On Tuesday, President Donald Trump pulled America out of the Iranian nuclear deal that started under President Barack Obama. Former President Obama took a few minutes, however, to explain exactly why that was a terrible idea.
He also made a chump out of Trump by shining a light on all of the lies he has been spreading to get Americans to back this disastrous decision.
OBAMA DID NOT HOLD BACK
Obama didn’t hold back, either. He said that Trump’s decision to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, “is a serious mistake.” Then, he proceeded to dismantle Trump’s many lies surrounding his reasons for pulling America out of the multinational deal.
In Trump’s speech the other day, he attacked the deal:
“It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement,” Trump said. “The Iran deal is defective at its core. If we do nothing, we know exactly what will happen.”
Obama’s response, posted on Facebook, begins by stating the obvious: That the deal is absolutely working, despite what Trump wants everyone to believe.
“The reality is clear,” wrote Obama. “The JCPOA is working – that is a view shared by our European allies, independent experts, and the current U.S. Secretary of Defense.”
THE NORTH KOREAN CONNECTION
Obama then went on to point out the undeniable connections between what’s happening in Iran and what’s happening in North Korea.
“Indeed, at a time when we are all rooting for diplomacy with North Korea to succeed, walking away from the JCPOA risks losing a deal that accomplishes – with Iran – the very outcome that we are pursuing with the North Koreans.” wrote Obama.
The former president then chillingly went on to outline the sort of damage that Trump could be doing to America’s reputation, he is undoubtedly harming our standing with the other allies in the agreement.
“In a democracy, there will always be changes in policies and priorities from one Administration to the next,” explained Obama. “But the consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America’s credibility, and puts us at odds with the world’s major powers.”
FACTS
Then, and perhaps this is the best part, Obama proceeded to dismantle all the lies that Trump has been spreading about the deal.
- The JCPOA is a coalition with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the European Union, Russia, China, and Iran. It is not only a deal between America and Iran. The United Nations Security Council endorses it.
- Iran cannot create a nuclear bomb, that propaganda is another lie. Essentially, under the deal, the resources that Iran had left would never have made a bomb. It just wasn’t possible.
- The coalition does not simply trust that the Iranian government is doing the right thing. The inspections are constant, and they are thorough. The facilities are some of the most strictly monitored structures in the world. Obama pointed out, that without this deal, inspections will “go away.”
- Iran was complying with the structure of the deal entirely. Not a single intelligence official, here or abroad, has been able to find an instance of Iran trying to cheat out of this deal. Trump’s continues insistence otherwise is another lie.
- The JCPOA does not have an expiration date. Some of the most intense and intrusive inspections were permanent. Again, until Trump pulled America out of the deal, that is.
- The JCPOA was never intended to solve all of America’s problems with Iran. Obama explained that with the deal we were able to monitor what they were up to. Without it, America once again has serious limitations on what it can do.
Obama ended his statement better than I could, so I will borrow his words.
“If the constraints on Iran’s nuclear program under the JCPOA are lost, we could be hastening the day when we are faced with the choice between living with that threat, or going to war to prevent it.”
Obama posted the full statement on his official Facebook page.
There are few issues more important to the security of the United States than the potential spread of nuclear weapons,…
Posted by Barack Obama on Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Featured Image Via Gage Skidmore for Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
