Lies, Damn Lies, and Iran Hawks' Claims

Policymakers, analysts and pundits can get away with the most preposterous and obviously false claims if they are on the hawkish side.

Walter Russell Mead just makes things up:

It collapsed under the weight of Iran’s using Mr. Biden’s commitment to re-enter the nuclear deal as cover for a massive buildup of weapons-grade uranium [bold mine-DL] while strengthening its relations with Russia and China, and of the failure of Mr. Biden’s green-energy agenda in the face of spiking oil and gas prices.

This may seem like a minor thing to object to, but it is important to understand that Mead’s claim is completely false. The Iranian government has increased its uranium enrichment to 60%, but it has not engaged in a “massive buildup of weapons-grade uranium.” In fact, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, Iran does not have any weapons-grade uranium. Mead’s assertion that this has happened is either ignorant or dishonest, and I think we all know which one it is.

It is true that the Iranian government has expanded its nuclear program over the last year, but Mead will not give you the full and accurate story of how that happened. If he gave a full and fair accounting of how things have reached this point, it would require him to acknowledge that the Israeli government has shot itself in the foot on multiple occasions and pursued a disastrous policy of short-term tactical strikes at the expense of longer-term strategic failure. The consequences of that disastrous policy are now out in the open for all to see, but Mead will pretend not to see it.