AGREEMENT REACHED – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  The big news this morning is that the "world powers" have reached agreement with Iran on a nuclear deal.  I watched President Obama deliver a speech at 7a.m. ET describing the deal to the American people. 

It was typical Obama.  Smooth, slick, semi-eloquent, and probably deceptive.  There were no details on the deal itself, simply the claims, absurd, that the agreement met every one of America's standards.  We already know that it doesn't.  He thanked both parties in Congress for the sanctions that pressured Iran into the deal, never noting that he had opposed those sanctions.  He claimed that the deal will prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, but even he had to admit that the deal has time limits.  At the end, after all the "statesmanlike" talk, he threatened to veto any Congressional action against the pact.  Nice guy.

At this writing we still don't have a text to examine.  The Devil most definitely will be in the details, and there'll be plenty of Devil.   We do know, for example, that the "inspections" provisions are a farce.  International inspectors would have to request permission to visit sites, and Iran would have 14 days to respond to the requests.  Not to inspect, but to respond to requests to inspect.  By the time any inspections took place, sites could easily be sanitized.

The deal is being "welcomed" by the usual suspects.  Most enthusiastic seem to be the Iranians themselves, who don't seem worried about it.  Next come the Germany business interests.  Germany has played a double game in the negotiations.  Its businessmen can't wait to export to Iran again.  Like the Germans of another era, they see nothing.  Nuclear weapons?  Where?

It's because of the commercial pressure that Obama's guarantee that sanctions could be put back in place if Iran cheats is so absurd.  No one will agree.  No one will sacrifice profits and jobs.  This deal is permanent.  There will be no "snap back" of sanctions.

July 14,  2015