History Repeats? I Hope Not

The U.S-Iran nuclear accord is all but official.

It received less than enthusiastic support from many Democratic congressmen who voted for it.

In fact, the accord received more nay than yea votes in the Senate, but not enough to win a veto fight. And in the House the accord received a negative vote.

Nevertheless, on Oct. 19 it will become U.S. policy, despite the congressional votes and the disproval of the majority of Americans. And the world will hold its breath for a decade or more to see if Iran lives up to the agreement.

Too often after the actions of politicians that I voted for, I’ve often regretted my vote. My latest compunction was casting a ballot for President Obama – not just because of his championing the Iran deal but for prior actions.

Here’s why I feel that way: Mistakes in national legislation can always be corrected by future legislation. Not so mistakes in foreign policy. And Obama has made some beauties.

* In 2012, he said that Al Qaeda has been decimated.

* Also, in 2012, Obama made another statement – about a red line if Syria uses chemical weapons. Later he tried to change the context of the statement.

* In 2014, he referred to ISIS as a JV team. Since then the president denied making the statement, even though journalistic fact checkers have confirmed that he did.

Given the president’s habit of making statements which he then denies, or tries to change the context of, it’s not surprising that he backed away from his original negotiation statements regarding Iran and accepted a much weakened agreement.

Obama was upset when some commentators compared the Iran agreement to England’s Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 deal with Hitler during the run-up to WW2 because, said the pre-war English prime minister, it means ‘”peace in our time.”

Instead, Chamberlain’s appeasement of a war-like state lasted until September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.

In some ways Obama’s capitulation to Iran is worse than Chamberlain’s shameful appeasement of Hitler. Chamberlain thought he was securing a peaceful solution, foolishly ignoring the Nazi regimes history.

But during the nuclear negotiations Iran continued to support terrorist’s activities, and vocally proclaimed death to the U.S. and Israel.

Now Iran will receive enough money from the lifting of sanctions to foster more terrorism and build a stronger military because U.S. allies will feel free to do business with Iran with Obama’s blessings. Can U.S. businesses be far behind?

History shows that totalitarian regimes don’t change just because they agree to sign a piece of paper. That’s a lesson Obama seems to have forgotten.

Obama’s playing fast and loose with his words is nothing new. When it was made public that the president and his family attended for 20 years the church of Rev. Wright, despite the reverends openly anti-Jewish sermons, the president’s response was, according to Politico, “Wright is like a cantankerous old uncle says things I don't always agree with,” ignoring that people can’t always choose their blood relatives, but can always choose the church they attend.

The President says if Iran violates any of the agreements in the deal the U.S. will immediately reinstate sanctions or worse. Given his track record of not following up with what he says, it’s hard to believe him.

The problem with Obama’s statements are that history proves that he doesn’t mean what he publicly says. Based on his Pinocchio-like track record, why should anyone believe him?

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Arthur Solomon a former senior VP/senior at Burson-Marsteller, contributes to PR/sports business publications, consults on PR projects and serves on the Seoul Peace Prize nominating committee. He can be reached at [email protected].