Editor,
I have to set the record straight.
In the June 18 edition of the Gazette, opinion contributor Ms. Melton asserted that while presidents Bush, Obama and Biden tried using diplomacy to contain Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons, that was a failure — and only president Trump has been the one to “do something about it.”
This is untrue. President Obama’s 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal (the JCPOA), was a diplomatic attempt to do exactly what Ms. Melton acknowledges is necessary. It kept a check on their nuclear materials stockpile while capping their nuclear enrichment program.
Obama felt this plan, one that used a “carrot” rather than a “stick” approach, was a good one because the stick approach that the U.S. had been using for years had yielded no results. A new approach was needed. And it was working. And it cost no servicemen or Iranian’s their lives, did not deplete our arms stockpile, alienate our allies around the world or cost $100 billion.
Unlike the previous decade, we were actually talking with Iran instead of constantly sanctioning and verbally attacking them.
But once Trump came to power it was clear that one of his highest priorities was to erase all of his predecessor’s legacies, irrespective of the effectiveness and value those policies may have had.
One such move was the abandonment of the JCPOA in 2018, even though Iran was complying with the deal. Despite what Ms. Melton mistakenly believes, we know this to be true because they were being regularly inspected by the international Atomic Energy Agency.
To add insult to injury, he also added another layer of sanctions on that country. All of this obviously enraged Iran and so a few months later they started violating that deal’s restrictions, leading to the U.S.-Iran conflict.
This was a series of events that involved tanker attacks in the Persian Gulf, the downing of a U.S. drone and a series of retaliatory military actions culminating in the January 2020 assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
So since Trump’s first term started, our relations with Iran have deteriorated from us brokering a nuclear deal that they were complying with to us engaging in a war with that nation.
The facts tell it like it is: Diplomacy didn’t fail. President Trump failed.
And once again, displaying his utter unfitness for the presidency, he is now dishonestly claiming Obama’s nuclear deal was a terrible deal and a disaster, providing no legitimate proof for that accusation.
Were he an honorable person, he wouldn’t be attacking, he would be apologizing.
Richard Huffaker
Mariposa
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