Courtesy of CNN:
President Barack Obama issued a blistering rebuttal to opponents of the Iran nuclear deal as he sought to bolster congressional support for the agreement with a major speech on Wednesday.
He declared that lawmakers risk damaging American credibility if they vote to scuttle the deal and equated them with those who pushed for war with Iraq -- and with the mullahs in Iran.
"It's those hardliners chanting 'death to America' who have been most opposed to the deal. They're making common cause with the Republican caucus," Obama said.
"If Congress kills this is deal, we will lose more than just constraints on Iran's nuclear program or the sanctions we have painstakingly built," Obama said. "We will have lost something more precious: America's credibility as a leader of diplomacy. America's credibility as the anchor of the international system."
I watched this speech today and was struck by just how detailed Obama was in itemizing exactly what makes the Iran deal so good for maintaining peace.
But what made me actually sit up and applaud was when the President reminded folks that the politician who are the biggest critics of this deal, are also the ones who beat the war drums the loudest for the idea of invading Iraq.
The 2002 Iraq vote, which spawned foreign policy headaches for the past two administrations, was driven by war-hungry politicians, Obama claimed. He said Wednesday that opponents of his agreement with Iran were deploying similar arguments ahead of the September vote in Congress.
"None of these arguments hold up. They didn't back in 2002 and 2003 and they shouldn't now," Obama said. "The same mind-set, in many cases offered by the same people who seem to have no compunction with being repeatedly wrong, led to a war that did more to strengthen Iran, more to isolate the United States, than anything we have done in the decades before or since."
Now that's how I like to hear my President deal with his critics. By publicly spanking them over the fact that every problem they see they want to solve with the blood of our American service men and women.
The President also mentioned that literally EVERY other country who has commented publicly supports this deal, with the exception of Israel of course. Who have their own reasons for wanting to keep their people frightened and focused on the Iranian bogeyman.
It is a good speech, and extremely informative speech. (If you do not have time to listen to the entire thing here is a transcript.)
Of course the speech did not go over very well with the conservatives.
In fact Breitbart got their panties in a wad over the President's assertion that the conservative critics of the deal over here were "making common cause" with the hardliners in Iran.
Yep that truth really stings doesn't it?
President Obama gives almost an hour long speech slamming opponents of the Iran nuclear deal, and reminding his audience that these critics were the same warmongers who supported Iraq war.
5:30 PM
Share to other apps