Look Who Is Backing the Iran Deal - Have Republicans Seen the Writing on the Wall Yet?

Iran agreement negotiators in 2013

1 - "...House Democrats are resisting a multi-million dollar effort to turn them against the (Iran) deal.  The dye was cast long ago on the fate of the Iran deal because of two key factors.

House liberals were outraged when Speaker John Boehner attempted to humiliate President Obama by going behind his back and inviting Netanyahu to address Congress.  Boehner and Netanyahu's behavior backfired and unified House Democrats around their president.  Any chance that Boehner had of getting Democratic votes for a resolution of disapproval of the Iran deal was destroyed the moment he disrespected the president.

The second factor is the structure of the agreement to allow a vote on the Iran deal.  The White House made it nearly impossible to kill the Iran deal by only agreeing to give Congress the ability to pass a resolution of disapproval.  President Obama knew that he would veto any resolution of disapproval and that the odds are practically zero that Republicans would be able to muster the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override his veto.

Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) announcement of opposition to the deal has not been followed by a wave of Democrats joining him..."

eye'm thynkin':  One way to look at this: Democrats are smart enough to know that choosing an international diplomatic agreement designed to derail Iran's nuclear weapons program--even temporarily--is better than another Republican go around with "We'll take War-It's Fun and Profitable!"  A second way to look at it is: Disrespecting the President of the United States is coming home to bite Boehner in the butt.  Either view works for me.

Read more at Politicus USA

2 - "Twenty-nine of the nation's top scientists--including Nobel laureates, veteran makers of nuclear arms and former White House science advisers--wrote to President Obama on Saturday to praise the Iran deal, calling it innovative and stringent...

...The letter uses the words 'innovative' and 'stringent' more than a half-dozen times, saying, for instance, that the Iran accord has 'more stringent constraints than any previously negotiated nonproliferation framework.'"

Considering the low esteem Washington Republicans have for scientists, these physicists and nuclear arms experts will undoubtedly be ignored on the red side of the aisle in both the Senate and the House.

Read more at The New York Times

Secretary of State John Kerry
in New York on Tuesday

3 - "Three dozen retired generals and admirals released an open letter Tuesday supporting the Iran nuclear deal and urging Congress to do the same.

Calling the agreement 'the most effective means currently available to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.' the letter said that gaining international support for military action against Iran, should that ever become necessary, 'would only be possible if we have first given the diplomatic path a chance."

Republicans may be only to happy to ignore scientists' support for the Iran deal; military support may be a little more difficult for them to dismiss.

Read more at The Washington Post


You may also want to read:  Bush National Security Advisor Backs Obama's Iran Deal

"As Snowcroft points out...the military deterrent...doesn't have to be the first resort to work, and as we saw in Iraq, it doesn't always work anyway."