If you don’t know who was right over the last seven years, you are not likely to have the first clue what to do next or who can be relied on for sound policy advice.
Hawks generally don’t see policy decisions from a cost-benefit-analysis kind of way in which risks can be weighed against other risks and possible outcomes can vary appreciably and that policy makers can retroactively be judged accordingly. There is only the Right-Thing-To-Do to show our enemies how tough we are and whether or not we have the strength and resolve to do it.
So it’s never a policy decision that can be made rightly or wrongly; it’s doing what must-be-done and living with whatever consequences come from it. For example, It was clear What Had To Be Done in Iraq or with tearing up the JCPOA; those who supported those failed projects aren’t to be judged as failures, in this view, but rather they are to be commended for having had the strength of will to have followed through. Similarly, if Iran ends up becoming a nuclear threshold state, well, it is asserted that they were going to become one anyway regardless of US adherence to the JCPOA.
The best option, now that Biden has put himself in a corner by his stumbling and mumbling attempt at “negotiations” is to lift the sanctions on Iran, unfreeze their assets, and forget the JCPOA. He then can simply announce that we rely on the fact that Iran is a NPT signatory and has stated repeatedly that is has no desire develop a nuclear weapon. We can then treat Iran like a normal country, same as we treat a score of other countries capable of developing nukes but not doing so due to the NPT.
Funny how it works when Mead starts with his desired conclusion and then builds a case, seeking to justify that conclusion.
Hawks generally don’t see policy decisions from a cost-benefit-analysis kind of way in which risks can be weighed against other risks and possible outcomes can vary appreciably and that policy makers can retroactively be judged accordingly. There is only the Right-Thing-To-Do to show our enemies how tough we are and whether or not we have the strength and resolve to do it.
So it’s never a policy decision that can be made rightly or wrongly; it’s doing what must-be-done and living with whatever consequences come from it. For example, It was clear What Had To Be Done in Iraq or with tearing up the JCPOA; those who supported those failed projects aren’t to be judged as failures, in this view, but rather they are to be commended for having had the strength of will to have followed through. Similarly, if Iran ends up becoming a nuclear threshold state, well, it is asserted that they were going to become one anyway regardless of US adherence to the JCPOA.
The best option, now that Biden has put himself in a corner by his stumbling and mumbling attempt at “negotiations” is to lift the sanctions on Iran, unfreeze their assets, and forget the JCPOA. He then can simply announce that we rely on the fact that Iran is a NPT signatory and has stated repeatedly that is has no desire develop a nuclear weapon. We can then treat Iran like a normal country, same as we treat a score of other countries capable of developing nukes but not doing so due to the NPT.
In know, in my dreams.