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By Art Buck August 26. 2015 12:01AM Guest Opinion: Why Republicans oppose the Iran agreement Republicans in Congress and those running for the Presidency are 100 percent opposed to the Iran nuclear non-proliferation accord negotiated between our president and his staff and the Iranian government. That 100 percent figure is remarkable. Not one Republican lawmaker will say that he or she favors it. Is that because they are all so smart and certain, or because that they all have made a pact to oppose the President at every turn? Republicans have monolithically opposed everything President Obama has worked for: saving GM, the Affordable Care Act, immigration reform, an international treaty against abuse of women, relations with Cuba, acknowledgment of global warming, aid to the poor, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, education funding, and voting rights, particularly for blacks and Latinos. They won’t even pass a long-term highway funding bill. Over a year ago, Republican Senators sent the Iranian government a letter saying that even if the Iranians made an agreement with the United States, they would not honor it and would overturn it at the first opportunity. This was during negotiations. In other words, Republican lawmakers (and Presidential hopefuls) from the outset ruled out diplomacy as a way to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Republican superpacs, including AIPAC, are spending over $40 million to pressure lawmakers not to support the Iran peace agreement. The reason for this can be found in Mitch McConnell’s statement in 2009 that the Republicans intended to make Mr. Obama a one-term President. They failed at that, but their mission remained the same: Oppose and obstruct everything the Obama Administration does. No exceptions. Regardless of the merits. You will recall that Republicans did the same shabby obstructionism with President Clinton. They even impeached him, knowing that their grounds would never lead to a conviction. So when you see the TV ads or talking heads (especially on Fox, but they’re everywhere), remember that Republicans don’t oppose the Iran deal on the merits, they oppose it because the Obama Administration made it happen. The Republican Party, by refusing to acknowledge the Democrats’ position on anything, has lost all credibility. If they cried “wolf!”, no one would believe them because they’ve said it falsely so many times before. Equally frightening is that all the Republican Presidential hopefuls have said that their vision of solving the problems in the Middle East is through more military intervention, including a re-commitment of US ground troops in Iraq and even Syria. Even the so-called adult in the room, Jeb Bush, has hired on Paul Wolfowitz as his foreign policy advisor. This same Mr. Wolfowitz led the neocons in the Pentagon in 2001 to advocate for war against Iraq in the belief that this would subdue anti-Western sentiment in the Middle East, and pacify the region under American hegemony. We know that was pie in the sky, and the results have been the opposite: War, sectarian strife, increased religious intolerance, increased hatred of Americans, and increased terrorism. Add to that, millions of refugees. The party that under George Bush got us into a war with Iraq under false pretenses, and precipitated the problems we face today, is on the warpath again. The ill considered Iraq war led to Iran’s emergence as the pre-eminent regional power, and led Iran to pursue a nuclear weapon, which it had not done prior to 2002. It had no –zero- centrifuges when the US invaded Iraq in 2002. So when you see ads saying the US is selling out Israel, or hear Mike Huckabee saying the US is “leading Israel to the oven door”, remember: Republicans are first and foremost trying to undermine President Obama; second, prefer war to peaceful resolution; and third, abandoned adhering to truth and decency a long time ago. If you, the reader, are a Republican, I invite you to consider not voting for the candidates of your party until they reform themselves. Art Buck of Ashland is a lawyer and former Foreign Service Officer.     http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20150826/OPINION/150829895 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->