REPUBLICAN U.S. SENATORS CALLED “TRAITORS” BY PRO-GOP PAPER

 

…Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, leader of 47 Letter-Writing US Senators

Iranian diplomat embarrasses all Americans and 47 Republican Senators.

As an educated political opinion writer, I must say I was highly embarrassed about the letter that was sent to a foreign country’s leaders by 47 Republican US Senators.  But I’m certainly not alone.

A leading pro-GOP newspaper is even calling the 47 senators "TRAITORS" in their banner front page headline. 

Yes The NY Daily News is a highly reactionary paper, owned by a neo-conservative, who also endorsed both George W. Bush and Mitt Romney.  The paper also opposed the current administration's efforts to strike a nuclear arms agreement with Iran.  But even for this publication, an attempt by GOP Senators to sabotage and scuttle the foreign policy negotiations of a sitting US President was a bridge-too-far.

Regardless of President Obama's efforts in negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran, 47 Republican US senators engaged in treachery by sending a letter to the Iranian mullahs aimed at cutting the legs out from under America's commander-in-chief.   Per the Daily News, “We strenuously condemn their betrayal of the U.S. constitutional system. They are an embarrassment to the US Senate and to the nation.”

The leader of these 47 senators is also a big surprise.

Senator Tom Cotton, the freshman Republican senator from Arkansas, whom salon.com properly referred to as “Sarah Palin with a Harvard degree,” led the charge not only against Iran but also against the president of the United States, not to mention four of our allies.

This youngest senator in the Senate, is wasting no time establishing himself as a quasi-party leader. He personally rounded up the other Republican signatories, and launched his bunker-buster letter in the middle of the current nuclear negotiations. But in doing so, he scuttled major efforts by his own colleagues in the US Senate.

Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who did not sign the letter, has sponsored what he hoped would be a veto-proof bill requiring congressional approval of any deal with Iran. But for it to be veto-proof, Corker needs Democrats.  With the sending of this letter, the Democrats are now forced into a partisan position.  It would be a “cold day in hell” before the Republicans could get enough Democrats to make Corker’s bill veto-proof.

What is really embarrassing is how little these GOP senators understand about their own government, and how much the foreign minister from Iran does understand how the American system works.

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Dr. Javad Zarif, has responded that "In our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy.  It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history.”  

Dr. Zarif expressed total astonishment that some members of US Congress find it appropriate to write to leaders of another country against their own President and his administration. He pointed out that from reading the senator’s open letter, it seems that the authors not only do not understand international law, but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own US Constitution when it comes to presidential powers for conducting US foreign policy.

This is obviously an intelligent and well-read man that is lecturing these moronic Republican Senators about their own country's Constitution and international law.  One publication wrote the following about what the affect was of sending this letter by the 47 senators: “The 47 may have felt like Zorro, inking their opposition with the bold felt tips of their swords, but they were acting like children at the school fair whose single purpose is to dunk the principal.”

One of the issues that was covered in the letter was that it stated that any agreement that came from an American president would need to be confirmed by the Senate, and that if it weren’t confirmed, the next president could nullify the agreement with the stroke of a pen.

Dr. Zarif calmly explained that a "change of administration does not in any way relieve the next administration from international obligations undertaken by its predecessor in a possible agreement about Iran's peaceful nuclear program." He continued "I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with the stroke of a pen, as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law.”

The Dr. emphasized that if the current negotiation with P5+1 results in a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, it will not just be a bilateral agreement between Iran and the US.  It would be an agreement between the US and five other countries, plus all of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.  It will also be endorsed by a Security Council resolution.

Dr. Zarif expressed the hope that his comments "may enrich the knowledge of the authors to recognize that according to international law, Congress may not modify the terms of the agreement at any time as they claim, and if Congress adopts any measure to impede its implementation, it will have committed a material breach of US obligations.”

The Iranian Foreign Minister also informed the letter’s authors that the majority of what the senators’ letter described as "mere executive agreements", were actually US International Agreements of recent decades and in fact, were not treaties ratified by the Senate.

As I said, these 47 senators have done nothing but embarrass all Americans, especially as we listen to the Iranian Minister so calmly explain to them, like a professor would to high school students, about US and international rules, laws and protocols.

These moronic senators should understand that everyone at the negotiation table and beyond knows that the United States and Israel will not allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. Period. Thus, any attempt at a diplomatic agreement is more than a hedge against the unthinkable.  That being, a nuclear-armed Iran. It is a message to the world that, if it is necessary to take military action, it will be as a last resort.

At least with these negotiations, we are trying to avoid that “last resort”.  If it doesn’t work, at least we can say we tried.

Copyright G.Ater  2015