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Trump Achieved a Historic Victory in Iran but Gives the Regime an Opening to Recover
(Washington Post) Marc A. Thiessen - President Trump buried Iran's nuclear material so deep that, senior officials tell me, Iran has indicated the U.S. will have to dig it up because it can't reach it to hand over. He also took out over 85% of Iran's defense industrial base; sank its navy; grounded its air force; damaged its centrifuges; and decimated its ballistic missile capabilities, conventional military forces, and infrastructure of repression. Today, Iran's top leadership has been annihilated, the regime can no longer project power in the Middle East, and it possesses only a "nuisance" capability, according to Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command. We need to keep Iran in that weakened state. The deal Trump signed helps Iran get up off the mat - without having to do virtually anything in return. After weeks of bombing, Iran is debilitated, but it is not chastened. The regime is determined to rebuild. It knows that Trump is only president for another 2 1/2 years. In paragraph 7, the U.S. agrees that as part of a final deal it will "terminate all types of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran...and all unilateral U.S. sanctions." This includes sanctions related to Iran's support for terror, ballistic missiles and human rights violations - none of which Iran will have agreed to give up. Many U.S. sanctions can be removed only by Congress.