(Telegraph-UK) David Frost - In the 2015 nuclear agreement, the JCPOA, Iran promised to defer its nuclear program for a time but accepted no constraints on missiles, arms proliferation, or destabilizing our friends in the region. The hope, incredibly, was that one day a newly responsible Iran would drop its nuclear plans and help to manage the Middle East, allowing America to back out. Needless to say, wise Western foreign ministers and diplomats thought this was a tremendously good deal. Now the people who brought you the JCPOA are back in Washington. Iran is busily enriching uranium and firing missiles at our friends. This whole process has been based on a fallacy: that Iran could simply be talked out of something it saw as in its national interest. In fact, only sanctions and the threat of force have given Iran pause. We have failed to read the realities of international power. We have now seen from Russia where signaling weakness gets us. The same is true of Iran. In the great film "Bridge on the River Kwai," the British colonel who was ordered to build a bridge for the Japanese war effort becomes determined to finish the job come what may and tries to stop a commando team from destroying it. The Iran deal has become our Bridge on the River Kwai. We have become obsessed with completing it, but have forgotten why. Let's blow it up and face down our enemies properly instead.
2022-04-04 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive