Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Trump Puts America on Path to War by Ending Iran Deal: Sanders
GV-Wire-1
By gvwire
Published 7 years ago on
May 14, 2018

Share

President Trump’s decision last week that he will pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear agreement was the latest in a series of reckless decisions that move our country closer to conflict. By reimposing nuclear sanctions on Iran and withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, otherwise known as the Iran Nuclear Agreement, President Trump has put our nation on a dangerous path.
We should understand that the JCPOA is not just an agreement between the United States and Iran, but one negotiated alongside other members of the international community including the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, along with China and Russia. The United Nations Security Council also endorsed it.

Portrait of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont
Opinion
Bernie Sanders

Trump Decision Isolates America From Allies

Trump’s decision isolates the United States from our most important European allies who all continue to support the agreement and have consistently said that it is in their own national security interests to see it upheld.
With his announcement, President Trump has also ignored the public statements of his own national security officials like Joint Chiefs Chairman Dunford and Defense Secretary Mattis, both of whom have repeatedly said that staying in the agreement is in the national security interests of the United States.
This agreement is supported by an overwhelming consensus of national security experts around the world. And, I would note, that includes in Israel. Last month, 26 former top-ranking Israeli military and security officials signed a letter urging the United States to maintain the agreement, stating unequivocally that the deal is working and that a U.S. decision to pull out would undermine not just U.S. security, but Israel’s security as well.

Israeli Security Leaders Back Iran Deal

These Israeli security leaders wrote, “The consensus among military and intelligence agencies around the world — including Israel’s own defense community — is that the pact is working. … Israel’s security interests would be served best if the United States chooses to remain in the agreement, and work with its allies and other parties to the agreement on further diplomatic actions to address other aspects of Iranian policy in the Middle East.”

If we are genuinely concerned with Iran’s behavior in the region, as I am, this is the worst possible course. It will make addressing all of these other problems harder. Unfortunately, I heard no strategy from Trump last week, just the usual bluster.
Withdrawing from the agreement could not only free Iran from the limits placed on its nuclear program, it would seriously harm America’s ability to negotiate future nonproliferation agreements, such as one with North Korea. Why would any country in the world sign such an agreement with the United States, and make the difficult concessions, if they thought that a reckless president might simply discard that agreement a few years later?
If we are genuinely concerned with Iran’s behavior in the region, as I am, this is the worst possible course. It will make addressing all of these other problems harder. Unfortunately, I heard no strategy from Trump last week, just the usual bluster.

Trump Bluster Won’t Get Us to Peace

But bluster and Iran-bashing will not get us to a better future. Ultimately, we must seek a better relationship with the Iranian people and a more constructive role for Iran in the region.
Trump’s bellicose rhetoric today makes achieving those goals more difficult. It will strengthen the regime’s hardliners, who are much more comfortable dealing with a hostile America than with a reasonable, peace-seeking one.
After 17 years of war in Afghanistan and 15 years of war in Iraq, the American people do not want to be engaged in never-ending wars in the Middle East. I am deeply concerned that that is exactly where President Trump is taking us with regard to Iran.
And for anyone who tries to dismiss those concerns, I would remind you that his newly installed National Security Adviser John Bolton wrote an article a few years ago entitled “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.” Now Donald Trump seems to be creating his own excuse for doing exactly that.
Importantly, I would remind my fellow Americans that the road to the Iraq war did not simply begin in 2003. It was laid down brick by brick over a number of years, with policy decisions that might have seemed relatively small at the time, but that ultimately led us to the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of our country.

Still Dealing With Unintended Consequences in Iraq

The Iraq war had enormous unintended consequences that we are still dealing with today, and will be for many years to come. Indeed, one of those unintended consequences was the empowering of Iran in the Middle East.
It is folly to imagine that, having unleashed these problems through the misuse of military force, we can solve them in the same way. Real American leadership, and real American power, is not shown by our ability to blow things up, but by our ability to bring parties together, to forge international consensus around shared problems, and then to mobilize that consensus to address those problems. That is what this agreement did.
Unfortunately, President Trump has put us on a very different, more dangerous path.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, Independent-Vermont, will host a town hall 4 p.m. PT today to examine the consequences of Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. The town hall will be live-streamed on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in partnership with The Guardian, The Intercept, NowThis, The Young Turks, Act.tv and MoveOn.org.
 

DON'T MISS

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Khamphanh Srimala

DON'T MISS

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Says Trump Is Living in a Russian-Made ‘Disinformation Space’

DON'T MISS

Middle East Latest: Netanyahu Taps Trump-Linked Adviser for Gaza Ceasefire Talks

DON'T MISS

DOGE Claimed It Saved $8 Billion in One Contract. It Was Actually $8 Million.

DON'T MISS

Trump’s Russia Negotiations Raise Alarm Among Allies and Experts

DON'T MISS

Man Shot and Killed by Police After Throwing Rocks at Cars

DON'T MISS

Kerman Unified Tutor Arrested for Alleged Sexual Communications with Minor

DON'T MISS

Stock Market Today: Wall Street Edges Back From Its Record

DON'T MISS

From Cartel Violence to Border Walls: One Couple’s Journey to a New Life in the Valley

DON'T MISS

Fashion Fair’s Forever 21 to Close. ‘Still a Ways to Go,’ Says Employee

UP NEXT

DOGE Claimed It Saved $8 Billion in One Contract. It Was Actually $8 Million.

UP NEXT

From Cartel Violence to Border Walls: One Couple’s Journey to a New Life in the Valley

UP NEXT

Who Runs Elon Musk’s DOGE? Not Musk, the White House Says.

UP NEXT

Musk Team Seeks Access to IRS System With Taxpayers’ Records

UP NEXT

Bannon Calls Musk a ‘Parasitic Illegal Immigrant’

UP NEXT

Judge Declines to Immediately Block Elon Musk or DOGE From Federal Data or Layoffs

UP NEXT

Not Quite a Unified Theory of Trumpism, but Still an Alarming Pattern

UP NEXT

Trump to Sign Executive Orders as Joint Interview with Musk Airs

UP NEXT

Trump Admin Gives Schools Deadline to End DEI Programs or Lose Federal Funding

UP NEXT

What Is Field Hockey? Fresno’s Sikh Community Explains

DOGE Claimed It Saved $8 Billion in One Contract. It Was Actually $8 Million.

37 minutes ago

Trump’s Russia Negotiations Raise Alarm Among Allies and Experts

45 minutes ago

Man Shot and Killed by Police After Throwing Rocks at Cars

57 minutes ago

Kerman Unified Tutor Arrested for Alleged Sexual Communications with Minor

1 hour ago

Stock Market Today: Wall Street Edges Back From Its Record

1 hour ago

From Cartel Violence to Border Walls: One Couple’s Journey to a New Life in the Valley

4 hours ago

Fashion Fair’s Forever 21 to Close. ‘Still a Ways to Go,’ Says Employee

16 hours ago

Who Runs Elon Musk’s DOGE? Not Musk, the White House Says.

17 hours ago

New Self-Pollinating Almond Tree Could Be Huge for a Big Fresno Cash Crop

18 hours ago

Madera County Secures First Fentanyl-Related Homicide Conviction

19 hours ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Khamphanh Srimala

Feb 19, 2025 Most Wanted Person of the Day Suspect Name: Khamphanh Srimala Suspects Date of Birth: June 18, 1985 Physical Description: Laoti...

16 minutes ago

Khamphanh Srimala is Valley Crime Stoppers' Most Wanted Person of the Day for Feb. 19, 2025. (Valley Crimes Stoppers)
16 minutes ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Khamphanh Srimala

31 minutes ago

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Says Trump Is Living in a Russian-Made ‘Disinformation Space’

35 minutes ago

Middle East Latest: Netanyahu Taps Trump-Linked Adviser for Gaza Ceasefire Talks

37 minutes ago

DOGE Claimed It Saved $8 Billion in One Contract. It Was Actually $8 Million.

AP picture of Vladimir Putin, left, and Donald Trump
45 minutes ago

Trump’s Russia Negotiations Raise Alarm Among Allies and Experts

fresno
57 minutes ago

Man Shot and Killed by Police After Throwing Rocks at Cars

Maci Rodriguez, 28, an after-school tutor, was arrested for allegedly sending sexual messages to a former student, prompting an ongoing investigation. (Fresno County SO)
1 hour ago

Kerman Unified Tutor Arrested for Alleged Sexual Communications with Minor

1 hour ago

Stock Market Today: Wall Street Edges Back From Its Record

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend