Hillary Clinton’s Iran problem

How long before Hillary Clinton announces that she was never really in favor of President Obama’s Iran policy? It’s a serious question given her conclusion that sticking by the disastrous policies of her former boss will crimp her future plans. And let’s make no mistake: The Iran policy is a disaster.

Consider all that the Iranian regime has achieved since Obama has been in office. It kept sanctions at bay for a couple of years by allowing the Obama-Clinton team to imagine “engagement” was a good idea. It crushed the Green Revolution. It was allowed to brutalize, murder, rape and repress its people with impunity. It found a more intoxicating president who would give the useful idiots (Lenin’s phrase about the West and Communism is apt here) in the West the idea that there had been a change in Iran and that more “moderate” elements in Iran were ready for a deal.

Continuing on, the Iranians escaped punishment for the attempted assassination of a Saudi official, on U.S. soil no less. Iran has kept its junior ally Bashar al-Assad in power in Syria despite his use of chemical weapons and the U.S. president’s proclamation that he must go. The Iranian regime has lived up to its reputation as the leading state supporter of terror. Its aid allowed Hamas to bombard Israel with thousands of rockets and to divert international aid to constructing terror tunnels. Its other pet group Hezbollah has entrenched itself in Lebanon and Syria and has access to many more sophisticated weapons.

Iran has had setbacks, to be sure. The Muslim Brotherhood’s leader, so warmly embraced by the Obama administration, got booted from power in Egypt. And sanctions, although derailed by the machinations of the Clinton-John Kerry State Department at critical junctures, are cause for concern. But for the mullahs, there is much more to be optimistic about. Egypt is no longer run by the Muslim Brotherhood, but Turkey has become a huge thorn in the side of Israel and the West, and for no irreversible gains the mullahs got two tranches of sanctions relief. The regime is closer than ever to a nuclear capacity, has developed advanced centrifuges, accelerated its intercontinental ballistic missile program and conned the administration into giving it both a sunset clause and hinting at a right to enrich in the interim deal.

Clinton surely didn’t object in her book, at the time of the interim agreement or at the time of the extension of the interim deal — ever, in other words — to the Obama-Clinton-Kerry policies that have brought us to this point. In place of repudiation, Clinton chooses to rewrite the history of sanctions, omitting the part about the State Department’s constant foot-dragging. And she plays the familiar game of inputs: We had this many meetings, we had this piece of paper, we passed these U.N. resolutions, and so on. But none of it was effective. The mullahs are riding high and on their way to a nuclear capability while Iran’s aggression and our insufficient response has thoroughly rattled our allies in the region.

So what will it be for Hillary Clinton — fight or flight?

UPDATE: Apparently Hillary Clinton does not have any discernible convictions — even the conviction she has to separate herself from the president and pretend she was faking it when she previously supported his policies. She is already trying to make amends with Obama. And this is only August, 2014 folks. Imagine when there are ads on this stuff.

The Washington Post