Indictments aside, can Trump be forgiven his Iran fiasco?
Because as President he pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal it is now a threshold state. If an Iranian dirty bomb detonates somewhere, it is on Trump
Many are the reasons to spare Americans and the world another Donald Trump presidency: among them are of course his status as a criminal defendant, his divisiveness, toxicity, boorish ignorance, and his 2020 election-overturning effort and complicity in the Jan. 6 abomination. But Trump's colossal miscalculation on Iran may be the greatest of them all—because it is in the realm of foreign policy that idiocy can most easily beget the End of Days.
As we know, Iran has been governed for over four decades by a cabal of religious fanatics who impose a barbaric form of Islam upon their people while menacing the Middle East and world at large. Their contributions to the record of human exertions have ranged from "fatwas" against novelists to executions of gay people to fomenting mayhem from Lebanon to Yemen to Gaza.
The idea that this benighted regime should not have nuclear weapons unites the nations of the world as few others do, and it is obvious why: Deterrence relies on rational actors, while religious mania might make adherents, like the Iranian mullahs, unpredictable.
In recent days it is becoming clear that this important global project—denying Iran nuclear weapons—is very close to failure.
According to recent weeks' reports, Iran is close to 90 percent weapons grade uranium enrichment. The most IAEA report estimated that as of May 13, Iran's total enriched uranium stockpile was at 4,744.5 kilograms (10,460 pounds) including a great amount enriched up to 60 percent purity, a short, technical step to weapons-grade levels. The IAEA recently found that Iran has significantly increased its stockpile of enriched uranium, reaching more than 23 times the limit set out in the agreement with world powers that Trump cancelled.
The last IAEA estimate in February put Iran's uranium stockpile at some 3,760 kilograms of which 87.5 kilograms was enriched up to 60 percent purity. Some assess this is already enough for a nuclear bomb—and Israel is in an uproar.
Experts agree this makes it Iran's choice whether to move to weapons grade enrichment with speed and impunity. It's quite clear that Iran may go the same way as North Korea—a rogue nuclear nation.
The reason for that is Trump. If Israel is hit with a nuclear attack, it's on Trump. If a dirty bomb stemming from Iran hits Brussels, it is down to Trump. If Washington is incinerated because Iran slipped terrorists a weapon, thank Trump.
That's because in 2018, then-President Trump decided to pull the United States out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, reached three years earlier between Iran and the U.S., China, France, Russia, the U.K. and Germany.
Why on earth would he do such a thing, which violated the advice of his own security establishment as well as much of its counterpart in Israel (not including the prime minister, who egged him on)?
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