A Plan

In yesterday's post, I noted that the key players who just might get Barack Obama to jettison his appeasement of Iran are congressional Democrats. But sadly, these same Democrats, some of whom boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's speech before a joint session of congress, seem very comfortable living in the fantasy world of Barack Obama—a world where duplicitous, deceptive and dishonest enemies can be convinced to change their ways if only we capitulate to their demands; a world where Islamic extremism if not Islamic; a world where very bad actors have legitimate grievances and that the actions of the United States or Israel are at the core of those grievances, a world where we refuse to admit we're in a war, but our enemies think otherwise, and lastly, a world where any opinion to the contrary is to be demonized, politicized, and rejected.

Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader of the House, exemplified the Stepford Wives faction of the Democratic party when she stated that she was "saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States as part of the P5 +1 nations, and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation."

Seriously? The leader of an long time ally comes to the United States, tells the truth about an enemy that we are appeasing, rebuts outright lies that this president has told about Iran and his efforts to "negotiate" with them, and is accused on condescending?

But its get better.

Roger Simon describes another deep comment from a Democrat and a few inconvenient facts:

Benjamin Netanyahu only made one mistake in another stellar performance in front of Congress today. The Israeli PM neglected to give an initial shout-out to Nancy Pelosi as he did to Harry Reid, causing the now House minority leader to walk off in a snit and call his speech “insulting.” Oh, well, even the most seasoned politicians like Bibi blow it sometimes.

But you know he did a good job because some desperate Democratic backbencher from Kentucky named John Yarmuth got all incensed in his post-speech statement (no, he didn’t attend), accusing Bibi of being like a kid at Disneyland trying to get everything he wants, including extra ice cream. Obviously Yarmuth (a former Republican and a Jew — go figure) missed the key point. Obama and Kerry already were about to give the Iranians everything they want.

Well, not quite. Because when you give the Iranians everything they want, they just want more. And, lo and behold, in the midst of the uproar over Netanyahu’s speech, along comes none other than Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif to set matters straight:

MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) – Iran rejected on Tuesday as “unacceptable” U.S. President Barack Obama’s demand that it freeze sensitive nuclear activities for at least 10 years but said it would continue talks on a deal, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Iran laid out the position as the U.S. and Iranian foreign ministers met for a second day of negotiations and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a stinging critique of the agreement they are trying to hammer out.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met a day after Obama told Reuters that Iran must commit to a verifiable halt of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear work for a landmark atomic deal to be reached.”Iran will not accept excessive and illogical demands,” Zarif was quoted by Fars as saying.

So, in other words, the ten-year sunset clause that many of us thought should be an horrendous non-starter, is not enough for the Iranians — who, of course, will continue to negotiate, probably until 2035, assuming they haven’t blown up half the globe by then.

Of course, Barack Obama says he did not watch the speech, and it's a good thing he didn't. Call me biased, but it appeared to me that Bibi got a better reception yesterday from the joint session than Obama got at his state of the Union address. But true to form, Obama did act peeved and suggested that Bibi offered "nothing new" and that the speech was "theater." Of course, Barack Obama never, ever engages in political theater, does he?

The operative meme among Democrats is that either we sign a very bad deal that will allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons or we go to war. There's no middle ground. That. Is. Unmitigated. Nonsense. Democrats then demand that anyone who criticizes the "deal" have an alternative "plan"—as if that was harder to get than an honest assessment of radical Islam from Barack Obama.

Let's assume that Iran walks away or in a rare fit of conscience, Obama and Kerry finally recognize the disastrous nature of what they're doing. Here's a "plan" (and I'm not even an Ivy league graduate like Barack Obama or John Kerry) that will cause the Mullahs significant pain.

1. Ratchet up sanctions with particular emphasis on the banking sector.
2. Work with allies to ensure that those sanctions will hold.
3. Begin to supply material support to any group within Iran that wants to overthrow the government (e.g., Kurds in the North, liberal students throughout the country, other opposition groups)
4. Work with sunni arabs to undermine the Iranian shiite regime
5. Ratchet up cyber-attacks on the Iranian technology sector.
6. Work with allies to seize all Iranian assets in all countries where they have been placed.
7. Use the international banking system to devalue Iranian currency.
8. Encourage defectors who come from the Iranian nuclear technology sector.
9. Work with regional partners to topple Iranian proxy regimes (Hezballah would be a good place to start).
10. Work with Western partners to deny visas to all Iranian passport holders, working to cripple their ability to travel internationally.
11. Declare Iran a terrorist state.

In other words, start to play real hardball, doing it with no boots on the ground and not a single shot fired (at least by us). Modify, adapt, add new wrinkles, and repeat until Iran comes to the table for real. And if they don't? Then realize that even our vaunted president said that all options are on the table.

And that's just for starters. Gosh, that wasn't very difficult.

But if you're a member of Obama's Team of 2s or a member of the Democrat Stepford Wives, it seems that thinking clearly, pragmatically, and honestly for more than a millisecond is an insurmountable challenge. Pathetic.