(Huffington Post) Amitai Etzioni - Any deal that is negotiated between a party that is known for its intransigence and adamant beliefs, and an administration that is known for its tendency to yield ground and is desperately keen to avoid another war in the Middle East, deserves close scrutiny. One should recall that the Obama administration has already ignored several developments in which Iran ran through red lines set by the U.S. without facing the threatened consequences. The deal assumes that U.S. intelligence services (and the international inspectors) will be able to determine whether Iran is abiding by its commitment to limit its development of nuclear capabilities so that it would remain about a year away from assembling a nuclear weapon. Does the record - from Pearl Harbor to the Yom Kippur War, from the revolution in Iran that brought the current regime to power to the outbreak of the Arab Spring in Tunisia - suggest that this is a valid assumption? The writer is professor of international relations at George Washington University.
2015-03-04 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive