President Barack Obama has always played fast and loose with the truth.
Whether it was supporting “clean coal” during his first presidential campaign and then actively working to devastate the coal industry once elected, or his declaration in 2008, “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage,” before aggressively pushing a gay agenda. What Mr. Obama says and what he does are often very different things. It was his famous “if you like your plan you can keep your plan” mantra while selling Obamacare, a line he knew was not true as he repeated it in city after city, that woke much of America up to the fact the president might not mean what he says.
The most recent example, however, is so blatant, so very obvious, that it’s tough to fathom how the mainstream media doesn’t call Mr. Obama and his administration out.
Since 1979, Iran has been the enemy of the United States. It was that year a group of Iranian students took over the U.S. Embassy and held 66 Americans hostage for 444 days. To say the relationship has been strained since would be a massive understatement. Iran also has a self-proclaimed hatred of our close ally, Israel. Iranian leaders have vowed to wipe Israel off the map. It is with that backdrop that America has always worked to keep nuclear capabilities from becoming a reality in Iran.
Until now.
Where past administrations have tried to choke off Iran’s nuclear efforts through U.N. enforcement, economic sanctions and generally making them an outcast in international affairs, the Obama administration has decided “negotiating” a nuclear deal with Iran is in the best interest of the United States and our allies. These so-called negotiations are an embarrassment.
The most powerful, most civilized and most technologically advanced nation on earth sat at the table with the same barbarians who proposed to obliterate Israel and quite literally begged Iran for an agreement. Iranian representatives have hollered at our Secretary of State. Rather than firmly demanding decorum, Secretary of State John Kerry has accepted the verbal abuse. As a result, Iran quite literally laughs at the United States. They believe they are calling the shots … and they are.
This past weekend our president issued a five-minute video to be played in Iran pleading with Iran to seize this “historic opportunity” for a nuclear deal. Iran’s response? They mocked Mr. Obama, the U.S. and the negotiations. Secretary Kerry proclaimed this past Saturday that although no deal was done, “substantial progress” had been made with Iran. About an hour after Mr. Kerry’s proclamation, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for death to America. It was at that moment that the Obama administration credibility gauge, already hovering dangerously low, officially hit empty.
As Secretary Kerry claimed substantial progress, the ayatollah was speaking to a large, raucous crowd. When he mentioned the United States, the crowd spontaneously broke into a chant of “Death to America.” The ayatollah responded, “Of course, yes, death to America.” He ruled out any cooperation with the U.S. He assured his audience that any talks with the U.S. are confined to promoting Iran’s nuclear agenda. He went so far as to blame the U.S. for instability in Syria, Libya and Egypt.
Iran wants sanctions lifted and the freedom to pursue nuclear capabilities. What does the West get in return? The Obama administration can claim they brokered a Middle East deal. Mr. Kerry assures us they are making substantial progress in this ill advised effort. How substantial can the progress be if Iran is proclaiming “Death to America” and mocking our president? Either the progress isn’t so substantial after all, or we’re brokering an extremely weak deal. Most likely both.
One small bit of good news comes from this however. Mr. Obama’s actions are having the highly unusual effect of uniting nearly all members of Congress, regardless of party. On Monday, a letter from the House of Representatives and signed by 367 members warned Mr. Obama that “permanent sanctions relief from congressionally-mandated sanctions would require new legislation” from Congress. In short, 367 of 435 members of Congress are tipping the president off that his “deal” is really no deal without their approval.
Any claim otherwise from the White House just underlines the total void of credibility.
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