The agreement with Iran concerning its nuclear program is designed, writes Jeffrey Herf, to constrain America’s ability to respond to any cheating on Tehran’s part. And that is only the tip of an iceberg of problems:
[T]he agreement embeds the United States in a web of multilateral processes that place significant and perhaps insuperable obstacles to both a “snapback” of economic sanctions and . . . an American military strike should Iran be found in violation [of its terms]. It [also] creates . . . economic interests on the part of other countries, and perhaps our own as well, that will [encourage them] to give Iran the benefit of the doubt in such instances.
It [also] enhances the veto power of other states, including our allies, over possible American action. By intentionally embedding American decision-making in complex and time-consuming multilateral processes, it is a crowning achievement for those who oppose the unilateral use of American power. Should Congress fail to override a promised presidential veto, we will be living with an agreement that has no effective enforcement mechanism. . . .
Should this or a future president of the United States conclude that intensified economic sanctions or a military strike from the air are the only ways to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, he will have to do so in the face of a coalition pleading for inaction composed of both our adversaries and, most probably, our allies as well. It would be a coalition fostered by the very terms of this agreement.
Read more on Times of Israel: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/reading-the-iran-deal-the-united-states-deters-itself/