Per the admission of President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser and once-aspiring fiction writer, Ben Rhodes, the Obama administration deceived the American people as it sought to gain public and congressional support for its nuclear deal with Iran.
The administration concocted a narrative that the U.S. was negotiating with so-called “moderates” in Iran instead of hard-liners intent upon America and Israel’s destruction. These same hardliners failed to abide by nuclear nonproliferation commitments in the past and have given the United States no reason to trust them now. The administration also falsely suggested that the United States had two mutually exclusive options: peace – brought about by the deal – or imminent war.
While such misleading assertions would be harmless in a work of fiction, they have profound and dangerous implications in reality. In the four short months since the agreement was adopted, Iran has made clear that its intentions toward America and our allies remain the same, which can be summed up by the Iranian hardliner slogans “Death to America” and “Israel must be wiped out.”
Emboldened by the nuclear agreement, Iran has continued and even escalated its provocative behavior and violent rhetoric. Recently a senior Iranian military commander boasted that Iran is capable of rapidly destroying the entire nation of Israel, stating that Iran could “raze the Zionist regime in less than eight minutes.” Two weeks before, Iran’s armed forces had successfully tested a precision-guided medium-range ballistic missile that could reach Israel.
Over the past four months, Iran has also tested at least two intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States as well as missiles emblazoned with the slogan “Israel must be wiped out” in Hebrew. Iran’s dictator, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, taunted the United States following these provocations, saying it was “crying” over Iran’s missile tests, adding that Iran would continue such tests and that the United States could not do a “damn thing” about it.