President Obama has taken “wishful thinking” to a whole new level, making it the foundation of his approach toward Iran, according to an article in Washington Post.
Hence, we get to such peculiar conclusions such as: “Sanctions brought Iran to the table but sanctions relief won’t impede Iran’s agreement to a final deal.” We see his mindset when Obama imagines that merely saying Iran’s junior partner Bashar al-Assad must go is a sufficient policy, even if we do nothing to bring it about. Only by wishful thinking can Obama accept the fiction that a non-existent fatwa against nuclear arms development reveals Iran’s true intentions — despite universal agreement Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability. And only by wishful thinking can Obama comes to the conclusion that a paper agreement (which Iran will inevitably violate) will make Iran desirous of a normal relationship with the West. (When has capitulation to the desires of an aggressive tyrannical regime ever prompted it to change its ways?)
The truth is Iran does not desire to be a normal country and it does not desire a deal that would impede its quest for nuclear weapons. And Obama is willing to give them just that — a quick breakout in a decade or so, he has conceded — because his fondest desire is a deal, one he imagines will magically transform Iran and in turn the Middle East. It is a vision so divorced from reality that not a single one of our Middle East allies buys it.