Beneath U.S. President Barack Obama’s “outrageous claim” that those who oppose the recent nuclear deal with the regime in Iran are actually voting for war lies a “pattern of self-deception and false hope,” writes former Gov. Tom Ridge.
“This month marks the 27th anniversary of what Amnesty International has called the ‘prison massacre’ in Iran. Tens of thousands of political prisoners were arbitrarily executed in the span of a few months in 1988 in what has become one of the worst post-World War II instances of crimes against humanity. Yet, instead of seeing the real victims of the Iranian regime, Washington finds itself keenly in tune with the ayatollahs’ ‘grievances,’” Gov. Ridge wrote on Friday in TheHill.com .
“America’s excessively conciliatory position toward such a brutal regime is perhaps the deal’s most remarkable feature. Herein lies the source of the chain of material concessions so candidly peering through the 159-page agreement,” he wrote.
“But, it is not only an accommodating attitude toward the regime that defines the essence of the pact; it is also a false hope, giving us a hint that the U.S. was basically swindled.”
“The agreement is also built on a rather farcical obsession with the Iran’s mythical ability to “change” their behavior.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a recent interview: “We want this partly because we believe it is a step towards brining Iran into some kind of compliance, ultimately, with the norms of international behavior.”
Gov. Ridge said: “If the regime’s treatment of its own citizens is any indication, that is not going to happen. Some 2,000 have been executed since Hassan Rouhani took office two years ago.”
“So what do you think the ultimate outcome for all this political posturing will be? A regime that fully complies with the deal? Or one that leverages a windfall of cash and oil revenues to prove once again, that hope is not a strategy.”
Tom Ridge, governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001, was the U.S.’s first secretary of Homeland Security, from 2003 to 2005.
