http://www.lobelog.com/the-illogic-of-opposing-obamas-nuclear-deal/#more-29484

The Illogic of Opposing Obama’s Nuclear Deal

by Henry Johnson
A new report by the Iran Project elaborates on the basic reasons for supporting the comprehensive nuclear deal being negotiated between Iran and the U.S. The report, authored by distinguished former diplomats including Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Paul Pillar (whose National Interest blog posts LobeLog frequently features), demonstrates why Iran’s current leadership is unlikely to violate a final deal. The report uses as its premise the assertion by the U.S. intelligence community that Iran has not decided whether to acquire nuclear weapons. This question, and the logic that follows, is central to understanding the disputes over whether President Obama is pursuing the correct policy vis-à-vis Iran.
Perhaps the chief concern among detractors of the president’s diplomacy is that it does not go far enough in slashing and constraining Iran’s enrichment program. Many of the deal’s opponents, for whom Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks most forcefully, share the belief that the U.S. objective should be to eliminate Iran’s enrichment capability altogether. This all-or-nothing objective flows from the premise that Iran is actually deceiving the U.S. and is committed to obtaining at least a threshold weapons capability. Iran’s putative agreement to a deal, they worry, is nothing but a ploy to unravel the sanctions regime before bolstering its enrichment program and pinning all the blame on the U.S. In order to rationalize Obama’s failure to recognize this grandiose subterfuge, some commentators and political leaders have attempted to paint Iranians as untrustworthy and even dishonorable. Senator Tom Cotton, for example, libeled Iran’s foreign minister as a coward and a draft evader. Senator Lindsey Graham called Iranians liars and cheaters, and Netanyahu regularly draws parallels between present-day Iran and genocidal threats to the Jewish people throughout history.