Don’t ignore Iran dangers

For more than a decade, U.S. leaders vowed to prevent Iran from acquiring or developing the technology and know-how of nuclear weaponry for a simple reason: we did not want one of the world’s most dangerous regimes to possess (and potentially use or distribute) the world’s most dangerous weapons.

That’s why, starting under President George W. Bush, Washington rallied the international community around increasingly tough sanctions that would remain in place until Tehran comes clean about its nuclear program and the world could rest assured that it would not develop nuclear weaponry. To his credit, President Barack Obama led global efforts to further tighten the screws on Iran, which threatened that nation with economic collapse and coaxed Iranian leaders to the negotiating table.

Nevertheless, the President now seems prepared to ink a deal that would put Iran on the cusp of nuclear weaponry and eventually lift all sanctions, raising the same specter of a very dangerous regime with the most dangerous weapons — even though the regime has not changed its ideology, its motives, or its behavior in any significant way since the Islamic Republic was founded in 1979.

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