggle from default.
Jared is close to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the enfant terrible who seized control of Saudi Arabia and uses tension with Iran to quell internal dissent after his detention and shakedown of other Saudi princes. Jared is also close to PM Netanyahu as well as Israeli financiers who might help bail out Jared's bad real estate deals.
The goodwill, friendship and access to billions for real estate deals that Jared has been cultivating while playing lead US diplomat is as likely the reason for blowing up the Iran deal as Trump's pathological fixation (others say racism) with spiting Obama at every turn.
Trump is transactional -- he sees the world as little more than dealmaking, which means there has to be something in it for him -- money, vanity, looking tough or just another misdirection.
Kicking sand in Iran's face is what a bully would do -- except Iran is no 98 pound weakling. Trump's damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead gambit reflects no insight into Iran. Instead of weakening Iran, he's sabotaging Iran's moderates and progressives and playing right into the hardliner's trap.
Syria taught Trump nothing.
Looking tough is pointless if what you're doing is really dumb.
74
It's obvious by now, to the world, that the United States is led by a deranged individual who is surrounded by a coterie of sycophants and would be war mongers. Furthermore this crew is supported by a majority party whose spineless and abject surrender of their constitutional duties leaves one wondering if the Republic can be saved. This irrational, nay, insane, decision to abrogate a treaty that was working within its designed parameters simply defies belief. Frankly, the rest of the sane world should isolate the United States until we can rid ourselves of this "infection" and return the country to its position as a dependable ally and rational partner in international events.
6
At the signing today he was asked how this would make America safer. You could see the hesitation as he struggled for an answer. His answer? This will make America safer. He wants to wield the power of the Presidency simply because he can to make up for every real or perceived slight he has ever felt throughout his life...the US and the rest of the world be damned.
11
Reading Mr. Cohen’s words about Mr. Netanyahu and conservative Jews that appear here today reminds me again that the true purpose of Israel is to give liberals at the Times another country to complain about and blame for our problems.
3
Mr. Cohen is not a liberal. If you had read him more than once you would know that.
Trump, Bolton, Pompeo and Netanyahu, the four horsemen of the Iranian Apocalypse. Trump, satisfies his megalomaniac need for " besting " Obama, Bolton and Pompeo, satisfying their moist dreams of War and personal aggrandizement, and Netanyahu, maneuvering the USA into doing His dirty work TO Iran. This will not end well, and will make the debacle in Iraq, and even Afghanistan, look like a summer vacation. Trump fans, sign up your Children or Grandchildren to DIE. YOU own this, and Him.
9
Trump, Bannon and Pam Geller are set on a holy war against radical Islam. Beware. Kiss progress on efforts to end terror goodby.
2
Trump is a prideful, racist, greedy, vindictive ignorant man. Unfortunately millions of Americans felt he was the best person to represent them. He has not dissappointed.
4
Congratulations to the imposter in the White House: you continue to make the world an ever-more-dangerous place, for no other reason than to feed your insatiably needy ego.
5
This President is a wrecking ball unhinged. With his withdrawing from this agreement, never will any country that has a developed or developing nuclear capability trust the United States again. Never!
I now only look to November to vote. That's the only card the country has to play now. If we don't we lose everything. The Republicans in Congress are a pathetic lot without a spine. They refuse to stand up to Trump, but with a good turnout this next election cycle, they will pay a heavy price.
1
Trump has no clue regarding the short or long term international consequences of withdrawing from the Iran deal. His base cheers him on, Netanyahu gave a speech solely for him (in English with big letters), he hired a cluster of war hawks to cheer him on. But our European allies, Russia, and China don't support his decision. Those are the trading partners of Iran who are essential to this deal.
A bully, the center of attention because of his antics, draws attention to his blunder because he can appear as a strong man like Duterte or Putin.
He is just a racist thug with a business history of stiffing his contractors and forcing a low price settlement by escalation of court costs, together with an NDA to cover for his chicanery. It is all he knows. Yes, really, ALL he knows.
But courts and NDA's won't cover for his utter lack of long term policy or strategy, pathetic ignorance of international diplomacy, and virtual sociopathic tendencies to ignore consequences except as they affect himself and no one else.
6
I wonder if Hitler had advisor's or only yesmen who complemented him in everything that he did. It is ironic that here Israel is behind in pushing Trump to end the Iran deal hope we don't have same results as in WW2.
Its only a matter of time before the FBI pulls him out of the Whitehouse.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/08/politics/robert-mueller-russian-oligarch-...
1
So the Saudi Foreign Minister wants Iran "to stop supporting terrorists...to stop harboring terrorists". Give me a break. Fifteen of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi and to the best of my knowledge no Iranian has ever committed a terrorist attack against America. Also at play here I believe is the fact that both Pence and Pompeo are Evangelicals - most of whom believe we are in the "end times" which will be brought on by Armageddon in the Middle East. The Iranian nuclear deal was good for at least another ten years - but if we can blow up the world before then and bring on the second coming of Jesus in the process .... well yippee! And as Jews - I'm talking to you Bibi - have never accepted Jesus as their personal Savior they are unfortunately doomed to burn in the eternal lake of fire - but we still love you - really!
1
To abrogate U.S. commitments under this multi-nation agreement seems to be the height of recklessness. Who were Mr. Trump's advisors? Steven Miller and John Bolton? John Bolton is a neo-con hawk that pushed America into a needless war in Iraq. I am not sure what Steven Miller's qualifications are (if any). This move seems to be highly reckless and unwittingly sends a signal to North Korea, of yet another example of America not being deterred by nations without a nuclear capability.
Why even discuss what Trump does or doesn't do, the man is an abomination. The discussion should be about how to remove him from office as soon as possible, by the vote or otherwise. Why discuss whether any of his decisions have any meaning one way or the other? They don't.
This particular Iran decision probably was prompted by Trump's memory of being humiliated by Obama at that dinner years ago.
And he takes actions out of that? He's a cretin. He's a menace.
1
I don't think it's about Iran as much as its about his racist determination the destroy anything and everything Obama created.
As an American Jew I say let Netanyahu fight his own cooked up wars.
He asked for this I say let him deal with it. All of it.
After all he can ask brave heroic donald trump to lead the military in the battlefield.
Yeah right.
3
A comment here on form rather than substance, but isn't it telling how Trump's demeanor during the announcement resembled Benitto Mussolini when embarking Italy on its ill-fated adventures in Ethiopia, Libya and ultimately alongside Hitler. The self-conscious defiance, the wild stares, the jutting of the chin. Remember how that turned out?
1
"The world will take note"? The United States has elected an ignorant Russian sycophant, potentially a tyrant traitor, who is dismantling the American Country right before our very eyes.
Trump is a crime. He should make the history he so desperately wants through the integration of "Trump" into the language as a curse word of the highest order.
If only there were a spell to be rid of him.
Meanwhile we must hope for a Democratic Congress, if not Senate, Impeachment, his resignation, and then, hopefully, a slow rebuilding of the country in view of all the horrific damage this disaster of a man has caused.
3
Excellent, timely analysis by Roger Cohen - as always.
Trump is nightmare of ignorance, infantile rage and score settling. With no knowledge or experience of the world he just blusters. Just that, like in his so-called business career, he usually ends up stepping on his own Roger.
Those Iran hawks; I guess you'll be urging your kids to enlist in the coming great conflict, eh? I guess all the members of congress that support this madman are putting their kids into the military ground forces, eh?
Yeah; probably not. Fools and cowards the lot.
1
It's awful to see the destruction of another hard-won achievement, a landmark not just for the Obama administration, but for our nation as a whole. The photo of truculent Donald Trump at a small desk illustrates him in his chosen role, a middle-school bully swinging the Presidency like a toy bat to bash that which he envies.
1
"Iranian-American enmity, virulent since the 1979 Islamic Revolution"
Or we might date the enmity to the 1953 overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh by a joint Britain / US operation.
And now the Americans are talking about doing it again. Iran has never developed a nuclear weapon, but the US has violently interceded in their democracy.
1
Are either Netanyahu or the Saudis bribing Trump to do their bidding? At home, lost of know by now that Trump #1 Lies and #2 never does anything unless it directly benefits HIM somehow, some way.
Trump ran to Saudi Arabia and Israel for his first foreign policy foray abroad. Why? and More Importantly, what may have been promised by Bibi and The Crown Prince to Trump?
Truman politics are about self-aggrandizement and anger, resentment and fear. Most Americans probably can not name their fear or anger at Iran so Trump isn't using that for justification. Bibi is feeding him talking points which are not solid.
So why is Trump doing this besides the obvious Obama hatred?
I say follow the money. Maybe not today, but at some point we may see lots of Trump business in Israel and SA.
Another reckless canonball aimed at the fabric of global relations. Already frayed, that fabric will soon tear, exposing naked conflicts. Nothing good can come of it. Well said Mr. Cohen (and also Mr. Kristoff, in another column.)
1
I am worried for the Iranian people. The deal was meant to save them. For obvious reasons, Israel cannot possibly allow Iran to get nuclear weapons, and would rather nuke Tehran and then deal with the fallout.
1
Has he ACTUALLY read it? What’s plan B?
1
This temper tantrum of a boy-man nullifying a crucial international agreement that very effectively lowered the chance for nuclear war in the Middle East is all the proof we need to see Trump is unfit for high office. As for the millions of citizens who voted this dangerously ignorant man into office, they would put more effort into researching a new toaster than they did a new president. Time for them to look themselves in the mirror and get a good look at who is to blame for that recklessness that has cost America its good standing in the rest of the world.
This ought to stop Iran from shooting those unarmed nonviolent Palestinian prorestors in Gaza, stop their occupation of the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, make them end their deportations of Palestinians from Palestine into Israeli concentration camps, and lead them towards developing due process courts in Palestine. Unlike Israel Iran is a danger since its citizens are highly educated and don't retrogess to a 19th century culture where it takes 10 years of study to go through a simple 200 page manuscript dating back to when Jesus Christ was in pampers. What could go wrong?
As an active veteran several years ago I sat down with veterans who had traveled to Iran. Everybody greeting them warmly and made them welcome. The same veterans were barred from the West Bank. My son was in intelligence and his evidence was Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Jerusalem was the #1 reason ISIS and the Taliban did not need an advertising budget.
2
I have no love for Donald Trump and believe him to be a destroyer of democratic norms and a deeply divisive figure but he is right on Iran. The bet made by Obama was that giving sanctions relief in exchange for a temporary delay in Irans nuclear program would lead the Iranians to moderate their behavior. Instead they used the money to expand their military and support genocide in Syria. They broke a solemn treaty obligation at the NPT, which is now incontrovertible fact, and it is clear that they were actively seeking to acquire nukes. They threaten their neighbors and support terrorists with even more money. In short, appeasement did not work. Only a credible threat of force will change their behavior and its high time we applied it. We tried the carrot and they spit in our face. Now they need the stick.
55
Nonsense. The Iranians have complied with the treaty that was signed. Appeasement has worked. Trump is placing the world in grave danger.
83
All in the timing, Bartleby, and while I prefer not to...We are walking on ice, and with Trump and the powerful cards he holds, and an Administration weakened, this is the cause of making some Americans feel more threatened than ever, by not having a wise Captain at the helm of our Ship instill in us a sense of direction.
22
You buy into the right-wing myth that the treaty with Iran was supposed to make them good actors and bring peace and brotherly love to all of the Middle East. No, it was supposed to stop them from having a nuclear bomb. And it did that.
105
This latest ill-advised action by our Liar-in-Chief to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal may drag all of us into a very perilous situation. His outrageous venom and his poisonous desire to destroy whatever Pres. Obama put into place to keep America safe goes beyond sane behavior and into a vicious and unhealthy
desire to wreak havoc upon the entire country to destroy Pres. Obama's achievements.
From Psychology Today we can read "Psychoanalyst and Holocaust survivor Erich Fromm, who invented the diagnosis of malignant narcissism, argues that it 'lies on the borderline between sanity and insanity.' Otto Kernberg, a psychoanalyst specializing in borderline personalities, defined malignant narcissism as having four components: narcissism, paranoia, antisocial personality and sadism. Trump exhibits all four.
Trump has moved way beyond being tiresome and nasty into being very dangerous to all of us. "His narcissism is evident in his 'grandiose sense of self-importance … without commensurate achievements."
We desperately need an intervention, and I'm afraid that Republican members of Congress are too busy accepting all those "campaign" contributions from wealthy individuals and corporations. Can we even last as the America we all grew up with until the November 2018 elections?
1
" ... his iron principle that whatever Obama did must be bad."
That is his ONLY principle.
" Anything that Obama did, I can do better ". NO. A lifetime of experience in creating catastrophe, leaving others to clean up the mess. HE is not qualified, or capable, of managing a convenience store or fast food restaurant. Thanks, Collaborators. You OWN him.
1
The shameful Art of (killing) the Deal.
I hope and pray that Germany, France, Britain, Russia, and China simply ignore Trump's action and with Iran proceed as if the UNited States was irrelevant, which given Trump's breaking our solemn word for us it is fast becoming. If those five nations collectively ignore the sanctions and ramp up contacts with Iran. The price for have an narcissistic ignoramus as President is growing by the day.
All that was missing was the reference to WMDs and 'Yellow Cake'.
3
Electing a nasty tot who played with matches was bad enough.
Watching him lie and toss aside norms and cabinet members has been disturbing, but not quite terrifying.
Having the GOP bow to his whims was scary - but strengthened the opposition to Living in Krazy KiddieLand.
But giving the family nations the word that he has no grasp of global treaty-keeping and the dangers of nuclear
proliferation brings the clock closer to atomic midnight. The krazed kid has lit a whole pack of matches and he is tossing it into bed we sleep in.
Time to act is short. Is anyone in Congress listening? Take his matches, blow out the flames. Send him away for help. Or the next crackle you hear may be your own.
A simple question doesn't appear to have been asked by this administration: what will replace the current Iranian leadership if this regime falls?
It's like deja vu all over again from 2003 and we know how the movie comes out!
We took out Saddam, did "de Baathification" and then we had 100 car bombs a day for the next seven years!
SAD!!!
This is not too difficult to figure out. Trump is being told what to do by Israeli interests. He does not think or act for himself. He is a puppet. Once we understand that we can better understand what is going on.
Trump is a puppet. Period.
2
Mr Cohen makes no mention of Israel’s past bombing of Iran with American planes and weapons. We are back on the count down clock. Thank our president for that.
1
Where is the Democracy in this ?
Do you elect a Dictator ?
1
trump's paradox: making every move with an aim of diminishing President Obama's achievements yet raising President Obama's stature every time. Yet trump has no capacity for insight, so cannot see this. If only this fool did not have the potential to start a war and kill millions of people. Impeachment or enactment of the 25th amendment cannot come soon enough.
There are no adults in the room.
Vladimir Putin is sitting in the Kremlin smiling. Trump is the gift that keeps on giving, way beyond Putin's wildest dreams.
How soon before Trump goes to war, as Mueller closes in on him?
And how happy will Bibi Netanyahu be when the Middle East explodes?
1
Donald Trump is the explosive and John Bolton is the always-lit fuse. Regime change indeed! What are they smoking?
Good luck, world!
3
What our allies who helped negotiate the deal should do now is let Trump rot in his isolation. Put the alliance on a subsistence diet connected to United States' other institutions, hopefully including the congress, and wait Trump out.
There is no other way to teach this narcissist, arrogant and ignorant man that he is not the Emperor of the world!
1
Trump:s obsession with undoing everything Obama accomplished is yet another sickening demonstration of his racism and emotional instability.
Perhaps at this point I should just be thankful that Trump hasn't figured out how to resurrect Osama bin Laden.
4
There is a very good chance that the only reason for Trump to abandon the Iran deal is that it was an Obama project.Once again Trump has shown us that erasing the Obama legacy is his primary motive.
He is much too dull minded to have any broad policy objective, let alone a method to achieve it.
Somehow a majority of intelligent , rational Americans have been saddled with a reality TV president by a minority of voters, composed , in large part , by selfish, hate filled, uninformed , uneducable individuals who have little understanding of government, democracy, history or the common good.
A selfish rabble is now in charge.
God help us!
602
Either way, K25, it is a gamble. While this is not a parlor game, you mind wonder if Putin has more respect for Obama or Trump.
6
Russia went straight off to Iran after this announcement. Both Russia AND China are parties to this deal, and if the US wants to withdraw from any engagement with Iran, those two powers will gladly take up the slack. What a stupid move on Trump's part.
Undoing President Obama and angering liberals are the only things he and his base think about when they wake up in the morning
14
I don't think Iran has any desire to obtain nuclear weapons now. Therefore, they are in compliance with the Iran deal. Iran is a bad actor. They cause all sorts of trouble in the M.E. in their effort to recreate the Persian empire. They are enemies of Israel. Why? Does that give them street cred in the M.E.? Regime change would be good.
2
The awfulness of today will be remembered, the unleashing of Trump's most stupid move thus far (the tax cuts were a republican idea), by removing the controls in place to prevent nuclear arms from coming to fruition. Petulance seems a good word for Trump's childish temper, all to erase Obama from the picture. I suspect he is doing this to retain the undivided attention and support of his adoring misinformed base, and the adulation that goes with it. I differ a bit with you in regards to the enmity of U.S.-Iranian relations since 1979. It began really in 1953, when the C.I.A. orchestrated a coup and installed it's puppet, the Shah of Iran...which then led to the Islamic revolution and take-over by Khomeini. I'm afraid this is the beginning of the end for diplomacy and peace in the Middle East, and Trump's vain governance with a triad of 'fear, hate and division'. What could possibly go wrong with all this idiocy?
295
Nothing could go wrong with this brilliant move by our monumentally brilliant (just ask him) president. Little Rocket Man will be so awed by his incredible astuteness that he'll be begging for a treaty to end his nuclear program, and maybe , even, make Korea a US colony. Our (once) western allies will start genuflecting at his feet because his intensity and strength make them realize how wonderful he is and then put him in control of their governments. Unicorns will give birth to evangelical ministers and vice versa. And, Putin will finally ask him to come and bring the family to visit his favorite dacha.
Oh wait, this is the NYT, not FOX. Never mind.
31
Actually, it looks like Kim will. But that must be only an amazing coincidence. Trump's hard threats had nothing to do with it. Just look how great the Korean conflict worked out under Clinton, Bush, and Obama.
As far as your visions of Western countries giving up control to Trump and South Korea becoming a colony of the US, have you been hearing voices too these days? Have you considered counselling?
A moment of clarity,no doubt brought on by drugs smuggled over our open border, don't Bogart that joint my friend
The world is going to have live with his petulance. What he does not understand is that there others who can be just as petulant as he is. And that is a dangerous thing. He has brought us closer to war, not farther from it.
4
It wouldn't be half as bad if Trump could come up with better alternatives to the programs he's dismantled. It's as though he wants to destroy everything that others have done simply because it's an ego trip that makes him feel important.
3
And some people have said that President Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for his stance on North Korea? I hope this will change their minds.
2
This is a deal about oil and money. Nuclear talk is the leverage. It has nothing to do with Obama's color, name or legacy. It has everything to do with Obama giving up all the oil and the money for Iran to stop 'nuclear' stuff for 15 years, after which they can continue on as they were. Oil and money. That's it. Hello, its the Middle East we're talking about.
2
What oil was Obama giving up? Iran's resources belong to Iran. You know Britain had a hard time giving up its Empire. The US seems to find it even harder accepting its downward spiral.
Roger: You say the Iran deal "was not about Iranian interference in neighboring Arab states or about its ballistic missile program." That of course was the deal's achilles heal. Admitting that the deal had this fatal flaw does not eliminate the faw lor justify sticking with the deal. You also note that the deal was a "gamble on drawing Iran, a hopeful and highly educated society, closer to the world and so weakening the Islamic Republic’s hard-liners." By that of course you mean regime change. Trump has the same goal, and given Iran's current fragile economy and civil unrest, the reimposition of economic sanctions has a greater likelihood of bringing about that change than any desire of Iranians to move closer to the Western world. All we are asking is give T a chance.
1
But Putin must be thrilled.
This will weaken the alliances America has with its allies, and most likely thrust Iran even more powerfully into Russia's bear hug. I have to wonder if Putin has plans to directly confront the west, by putting missiles with nuclear warheads in Iran, unlikely I suppose, or will he cheer on a direct war with Israel, one that will cause his oil to sky rocket in price.
Trump is worse than George W. Bush. I have to wonder just who the Republicans have in the wings to be their next President. They seem to have an lot of truly incompetent leaders to choose from.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
6
This is a dark day. I thought November 8, 2016 was a dark day, but I failed, completely, to imagine just how much damage Donald Trump could do as president.
3
"That’s what diplomacy is about: imperfect solutions, arrived at between enemies, that are better than the alternatives, the worst of them all being war."
Unfortunately, John Bolton, the Herald of War rather than Donald Trump's National Security Adviser and Michael Pompeo, have coerced a weak and lazy president into betting the farm on a "regime change" in Teheran. It will never succeed.
Your quotation above would be a long reach for this American president. Not being a reader or a thinker or a planner, or a leader who builds consensus upon the blocks of persuasion, candor, honor and wise trust, No. 45 is reminiscent of the guy in eighth grade who picks his nose in class and looks over the shoulder of the smart girl sitting in front of him when he wanted someone else to provide an answer to a hard question.
The cliché "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" applies here. Seven months ago, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump's move to decertify the Iran nuclear deal is "an appropriate response to the consequences of the Obama administration's failed policies."
He added, "I am committed to working with the Trump administration to constrain Iran's support for terrorism and proxy militias," apparently forgetting the terrorism that he visited upon the Constitution in 2016.
His Republican doormats on Capitol Hill will hail him as a conquering Caesar. Donald Trump so wants the world to see him as a tough guy, a bully.
He's naught more than a punk.
5
Follow the trail of money. When Jared Kushner was appointed special Middle East envoy everyone was surprised. The plan is now very clear : line Trump and Kushner pockets with Saudi money in exchange for shutting down Iran oil exports. This deal has one core Benefeciary at the expense of all other humans. soon war will start, Israel will attack Iran with the support of’ the US in order to destroy ‘terrorists’, 20 more years of’ death but meanwhile 666 5th avenue building will be refinanced. Devil it is indeed.
1
[The Saudi Foreign Minister] continued: “We want Iran to be a good neighbor. We want Iran to comply with international law. We want Iran to stop interfering in the affairs of Arab countries. We want Iran to stop supporting terrorists. We want Iran to stop harboring terrorists. We want Iran to stop attacking our embassies, to stop killing our diplomats. We want Iran to not give ballistic missiles to terrorist groups.”
Why? Because doing all those terrible things is Saudi Arabia’s job.
1
Excellent analysis, but you give far too little credit to Benjamin Netanyahu and his influence in this decision by Trump. American foreign policy is now dictated by the Israelis and Netanyahu. America will now spend its fortune and spill the blood of our youth to do Israel's misguided bidding, while Netanyahu sits back and watches with glee. That, in a word, is sick and in the long run the harm will be greater to Israel than the United States.
3
Who cares about all those things like possibilities for peaceful engagement and restraint on a nuclear arms race and trust in American integrity that have been shredded? Trump thinks it's good for Trump. Nothing else matters.
1
Whenever a middle-eastern government falls, there seems to be a rise of a terrorist organization to take its place. I fear for the citizens of Iran if the result of this pullout from the deal is destabilization and fall of the Iran government.
I believe we can clelarly say that Crimea will never returned to Ukraine.
I am wondering what will be the future of Korean peninsula.
At the end, Trump has no skin in the game.
With his earlier decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and his reneging on the Iran Deal, this president is igniting a powder keg in the Middle East that may one day lead to catastrophe and war. For someone who covets the Nobel Peace Prize, the president has a strange way of being conciliatory and calming the turbulent waters among the nuclear powers.
Was this decision made to appease and please Benjamin Netanyahu? As with Obamacare and the Paris Accord, this president only wants to take down, brick by brick, his predecessor's accomplishments. He's putting world stability on edge out of pure spite. That Iran complied with the agreement means nothing to the president.
This man campaigned on the safety and security of American citizens by demeaning terrorists, yet today, he created more unrest and mistrust of America around the world. Chaos and anarchy may be the fruit of his labors.
Roger isn’t it time to fess up, it’s not Iran bombing other nations into oblivion, it’s not Iran who has created a refugee crisis in a Europe unlike anything seen since WWII, it’s not Russia who has been starting wars in the Middle East, their last foray there in Afghanistan cured them of that for awhile, bankrupted the country,as a matter of fact, you think we might have taken notice rather than following them down the rabbit hole to protect Israel, if Iran has a horrible human rights record how would you describe Israels with respect to the Palestinians. We have painted ourselves into a corner: it’s us and Israel against the world, lol, we need it, and let’s see who is there for us when we are no longer useful, if you need a primer look at what has happened to the American middle class the last forty years as the neoliberals observed their handiwork from Palm Beach and Beverley Hills.
Trump doesn't "display his anger break things and hope for the best"
He does the first two points, then gloats in watching reasonable people (swampy elites in his mind) go apoplectic over the crazed outcome.
There is no hoping for the best with him: he hopes for the worst.
1
Trump's irresponsible move is also a nod to Congressional Republicans, who undermined President Obama every step of the way with the Iran deal.
The GOP thinks they win when the world loses.
Why would anyone ever again sign an agreement or a treaty with the US when they now know that a toddler with a pen can renege everything without any intelligible reason?
Trump acted like he did not out of any concern for Israel or any other country in the Middle East. He cares not one iota about any country in the Middle East, something Netanyahu and the Israeli Right Wing fail to comprehend.
There is one reason and one reason alone that Trump has decimated the deal with Iran and that is because it was Barack Obama that was responsible for the Agreement, an Agreement that the entire Israeli intelligence community past and present and military believe should be preserved.
Trump has one rule that he follows: If Obama was for it then he must act against it, whether it is taking health insurance away from thirty million Americans, decimating the laws that protect the foods we eat, the medicines we take, the cars we drive, the toys our kids play with, and all the health and safety laws that protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we walk upon and our workplace safety. Police departments are no longer being held accountable for their treatment of minorities, yet another Trump attempt at destroying an achievement by Barack Obama.
I am a Jewish American and a Democrat who is disgusted with both the President of my country and his saber rattling megalomaniac clone, Netanyahu.
If Israel and Iran get into a shooting war I hope that America stays out of the conflict. The right wing in Israel and America need to be careful what they wish for as they just may get it and the results for millions of people will be catastrophic.
Tell Mr. Zarif and European leaders, that they must work together to ignore US demands.
US banks are important. But America cannot sanction the world.
European leaders must refuse American sanction demands, including payment/funds movement/etc. demands.
We are the rogue here. No one else. Just us. The world needs to punish us. Israeli leaders like to boast they will show how any infraction will be met by a response magnitudes stronger. That is exactly how the world should treat us and the war mongering and war demands against Iran, made by Israel. Let us be punished. And shamed.
This has nothing to do with Iran. This is another example of Trump's hatred of anything with President Obama's name attached to it. And no one will convince me otherwise.
I always find it amazing when a country with nukes all over a region comes in with their holier than thou condescending attitude that whilst it's ok for them to have nukes they are affronted that any other country would want nukes. If I were Iran, with Israel and the US armed to the teeth with nukes in the region, I would want nukes too.
This action will simply further isolate the US on the world stage, it will tell North Korea that an agreement by the US is not worth the paper it's written on. World hegemony was fun while it lasted!
415
Mark: When Israel developed its nuke, she and Iran were allies and at peace with one another. The same was true between the US and Iran. That all changed in 1979 when Iran declared both to be enemies, the Big Satan and the Little Satan. Iran has threatened Israel's existence as the nationstate of the Jewish people. What part of "Death to America. Death to Israel" is difficult to understand? How can any reasonable equivalence be drawn between the US and Israel on the one side, and Iran on the other?
7
It's OK for Israel to have nukes because they didn't sign the NPT (same for India and Pakistan). Iran did sign it, knowing full well there were other nuclear states. They broke their agreement and in so doing went rogue.
8
@Charlie How many Israelis have Iranians killed in the last 20 years. And how many Iranians have the Israelis killed in the last 20 days?
During the campaign Trump promised a great alternative to the Affordable Care Act. How's that working for you?
Now he thinks he can create an alternative to the Iran agreement made slowly and with much give and take, accepted by Iran, among our European allies plus China and Trump's beloved Russia. What are the odds?
1
This just in: John Bolton has volunteered to lead the first wave of U.S. infantry in the upcoming Iran War. He will receive his commission as a First Lieutenant tomorrow morning at a special ceremony in Room 345E in the Pentagon. He expects to deploy to a forward military base by the weekend, where he will command an élite team of highly trained Special Forces renowned for their bravery in combat.
NOT.
13
I visited Iran (Mashad) to speak at a medical conference. This is southern California. Broad boulevards, shiny buildings, people out on brightly lit streets with endless restaurants, etc.
Highly educated, most hoping to have closer ties with the US.
Trump certainly made it clear that he wants to push them to develop nuclear weapons (I would imagine it would not take them long) to counter the billions of advanced conventional weapons sold to the Arab states.
He did this not for the good of the country or the world. He did it to show a minority of people (his dwindling base) how tough he is, and what a big liar he is.
Iran has lots of problems, he is trying to close a door that will push them to develop nuclear weapons and marry them to an advanced rocketry program.
The other adult states that were signatories will continue on, and we will be back on board no later than 2021 when a reasonable person becomes President.
Imagine if, in the meantime, Iran decides its survival and regional power depend on nuclear weapons, and their economic problems are greatly magnified. Regime change, Mr. Bolton, no death to American soldiers trapped and surrounded by Iranian forces in Syria and in Iraq.
I don't have the words to state the hatred I have for a man willing to have the US buried and ignored by the rest of the world, so that some of the people who voted for him can continue feeling like big tough guys.
22
Mr. Obama has just now told us what he hopes to see in the way of a nuclear agreement with North Korea: his Iran deal. What a marvelous idea: let's offer Kim Jong Un a deal where he can pick and choose where any inspectors can go, just as Iran has been able to pick and choose. While apologists pretend this is an inspection system for the ages. You think the American veterans being menaced by North Korea on Guam, the residents of Seoul constantly being told that they will drown in a river of blood, the residents of Northern Japan diving into air raid shelters as the North Korean missiles fly, even some of the less delusional residents of America who are getting a little tired of being told how the North Korean reach of destruction covers more and more of America, will think this is a great idea?
We should all be fervently hoping that the other signatories to the JCPOA are able to keep the agreement substantially in place.
If they are not successful, it probably won't be very long until the world has to deal with an increasingly-hostile Middle East (yes, that's possible) in which Iran, Saudi Arabia *and* Israel are nuclear states.
1
If ine feels contempt and has the power to act upon it results in revenge. This is more a rebuke on Obama and Kerry than a rational decision to limit one's power (although this "deal" simply removed American wealth and handed it to Iran to build weapons).
I appreciate the term petulance in the title of this column.
You have to understand: This is as as deep as Trump can be. He must abrogate the U.S. involvement in the JCPOA because President Obama was involved. That's it. That is who occupies the Oval Office now.
On a related note: I am still dumbfounded at the conservative electorate offended that Iran got money in the deal. It was THEIR money. I don't think they can comprehend that fact. It's too inconvenient for their mind-set.
Confederacy of dunces does not even do justice to what the world is witnessing from America. It will require many years if America is to recover its standing on the world stage. That may not even happen.
5
"Trump apparently believes he can bring Iran to its knees, perhaps even precipitate regime change"
Why would the next regime be less interested in WMD? Why would the next regime disavow an arms race with its hostile neighbors? The only reasons would be the sort of diplomatic outreach that the US refuses to engage in. How about we try that diplomacy now and see if it works, rather than waiting for Iran to go through an upheaval.
3
No mention of the Netanyahu angle? Others report that, while the Obama rationale is convenient, the main motive is Netanyahu support of his fight with Iran. If Trump and Netanyahu think Israel and Iran can work out their differences between themselves without US support, then we are being led into another unfortunate mideast open conflict.
He didn't close the door to further negotiations. North Korea was used as an example. He's forcing the regime to come to the negotiation table with pressure inside and outside of Iran.
There are no obstacles outside of Iran, and just a bunch of religious zealots holding on desperately within. It is only a matter of time to come to terms. Again, North Korea will be the example.
Nothing demonstrates why it has become time to reconsider the American relationship to Israel better than this horrible decision. One does not help a real friend by facilitating their worse instincts. Netanyahu has relentlessly interfered in American politics so as to involve this country into a war for a greater Israel. Trump may believe that he can maneuver the American public into another conflict like the second Gulf War but that was a different time. We are not going to allow our sons and daughters to die for Israel's fantasies or Trump's glory. Today Trump did this country a favor, he made clear that the stakes of allowing him to rule untrammeled go beyond the antics of Rudy Guiliani and Stormy Daniels, in November 2018 go to the polls to vote like your life depended on it, it does.
3
As much as one can disagree with this decision, it is a mistake to caricature this action, or Trump, generally. I despise him, personally. But there are reasons behind this move, beyond personal pique or petulance. If you, or I, or your readers or the NYT want any hope of reaching the 40% or so of Americans who support, or at least do not revile Trump, you need to make a cogent and respectful counter-argument - not hard to do, here - and cut out the cheap ad hominem attacks, as good as they feel. Please do better, or we may all be in for a much longer ride, mostly downhill, with Trump.
2
Getting out was the only thing to do. Did you actually think the Iran deal was any good, think again. And the deal was not working.
3
"And the deal was not working".
Even if IAEA inspectors, 24/7 on-site cameras, our European allies, Defense Secretary Mattis & past Sec. of State Tillerson & current Sec. of State Pompeo all say it WAS working?
Please educate yourself.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/07/iran-nuclear-d...
1
I don't know why people are "shocked, shocked"to see Mr.Trump walk away from the Iran nuclear deal.He listens to the Russians,the Saudis,and Israel.He has never had a multi month deliberation on the intricacies of the Middle East.He has no knowledge and simply shoots from the lip.His uninformed impulsive behavior plus John Bolton's hawkish attitude is a very dangerous combination.
1
If the aberration in the Oval Office had one scintilla of intelligence, the questions that have been and are being raised concerning the decimation of this treaty and those before it, might be muted. Alas, for the world and us, we are saddled with a person who is a bundle of severe psychological maladies, and who does not have a clue as to what he is doing or saying. He is a nightmare incarnate.
As someone who lived in Isfahan and was evacuated the day before Khomeini returned to Iran, I can attest to the intelligence and kindness of those Iranians who befriended me and helped me, a single American woman.
From what I experienced and have seen over the years, young Iranians are striving for a more open, less repressively primitive regime. Our national ignorance of other cultures and their contributions to history combined with our accompanying xenophobia clouds our vision as to what is valuable in countries other than our own.
It is my hope, that if and when we survive the final onslaught of angry white males and their angry white female counterparts, that young people in this country, who have lived with diversity and embrace it, will set things on a more rational and peaceful path. Meanwhile, Jesus wept and so do I.
5
Nothing about this country makes sense. Nothing about it is rational. Now, if you’ll excuse me, a very important series between the Red Sox and Yankees is about to start.
2
It simply astonishes me that the naysayers on this decision by President Trump almost universally characterize the Iran “deal” as “it’s better than no deal at all”. Munich happened 17 years (signed on 17 Sept. 1938) before Roger and I were born in 1955. What followed that agreement should be remembered. I certainly do, but I wonder whether Roger does. I wonder because the Iran “deal” was Munich revisited.
The Iran “deal” gave a great deal of its freedom to act back to Iran, as well as access to world markets for its oil and release of billions in frozen funds. In return, its leaders (who still call the tune) promised to shelve its nuclear weapons program for fifteen years, but most of the constraints would be lifted in ten (of which seven years remain on the clock). But they kept perfecting and extending the power and range of their missiles for eventually delivering nuclear payloads.
Today, even if they were to abide faithfully by the “deal”, in a mere seven years they could re-boot that nuclear program. If they’ve kept up the work over the past three years in ways that don’t violate the agreement or that are not discernable by the auditors, then they could “break out” very quickly with nuclear warheads to marry to their missiles. Given how they’ve been refining those missiles, it wouldn’t be just Riyadh, Cairo, Istanbul or Jerusalem that could be targeted, but quite possibly European capitals, as well.
3
This is worse than the incremental Munichs we’ve been pursuing for years with North Korea. “Deal” or not, Iran means to have nuclear weapons and powerful delivery systems, just as Kim Jong-un and his father did. You’d think, just as Trump is trying to walk-back our North Korean Munichs by de-nuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, we wouldn’t have people STILL questioning the need to avoid yet MORE Munichs. But, no, the liberal press unaccountably condemns this decision … because the “deal” “is better than no deal at all”. There’s a point at which monumentally irresponsible innocence – even pusillanimity -- needs to be called out and condemned.
Even the serious THREAT of an Iran with nuclear warheads and delivery systems will cause Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and even Turkey to acquire nukes and delivery systems that THEY control – NOW; and these countries can BUY the technology from others – even from North Korea. In FEWER than seven years, the Greater Middle East could be bristling with such horrific weapons – in the hands of religious berserkers.
High time to negotiate a NEW deal that ISN’T merely a new Munich, and that STARTS with the resolve that Iran MUST NOT be allowed to field nuclear weapons and the missiles to carry them.
“It’s better than no deal at all” was and is a pusillanimous retreat from responsible foreign policy that would have done Neville Chamberlain proud. To the extent that you pray, pray that we’re not too late to avoid today what followed Munich.
3
Rabid right-wing demands won't cut a deal with Iran. America can't, single-handed, force Iran to do what it wishes. Europe, Russia, and China won't back the war mongers Netanyahu or Bolton, or the lying bully, Trump.
So you are saying there were seven years left to negotiate the next tranche of restrictions?
7
We always knew Trump’s word was worthless. Now Trump’s word is America's word.
118
No, it's not. Everyone on this planet knows Trump is a liar and a fool.
5
Yes, everyone knows that - and also knows that he was elected (with help from Russia) president of these United States. So his "word" is now - sadly - ours.
I am sure Trump has no idea what the agreement even is. All he needed to know is if originated in any way with Obama. If so, out it goes. But just be patient, because just as with the TPP and the Paris Accord, he'll start making noise about reversing his decision after enough time has gone by so that, if he does resume the US's place in the agreement, it has his name on it, not Obama's. That is Trump's game. The man is obsessed with Obama.
64
I am afraid this decision by Trump is irreversible. How could you conceive that Iran would come back to the negotiating table with the US (under Trump's presidency) after yesterday's insult. On the other hand I hope there is still room for diplomacy between Iran and the rest of the world (minus Israel and Saudi Arabia)
3
"It was a gamble on drawing Iran, a hopeful and highly educated society, closer to the world and so weakening the Islamic Republic’s hard-liners. It was not about Iranian interference in neighboring Arab states or about its ballistic missile program. It concerned centrifuges and Iran’s clear but never avowed quest for a nuclear bomb."
I agree. I thought it took great courage and vision to attempt to step boldly into a future with hope instead of maintaining a destructive, close-minded status quo based on a bankrupt, bigoted stereotype – "The Iran derangement syndrome, a well-known American condition."
and I would add, one among many derangement syndromes that abound in this nation that Trump uses to the max. and doubles down on to encourage hate, divide and destroy.
16
This article, along with David Sanger's, implies that Trump actually weighed geopolitical consequences. I still think it's possible that Trump just doesn't care about anything beyond the shouts of his crowds at his rallies.
242
Not only is that "possible," it's true. I'm so tired of the media ascribing some great policy wisdom to a man who clearly has none. It normalizes his utter disregard for the office he holds.
6
As part of denuclearizing the world why are we not taking Israel to task for its nuclear weapons? They have already destabilized the mid-east in this regard and made it legitimate for the Iranians to pursue their own nuclear program. Similar considerations apply to Korea. US nuclear weapons have been pointed at them for decades. Why shouldn't they have their own? They are a small country which could be easily overrun by the US. Unfortunately, US foreign policy continues to fail on important issues because of it is overly self-centered and unable to see things from the perspective of others.
67
Sadly, the minute anyone is critical of Israel's conduct and it's nukes you are labelled an anti semite.
15
Donald Trump is the Greatest America Leader of all time. A working class hero, a man of the people. He is keeping his word and is making America Great Again one day at a time. Restoring our respect here and abroad.
God Bless You Mr. President. I pray my great grandchildren live to see you chiseled on Mt. Rushmore and the "Saving Father"!
3
"Donald Trump is the Greatest America Leader of all time."....Trump is a vulgar bigoted narcissist, which he has proved over and again by his words and actions. A leader is responsible for setting a moral example, so your statement is a joke. Never mind that his actions thus far as President show a profound degree of ignorance.
139
Was it his having to pay, during the campaign, a $25 million settlement for having defrauded Americans, his not paying his workers and creditors, or his tax cut for bazillionaires that makes him a working class hero?
48
I’m sorry, but...working class hero? He inherited millions and so far all I can see that he has done for the working class is cut their healthcare and polluted their drinking water.
124
On the other hand...Rouhani has warned his people that tough times are ahead. Rouhani has hinted that Iran will still try to observe its undertakings not to enrich uranium so as to obtain sanctions relief from European nations, and the US sanctions very well may bring Iran to its knees and to greater and more appropriate restraints, such as eliminating its ability to reach breakout on a long term basis--not just for the next 8 years. And perhaps Iran will agree to real inspections, not the limited time and place inspections under the JCPOA.
I'm no fan of Trump's, but Cohen speaks as though he's sure of Iran's mindset and willingness to move on the terms of any future deal. I suspect he, like the rest of us, was sure that Trump's "rocket man" bluster would only escalate a potential showdown between North Korea and the US.
I happen to believe otherwise. The JCPOA was and remains terrible because its terms are terrible. Everyone seems to recognize that.
I think there's a real chance for far greater concessions from Iran. And I don't believe Iran will escalate a nuclear threat in the near term (nor do I believe it can, or that Israel would allow it to).
2
So, you believe that Iran's mindset will be changed when US sanctions resume. Why did they not work before. Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. As expressed by the Irani PM, the agreement was a beginning, now the diplomats must begin anew. This time without the US. Russia and China are now happy to take our place. Israel will not be their top priority.
1
Totally clueless.
The North Koreans and the Chinese will get Trump to sign a deal that he will hale as "the best ever", until we end up paying $1,200 for smart phones, and they pay $0.05 a bag of soybeans. And of course lets the North Koreans continue weapons development.
The great NEGOTIATOR does it again.
Go MAGA!!!
2
Sanctions, of course, DID work. Why do you think Iran wanted a deal in the first place? But every time they pushed back, all Moniz, Kerry, and Obama had to say was "it's the best we could do." So Iran got a deal that cordoned off military bases from inspection, immediately freed up billions of dollars, and gave them a whopping 10-year hiatus on enrichment, after which it was carte blanche. So let's just ratchet up the sanctions and get a real deal. I don't know if Trump can do that or not, but the present deal was a joke. Good riddance.
Seventy years of US leadership of the developed world is rapidly being undone. It’s going to take a generation or more to rebuild trust. What will be in the back of the mind of any negotiator working with an American counterpart?
183
Forget rebuilding, You cannot do that again. That unique time in the history, America's will and power and wealth made that leadership.
America is downgoing empire , even if not There are other up going empires ( EU-China-Russia)
Trump put an end to our golden era, Iran nuclear deal is not a big part of thsi act.
9
Great Britain once was great. Now they are not much more than a tiny island and are retreating even further with Brexit. Maybe it is our turn to go down, as did the Roman, Ottoman, British and other empires before us. Once there was Attila the Hun, spreading his empire, Alexander the Great, even the Venetian traders, the Spanish Conquistadors, the Dutch East Indies company. All gone.
20
RIP Pax Americana.
3
"Instead, Iran may now restart those centrifuges and race for a bomb."
Iran has far better options. For one example, it can unite the EU, Russia, and China, against the US and Israel now isolated. Iran can have all the deals it would ever have had anyway, with the only nations that had traded with it for forty years. At the same time, it would stand with much of the world against those who are implacable and irreconcilable. Where is the down side for Iran?
The Saudi royals have already turned on each other, one set hanging another by the heels to beat out billions in oil money. They've also started a war they can't win, and are antagonizing the minority that actually lives on top of their oil. They are ripe for Iran to push them out. Then what?
Israel has sounded its sirens, and fired more missiles into Syria. It is pushing for a fight, between the US and Iran. What if Iran does not give them that? What if the Saudis collapse instead, and Assad soldiers on with Russian help? Then what?
Those who pushed Trump into this are likely to get the same sort of defeat they got when they pushed Dubya into a smaller mistake.
Or I suppose we could see "a new deal." Right. Who expects that?
164
If I weren’t an American, I would applaud having the EU, China and Russia united against the now dishonest US and the bully state Israel.
144
Applaud anyway. You can't hide behind any patriotism surely when you have a fake and supremely dangerous president who cares not one jot about the fate of the world.
I don't know that it was a "bad deal". I do agree with Mr. Cohen that pulling out is an act of petulance, with extremely dangerous unintended (?) consequences. Pulling out certainly asks a lot of our allies, not to mention Iran and the rest of the world. Two questions: 1) what will our allies/co-signatories to the deal do?; and 2) are we headed toward an Israeli military campaign as soon as there is apparent and/or fabricated evidence of Iran ramping up their program?
The 2 scenarios above seem the only way we avoid being pulled into a military adventure of our own. One more question: Why does Trump behave like an unloved child?
27
My first reaction is that Trump has handed America's foreign policy to the Saudis and to Netanyahu. The Republicans, even when Boehner was Speaker, have too great a regard for the Israeli prime minister. Both the Saudis and Netanyahu want to pursue a hard line against Iran and Trump is following their lead. The president is enthralled by both and there was something peculiar in the Saudis' not objecting to moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. There may be more to this that has not seen the light of day.
82
"My first reaction is that Trump has handed America's foreign policy to the Saudis and to Netanyahu."....Which is all the more absurd as the Saudis directly or indirectly have been the sponsor of Al Qaeda and ISIS.
11
Unlike Iran, who only sponsors directly--not indirectly--Hezbollah and Hamas, oh, and Assad.
A mind that is thoughtless and dour
Without an idea in its bower,
A feckless dolt
With a nuclear bolt,
POTUS in this fateful hour.
156
"Feckless dolt."
Love it.
And hate it.
1
This article is extremely informative and objective. The clarification that everyone loses somehow, but war is averted is pivotal.
I agree it was a bad deal, but better than what we have without it. What advantage do we get by dumping it? I'm still wondering.
The drawbacks are immense.
38
I think the fact that Trump want some to rollback anything that Obama did is true but maybe not the main reason. I really hope it’s not the case but Trump, Bolton and Pompeo may be considering going to war over Iran.
52
If they stay in power long enough. the action that has been taken today will leave no other option.
4
Yes, and our last excursion in that territory was so recent we should rememeber its successful outcomes.
5
Really?
Wow, that's a real shocker!
What else in God's name are they doing it for?
2
All of Cohen's excellent points can be boiled down to one basic fact: because the agreement was reached under President Obama, it must be jettisoned. If these accords had been negotiated under his watch and had been labelled "The Trump Accords," he would love them.
Under his watch, there were never guiding points for a plan to replace Obamacare. Because Obama's name was associated with the program, it had to go. Ditto for DACA. If there isn't an alternative, the mission becomes to simply obliterate. Yet, in his nearly 18 months in office, do we have a "Trump ______" anything? Well, we had the Trump Tax Cuts, but having seen how they are exploding the deficit, he is already looking for cuts to children's health programs as a way of curbing deficit growth.
In his own words: "Nice."
313
How about the fact that it is no good, so it goes.
1
sd1236
How about the fact that it’s good, so good that Europe which stands more risk from a nuclear Iran than do we haven’t left. Trump is MaBeth’s idiot strutting and fretting his hour upon the stage only to eventually be heard no more.