(JNS) The response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows what a unified West can do when it recognizes a threat to democracy and to the security of its allies. Bowing to the reality of risking a direct military confrontation that could lead to escalation to a nuclear war, President Joe Biden has led our allies in imposing what are purported to be crushing sanctions on Russia. Critics of sanctions as a tool against aggressors have suddenly become cheerleaders. The ineffectual is suddenly viewed as crippling.
Meanwhile, even as the onslaught continues in Ukraine, the U.S. is depending on Russia to help secure a new nuclear arrangement with Iran. While sanctions are supposed to influence the behavior of the third most powerful person in the world, representatives of the West are preparing to remove all sanctions to appease Iran. To say the approach is hypocritical is an understatement.
There has been a lot of talk of the “Big Lie” in the last couple of years; well, Biden told a whopper of his own when he promised a “longer and stronger” nuclear agreement if reports of the negotiations are accurate. The draft agreement does not require Iran to destroy its centrifuges, one of the biggest mistakes of the original deal that allowed Iran to enrich uranium to a level approaching the purity needed for a bomb. Iran would remain on the threshold of building a bomb – with a breakout time of perhaps as little as six months. (President Barack Obama thought he’d won the lottery by asserting his deal made it a whole year). READ MORE