TRUMP'S TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE NEW IRAN DEAL

President Donald Trump has demonstrated, once again, that keeping a promise to his base is more important than keeping the world safe. By pulling the United States out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the Iran nuclear deal, Trump has plunged the world into a more unsafe condition than it already was. Below, in my opinion, are some major problems with Trump's action:

• the United States violated the terms of the agreement, not Iran;
• the United States acted against the input and desires of its closest allies who also signed the agreement;
• the United States demonstrated that it cannot be trusted to live up to an agreement (an especially important point in regard to the upcoming talks with North Korea);
• the United States has, once again, demonstrated that it is no longer the leading power in the world, but instead a nativist, self-serving nation;
• the United States has handed Iran an opportunity to start developing nuclear weapons again;
• the United States has elevated, once again, the use of military intervention against Iran;
• the United States has put Israel in even greater danger than it is already in regarding Iran;
• numerous companies, including some in the United States, will need to end their business with and in Iran;
• this action possibly makes Iran even more dangerous than before.

The JCPOA was not a perfect deal; a fact acknowledged by all of the nations that signed it. It does not address the Iranian development of ballistic missiles, it does not limit Iran's militaristic moves for hegemony in the Middle East (think Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.), and it does not address Iran's sponsorship of global terrorism. What the JCPOA did was to put the Iranian nuclear weapon program on hold for a decade or more, thereby eliminating the threat of a nuclear attack by Iran on Israel or other nations.

Trump promised his base, during his campaign and as president, that he would get the United States out of the "terrible, horrible, stupid, terrible, worst deal ever, ever, ever" (some of us doubt he has read the JCPOA). His idea of pulling out of the JCPOA was not, however, supported by some of his major advisors, including then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson or Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. They argued that it would be a very bad move to pull out of the deal, and that a better course of action would be to negotiate with our European allies and the Chinese and Russians (all signatories to the JCPOA) to push Iran into further negotiations to address the important issues left out of the deal.

But Trump did not like the advice from members of his Cabinet. He fired Tillerson; Mattis is still hanging on. He also replaced career diplomats in the State Department who were the leads on policy for Iraq and Iran and put in a political appointee and Trump loyalist, Andrew Peek, to be in charge of these areas of State Department responsibility. Peek is a hawk, and agrees with Trump's decision on the JCPOA. Peek has no prior diplomatic experience, and is not an expert on Iran or Iraq. Trump also brought in John Bolton, an ultra-hawk, as National Security Advisor. With these men, and others of their ilk onboard, Trump has the pseudo-expert cover he needs for his actions.

How this all turns out is anyone's guess. Trump will impose new, tough sanctions on Iran, so what will happen in regard to European companies that continue to do business in Iran? Will the other signatories to the JCPOA continue to support the deal, and try to isolate and work around the United States? Will the Iranians give in under withering new sanctions, and suddenly play nice? Perhaps Iran will restart its nuclear enrichment program, under the excuse that the United States violated the JCPOA and, therefore, it is no longer a valid agreement. There are many possible scenarios that could unfold, and I think the bad ones outnumber the good ones.

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