A Mess

The Obama administration has performed so badly on the foreign policy front that there is absolutely no way they can leave a legacy of success. With bad decisions that have negatively affected virtually every Arab country, with increasingly virulent anti-Israel rhetoric (which, by the way, frees the Left to ratchet up its antipathy for the only liberal democracy in the Middle East), with the rise of radical Islamic elements like ISIS and al Nusra (on top of a resurgent al Qaeda), you'd Obama and his Team of 2s would step back and take a different approach. But noooo. Obama loves to double down on bad decisions, using mendacious statements to inform the public that failure is success and capitulation is strength.

Only 18 months ago, Obama initiated "negotiations" with Iran, our avowed enemy and the world's most significant sponsor of Islamic terror organizations. Sanction imposed by Congress (not by Obama) forced Iran to sit down because those sanction were creating economic problems for the Mullahs. When the "negotiations" began, Obama said that Iran would be forced to "dismantle" its nuclear weapons machinery, open its secret weapons development sites to international inspections and would have sanction lifted slowly and only after this duplicitous, dangerous country demonstrated compliance. Heh.

Today, all of that is off the table. The Wall Street Journal comments:

The Ayatollah knows that Mr. Obama wants an agreement with Iran so much that there’s almost no concession the President won’t make. So why not keep asking for more?

Keep in mind that the talks began with the U.S. and its European partners demanding that Iran dismantle its nuclear program. But to persuade the Ayatollah to accept the recent “framework” accord, Mr. Obama has already conceded that Iran can keep enriching uranium, that it can maintain 5,060 centrifuges to do the enriching, that its enriched-uranium stockpiles can stay inside Iran, that the once-concealed facilities at Fordow and Arak can stay open (albeit in altered form), and that Iran can continue doing research on advanced centrifuges.

All of these concessions are contrary to previous U.S. positions, and we’re no doubt missing a few. But none of that was enough for the Ayatollah, who quickly asserted two new deal-breaking objections: immediate sanctions relief, and no inspections under any circumstances of Iran’s military sites.

The White House has insisted that sanctions relief would be phased out based on Iranian compliance with the accord. Iranian negotiators quickly denied they had agreed to any such thing. At first White House spokesman Josh Earnest dismissed this as mere face-saving domestic politicking inside Iran. But then the Ayatollah weighed in with his demand for immediate sanctions relief, adding to reinforce the goodwill that the Obama Administration was “lying” and had “devilish” intentions.

On Friday Mr. Obama nonetheless turned the other cheek and suggested a compromise on sanctions relief is likely. White House sources whispered to reporters that the immediate windfall to Iran could be between $30 billion and $50 billion from access to frozen offshore Iranian accounts.

Mr. Obama even suggested at a press conference that sanctions relief wasn’t really that large an issue as long as the U.S. could reimpose sanctions if Iran cheats. “Our main concern here is making sure that if Iran doesn’t abide by its agreement that we don’t have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops in order to reinstate sanctions,” the President said. He added that this “will require some creative negotiations.”

Barack Obama no longer has any credibility. He has twisted the truth on so many issues, told outright lies on dozens more, and done so with a degree of "in your face" assurance that is shocking.

His trained hamsters in the media remain silent or ask tepid questions that dance around the edge of his distortions and dishonesty, allowing the American public to believe the lies. His party is complicit in much of this, allowing this president free reign with very, very few exceptions. The 2016 presumptive Democrat nominee, Hillary Clinton remains silent on all of this—not encouraging.

What a mess!

UPDATE:
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Amir Teheri discusses the upcoming Arab summit at Camp David, called by Barack Obama to smooth over growing concerns among Sunni Arabs that he is playing directly into Iran's hands. Teheri writes:

Analysts believe Obama’s strategy is to use the talks as a means of influencing Iran’s domestic politics to help the more “moderate” faction led by former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, now in control of the presidency, capture other organs of power in Tehran.

Arabs believe that Obama’s strategy is built on the same illusion that led Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton into helping the mullahs out of tight corners in the hope of securing a “grand bargain.”

“The Rafsanjani crowd has been trying to sell us the same bill of goods for decades,” says a senior Arab official. “The idea was that if we helped them tame radical Khomeinists, they would lead Iran to normality. We bought the fable and paid the price. Obama is repeating our mistake on a grander scale that also includes the threat of a nuclear-armed rogue state.”

The Arabs worry that Obama wants to use Camp David to fudge his decision to appease the mullahs by claiming he has Arabs on side.

“He is going to give a Churchillian speech,” says an Arab official. “But we know that you can’t be Chamberlain one day and Churchill the next.”

Barack Obama is Chamberlain every day. He has neither the temperament, the smarts, or an adequately realistic view of the world to ever be a Churchill. That much is absolutely clear.