Red China and Iran: Negotiations 101
By now, History should have taught the Obama Administration the truth behind the statements of two experienced negotiators: Great Britain’s Lord Palmerston (1784-1865) famously said, "England has no eternal friends, England has no perpetual enemies, England has only eternal and perpetual interests." Dr. Henry Kissinger warned both Presidents Nixon and Carter than no American president should ever become involved in a negotiation where the outcome is in doubt.
Last week, President Obama negotiated a deal with Red China -- the world’s largest polluters of earth’s atmosphere -- whereby the U.S. could cut our carbon emissions by 25-percent in an impossibly short timeframe that will further sink the U.S. economy, while Red China only "promised" to start cutting its carbon emissions in 2030 -- 15 years from now. Ironically, Red China announced plans to build a new coal-fired power plant every week for the next ten years.
Meanwhile, other parts of the Obama White House and the National Security Council, led by the Iranian-born, Persian (Farsi)-speaking Valerie Jarrett, are negotiating a pact with the Mullahs of Iran which, in effect, gives the Mullahs the wink and the nod to become the nuclear-weapons power over the entire Middle East.
If the actual purpose behind Iran’s nuclear research is to create a fancy way to boil water, to make steam, to turn turbines, to create electricity, that would be fine. But oil-rich Iran does not need nuclear power to boil water. Iran’s often-stated purpose is to nuke Israel out of existence and to become the hegemon over the Middle East. Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that he planned world conquest. Hitler was deemed a mad man, Hitler was ignored. Are we to ignore the bloody boasts of the Mullahs as well?
Because the U.S. did not insist that Iran cease its attempts to produce enriched uranium as a pre-condition for the beginning of the current negotiations, the Valerie/Iranian negotiations were still-born even before they began. As with President Obama’s climate-change negotiations with the Red Chinese, the battle for meaningful air-pollution reduction was lost even before the first dim sum with rice wine were served.
Note: Before the U.N. Security Council plus Germany imposed economic scansions on Iran in 2006, the Iranians were spinning 9,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges. Since then, during the eight years of economic sanctions, the number of Iranian centrifuges has risen to 19,000. So much for economic sanctions.
With the Democrat Senator Harry Reid still in charge of the U.S. Senate until January 3, 2015, it is difficult to predict what will happen between now and then. For example, what will be the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline? Already, there are enough bi-partisan votes to approve it; however, President Obama says he will veto the Keystone XL pipeline. Are there enough lame-duck Democrat votes to help the Republicans override a presidential veto? But, come January with the GOP in control of both Houses, the Keystone XL pipeline should be veto-proof and we’ll soon be less energy-dependent on Middle East oil.
Long after President Obama and his acolytes are gone, historians will debate whether their colossal domestic, international, and military missteps were made by accident, by inexperience, or by design. You decide.
Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame. He was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.
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