Jim Fossel reminds us, in his column on Trump’s withdrawel from the Iran nuclear deal, of the limitations of presidential power not acknowledged by the Senate (“Trump puts Iran, North Korea on notice,” May 13). One government leaves and a new government arrives to manage the nation’s affairs as they see best. It would be wise for the reader of his column to look deeper into the reasons why this “new government” wishes to so aggressively re-engage in the Middle East.

The last time we did so we were informed by the then-existing government that we had to remove a regime that possessed weapons of mass destruction before a “mushroom cloud” appeared before us. In the case of Iran, this same specter is being presented even though the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that Iran, most recently in November of last year, was in compliance with the agreement.

Setting aside for a moment the compliance issue, we see that the president’s reinstatement of sanctions will make it almost impossible for Iran to sell its oil, as the commodity is denominated in dollars and we control access to dollar settlements against contracts. This single act reduces the global supply, hence placing upward pressure on the price. Who then does it leave in control of the supply/price bargain? The enforcement of the sanctions will be totally in our hands, both diplomatically and militarily, without the help of any of the allied nations that are part of the 2015 bargain.

It should come then as no surprise that the same actors that trumpeted the second Gulf War are now close to the seat of power. Unraveling the positive aspects of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and prior multilateral diplomacy began almost immediately with Trump’s first campaign speeches. And, now that he has done so, the president is obliged to demonstrate the value of his actions to the American people by diplomacy and not ever by another military action.

David Jacobs

Augusta


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