Michael Gerson, "A half-baked missive from the GOP": The US Must Negotiate With Iran in "Good Faith"? Yeah, Right!

In a Washington Post opinion piece entitled "A half-baked missive from the GOP," Michael Gerson, who is on record as predicting that Obama's negotiations with Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei could result in a "bad deal," is now upbraiding Senate Republicans for signing Tom Cotton's open letter to Iran. Gerson writes:

"A final objection to the Cotton letter concerns not institutional positioning but grand strategy. The alternative to a bad nuclear deal is not war; it is strong sanctions and covert actions to limit Iranian capacities until the regime falls (as it came close to doing in 2009) or demonstrates behavior change in a variety of areas. But this approach depends on the tightening of sanctions in cooperation with Europe, as well as Russia and China. And this effort can be held together only by the impression that the United States has negotiated with Iran in good faith. So negotiations are actually an important part of any attempt to isolate Iran. The key is where we draw our 'red lines.'"

"The alternative to a bad nuclear deal is not war"? Correct. However, Obama is seeking willy-nilly to reach such a deal, and the likelihood of strong sanctions ever being reinstated is close to nil. German companies are champing at the bit to sell goods and service to Iran. Russia is already holding joint naval exercises with Iran, and China is also pursuing a naval alliance with Tehran. In short, the horse is already out of the barn.

"[T]his effort can be held together only by the impression that the United States has negotiated with Iran in good faith"? Be real, Michael! Do you really believe that Putin, busy swallowing Crimea and the eastern part of the Ukraine, and Xi Jinping, who is in a territorial dispute with Japan over the South China Sea, give a damn about "good faith"?

"The key is where we draw our 'red lines'"? Spare me. There are no more red lines. Obama saw to it when he retreated from the red line he drew involving Syrian madman Bashar al-Assad's use of chemical weapons against civilians.

Is Obama negotiating a "bad deal"? No, he is negotiating a "disastrous deal," which will give the mullahs a nuclear arsenal and ICBMs in less than a decade. Scold Republicans for signing Cotton's letter? I don't think so.