President Obama thinks he can ignore the Constitution and speed ahead with his nuclear arms agreement with Iran. He’s wrong. This time, his dangerous policy is facing a growing revolt.
We all know Congress is partly to blame for Obama’s over-confidence. It has allowed other unconstitutional acts to go unchecked. But when it is Congress’s own ox that is being gored, it’s a different story. On Iran, Obama is now encountering opposition from unlikely sources – fellow Democrats.
That the debate on Iran involves nuclear bombs and not immigration visas may have something to do with the rising opposition. Apparently, destroying American jobs is good policy even if done by unconstitutional means, but Congress draws the line at destroying American cities.
By refusing to submit the Iran agreement to the U.S. Senate for ratification as a treaty, as required by the Constitution, Obama’s arrogance is a direct assault on Congress as an institution. Secondly, by tacitly agreeing to allow Iran to proceed with plans for building a nuclear weapon, Obama is enabling an avowed enemy to threaten America with nuclear destruction. That’s a different kettle of fish, and the fish stink.
Of course, most of Obama’s excesses have one thing in common: they violate the U.S. Constitution in some direct and obvious way. But like it or not, most citizens do not get excited about constitutional questions until it becomes personal. Like, for example, the threat of having a nuclear bomb detonated at a shopping mall or sporting event in the city down the road – a nuclear bomb manufactured in Iran and smuggled into the country by Iran-financed terrorists.
Americans are suddenly realizing this is not an argument over the fate of Israel, although clearly, Israel is in the crosshairs of the mullahs. But so is the United States, and Americans have known this since the 1980-81 hostage crisis. To the mullahs who control Iran, the United States is and always has been the “Great Satan.”
Thus, the debate over the Iran “nuclear agreement” is a debate over how we should respond to direct, repeated threats to the American homeland by the Islamist regime openly dedicated to our destruction. Only Barack Obama, the Muslim Brotherhood and the radical left believes a nuclear-armed Iran will be a force for stability in the world.
Obama’s plan for a nuclear-armed Iran must be stopped and it can be stopped. In fact, it appears to be unraveling with this week’s revelation that – according to Iranian officials themselves – Obama has lied about the terms of “agreement” achieved at the end of the six-nation negotiations.
If there is no actual “agreement” on the basic terms of the “deal,” if there is no agreed-upon text that is binding on all parties, then the whole farce will soon come to an end. Yet, given the Obama regime’s penchant for lies and deceptions, we must continue to fight the agreement until it is repudiated.
Short of impeachment, there are three political tools available to block the Iran agreement. First, Americans must pressure Congress to insist the agreement be submitted to the U.S. Senate as a treaty requiring a two-thirds vote of approval. Every member of Congress, Democrat and Republican, must be pressured to demand Obama submit the treaty to the Senate for ratification.
Secondly, every member of Congress must be pressured to publicly oppose any lifting of current sanctions on Iran unless and until a treaty is debated and ratified.
If Obama ignores the Constitution and signs an agreement not approved by the U.S. Senate by two-thirds vote, Congress can adopt a resolution declaring the agreement is null and void and not binding on the U.S. government. Every candidate for the 2016 presidential nomination in any party should be asked to support that resolution and pledge to repudiate the illegal “agreement.”
Yet, even if this nuclear deal is defeated, there is a larger threat to our national security: Obama’s pro-Islamic policies and his open hostility to Israel. With or without the so-called “Iran agreement,” Iran will continue to pursue its plans for obtaining nuclear weapons and will likely reach that capability in the near future. What then?
There needs to be a rising public debate over what to do to block and defeat Iran’s nuclear ambitions, not facilitate them as Obama is trying to do. The United States cannot accept or tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran. How to prevent that cataclysmic event is open to debate, but we should not be welcoming or overly tolerant to the voices of complacency.
Tom Tancredo is the founder of the Rocky Mountain Foundation and founder and co-chairman of Team America PAC. He represented Colorado’s sixth congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009, and he is a former presidential candidate.
He is the author of In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America’s Border and Security, and he can be heard every Monday on Grassroots Radio Colorado with Kris Cook (KLZ 560 AM).
