The Hawks' Hypocrisy on the Iran Sanctions Bill

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, President Hassan Rouhani, and aide Mohammad Nahavandian arrive for a meeting at Davos. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

Some of the same commentators who say the Senate proposal will guarantee an agreement sticks have already declared a diplomatic deal will never work and that war is the only option.

Peter Beinart Jan 23 2014, 12:21 PM ET

Last week, an Obama Administration National Security Council aide named Bernadette Meehan got herself in trouble for suggesting that some of the members of Congress pushing a new Iran sanctions bill “should be upfront with the American public” and admit that they “want the United States to take military action.” Outrage quickly followed. Commentary blogger Jonathan Tobin called Meehan’s statement a “canard” and a “slander.” Foundation for Defense of Democracies fellow James Kirchick called it “preposterous.” Even House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer got in on the act, declaring, “Nobody believes, as far as I know, that going to war with Iran is anything but a dangerous objective that none of us would seek.”

Nobody? It’s true that members of Congress don’t generally go around urging America to bomb Iran. But their allies do. In fact, some of the most prominent commentators now justifying new sanctions as a means of helping diplomacy succeed have already said diplomacy can’t succeed. And some of the same pundits now championing sanctions as an alternative to war have already called for war.

Earlier this month, the Foreign Policy Initiative, a think tank founded by William Kristol and other well-known hawks, gathered signatures for an open letter to congressional leaders. The letter did not explicitly endorse the sanctions bill currently awaiting a vote in the Senate, but it said, “Congress has a chance to play an important role in making clear the consequences of Iranian violations of the interim nuclear deal” and “in clarifying expectations with respect to future nuclear talks with Tehran,” which is exactly what the new sanctions bill does. On one particular point, the letter was emphatic: Sanctions can help diplomacy succeed. “Congressional action,” it read, “can thus substantially improve the prospect that Iran’s growing nuclear threat will be verifiably and irreversibly halted without the use of force.” (The italics are mine).

(More here.)