US Public Opinon From 59-31% to 32-58% On Iran Nuclear Deal

That is what has happened to public support versus opposition to the recently negotiated Iran nuclear deal between May 30 when the deal was announced until today, according to the Washington Post.  Every nation on the planet, including somewhat critical Saudi Arabia, except for Israel, has publicly supported this deal, and the UN Security Council has voted 15-0 for it.  The alternative is not a continuation of, much less a tightening of, the economic sanctions that the Israelis point to as most endangering them due to Hiabullah probably getting more military support from Iran.  But, who cares?  GOP congresspeople have called John Kerry names and said that he was "bamboozled" and other much less complimentary things.  The usually scholarly Thomas Sowell has declared the deal to the "worst foreign policy action in world history," with the 1443 Ming dynasty decision not to send out long ocean expeditions being second.

On top of that, we have had relentless ads on TV that have wildly misrepresented the deal to the point of outright lying.  About the only good thing I can see in this complete breakdown of intelligence and knowledge on the part of Americans is that it looks like enough Dems in Congress will back it to make Obama's veto stick, although the legislation to annul it will strongly pass both houses.  All Obama needs is one branch, and with Adam Schiff, the ranking Dem on the House Intelligence Committee supporting it, it might be the House, even if Chuck Schumer goes against and takes enough Dems in the Senate with him to override the veto.

Of course, no GOPsters will support it, even though various senior GOP foreign policy figures have come out in favor of it, such as Brent Scowcroft. But then, he was not enthusiastic about invading Iraq, so what kind of Republican foreign policy adviser is he?  And, I suppose it is not even worth bothering noting that most of these Congresspeople did not even read the agreement before they came out four square against it.

My only concern is this new poll, with an August recess now between us and the voting.  My only hope is that there are enough Adam Schiffs, and that also these views by the public are not all that strongly held, which the large switch between late May and now suggests, that the Adam Schiffs will hold in sufficient numbers. 

I do happen to think that this vote is one of the singlel most important things that will happen during the entire presidency of Obama.  If this fails, it will indeed be a major disaster, with horrific results that could lead to war, one that could easily make Iraq look like a cakewalk.  Let us hope that good sense will prevail among enough of those voting to make it stick.

I am reminded of an earlier hysteria, now almost completely forgotten.  I am talking about the 1979 move by Jimmy Carter to give the Panama Canal to Panama.  At the time this was very vigorously denounced over huge parts of the political spectrum, and public opinion opposed it.  As Teddy Roosevelt had put it, it was ours because we stole it fair and square!  But, the Panamanians were unhappy and riots and such were going on.  The opponents, however, were sure that Communist China and Cuba would somehow seize control of it by turning Panama commie, or whatever.  Doom was at hand, and our economy would get strangled as these nefarious powers would block the canal to traffic, or at least to traffic involving the US.

Needless to say, nothing of the sort has happened.  The canal is even being expanded, and the Chinese might build another one through Nicaragua. And Panama has had one of the highest GDP growth rates in Latin America, doing very well thank you, and having friendly relations with the US for quite some time.  Carter was completely right, and this was a very wise move, alhtough I have never ever heard a single one of those people forecasting imminent doom ever admit that they were totally wrong and sould apologize to him and congratulate him.

Somehow, assuming that the deal goes through and is successful in keeping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons (and maybe even getting more cooperative about some other matters in the MENA areas), I also doubt that any of those engaging in their wild denunciations now will apologize or even admit that they were wrong.  Something bad will happen in the future if we do not bomb, bomb, bomb Iran ASAP, just you wait and see, maybe when the hyperinflation also appears...

Barkley Rosser