Thomas Semanic
1-14-18
Dr. Muck
Trump & The Iran Nuclear Deal
In the 2016
presidential campaign Donald Trump frequently hammered the Iran Nuclear Deal
calling it one of the worst deals in American history and threatened to destroy
it if he was elected president. He does not like the fact that Iran has nuclear
power and the ability to make nuclear weapon if they wanted too. Before the
deal, Iran had more enriched uranium that allowed them to make a nuclear weapon
within three months. Iran has continued to say the only thing they do and want
the uranium for is for power purposes, not a nuclear weapon. Of course,
international relations is not a trustworthy process especially from a state
like Iran whom we have not had the best relations with. Under the Obama
administration, a deal was created that only allowed Iran to enrich Uranium to
3.67% which would allow them to make a nuclear weapon within a year instead of
three months. Also, sanctions against Iran would be lifted assuming Iran
follows through with deal. President Trump hates the idea that Iran could
possibly make a nuclear weapon, he does not like the 10-15 year terms that the
deal has, and the power balance tilt it can have on the middle eat especially
since we have seen a very pro-Israel Trump.
I
understand wanting to be tougher on a country that has the ability to make a
nuclear weapon however, I think we need to think of this situation in terms of
collective action. We would all love to get more out of negotiations, deals,
and agreements but that’s just not how it works. We are obviously a more
powerful country than Iran and the fact that we would have a year to react to a
situation like this instead of three months is much better. Iran had much more
potential to tilt the balance of power or causing chaos before this deal. If
the President were to put sanctions back on Iran the deal would he torn up and
the likelihood another deal could be put in place is low especially one that
would be stronger in favor of what Trump is looking for. As much as we do not
like the previous actions of Iran I think this is the best deal that we can get
at this time. Tearing up this deal would likely have the opposite effect of
what President Trump wants. We need to look at the bigger picture here. In politics,
you will never get everything you want and this is one of the issues with
somebody in the executive with no government experience. Trump does not
understand why America can’t exert their power more to influence others to do
what he wants. I hope the president’s cabinet members like Tillerson and Mattis
and experienced Republican members of congress can convince Trump to stick with
the deal because it is the best we can do for now. In this article on January
12, 2018 from Vox Analysis it
explains that legally Trump has to decide every one-hundred and twenty days
whether to continue to enforce the deal or not. This time around he has decided
to keep it but experts are worried he will not keep the deal next deadline.
When announcing his decision, he called for European allies to fix the issues
with it otherwise by next deadline he will impose sanctions. Congress could
also enact legislation that would deny Iran Nuclear power not just for ten
years but forever. I think Trump needs to have good conversations with our
European allies to see what they want to do and what they think might be the
best course of action. Overall, I hope to see the deal kept and sanctions not
imposed on Iran because it would allow Iran to have greater ability to produce
a nuclear weapon which I think across both parties is something we do not want.
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