Looks like the West is reaching a deal with Iran over its nuclear program. They're going to agree to scale back their uranium enrichment (no weapons grade uranium), and the United States is going to give Iran a few billion in sanctions relief. Obama fans think it's great. Israel thinks it's awful. Reality is probably somewhere in between.
To me the fundamental issue on any of these agreements that involve some nut giving up weapons (whether it's Iran with nukes or Syria with chemical weapons) is trust. Nobody seems to have a good answer.
On one hand, we pay cash, which is obviously verifiable. However, the nut is agreeing not to develop the weapons. How do we ever know they'll actually keep their end of the bargain, and how will we know one way or the other? They can dismantle weapons or facilities, but how do we know they don't have facilities or weapons that they aren't disclosing? How do we know they'll never enrich uranium beyond what's necessary for power plants?
I think the obvious answer is that we'll never know for sure. So then should we just trust Iran at its word, and what does that mean? Do we lift all sanctions? More significant, do we actually presume their honesty and scale back our military presence in the area and scrap the European component of our missile defense system, which was primarily geared toward the Middle East in general and Iran in particular? (Obama did scale this back our European missile defense, but not completely.)
In light of these kinds of issues, I don't really see how any kind of agreement like this can truly resolve anything.
To me the fundamental issue on any of these agreements that involve some nut giving up weapons (whether it's Iran with nukes or Syria with chemical weapons) is trust. Nobody seems to have a good answer.
On one hand, we pay cash, which is obviously verifiable. However, the nut is agreeing not to develop the weapons. How do we ever know they'll actually keep their end of the bargain, and how will we know one way or the other? They can dismantle weapons or facilities, but how do we know they don't have facilities or weapons that they aren't disclosing? How do we know they'll never enrich uranium beyond what's necessary for power plants?
I think the obvious answer is that we'll never know for sure. So then should we just trust Iran at its word, and what does that mean? Do we lift all sanctions? More significant, do we actually presume their honesty and scale back our military presence in the area and scrap the European component of our missile defense system, which was primarily geared toward the Middle East in general and Iran in particular? (Obama did scale this back our European missile defense, but not completely.)
In light of these kinds of issues, I don't really see how any kind of agreement like this can truly resolve anything.
