Tuesday, July 21, 2015

SELF-DELUSION: The Chamberlain-Obama Comparison is Apt

SELF-DELUSION: The Chamberlain-Obama Comparison is Apt: By Thane Rosenbaum

There’s been a lot of talk lately proclaiming Barack Obama the second coming of Neville Chamberlain. The analogy may be facile, but it is not far-fetched. The accord just reached in Vienna, at best, only temporarily cools off Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The Iran deal will be remembered either as a masterful display of diplomacy or as a hopelessly naïve delusion.
Wishful thinking is not a sound basis for foreign policy. When it comes to Iran, the stakes are too high to gamble on good faith. Israel and Saudi Arabia have good reasons to worry. And when before have these two nations had anything in common?
Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist and Distinguished Fellow at NYU School of Law, where he directs the Forum on Law, Culture & Society.