Iran's Recent Aggressions and Why We Should Nuke the JCPOA

On March 12th, 2022, Iran attacked a U.S Army base in Irbil, Iraq and a U.S consulate. Iran used 12 ballistic missiles to attack these facilities. The attacks brought no casualties or severe damage but reignited a threatening Iran. Earlier in Biden's Presidency, specifically on September 11th, 2021, Iran conducted a similar ballistic missile attack on the same U.S Army base attacked on March 12th, 2022. Both times however, the Administration took no actions against Iran for the attacks. Instead, the Biden Administration has continued talks with Iran for a renewed JCPOA or Iran Nuclear Deal and has lifted several sanctions on the country in 2021. Biden has promised to not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, but Israel claims that Iran is almost ready to develop such weapons. Iran has already funded terrorism and carried out acts of aggression towards Israel. But for some reason Biden chooses to renew an agreement with Iran that allowed them to skate through the Obama Administration to acquire nuclear capabilities.

The future of the JCPOA is in question, however, given the already stacked list of policy failures by this Administration, we can expect that the Iran deal will likely be renewed, and the problems that plagued the Obama Administration's deal will likely linger into this one.

Iran has been a state sponsor of terror since the early 2010's. Not only has Iran continually pursued aggressions against Israel, they have also targeted U.S forces around the world. Iran has been caught attempting to assassinate various leaders and ambassadors around the world, not just in their own region. The country actively funds terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah who conduct terrorist attacks around the world, destabilize Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, and other countries, and have helped to keep Bashar Al-Assad of Syria in power. Iran has shown themselves to be irresponsible and a severe threat to our country, but how much more will their threats metastasize when they can threaten us with nuclear weapons. Just think: if Iran cannot remove themselves of their terrorism, what makes you think that they will be able to properly and sanely harbor nuclear weapons? Iran must not be allowed to attain nuclear weapons, nor should their facilities to make centrifuges remain in operation.

Before the Iranian Revolution, Iran was given materials to advance their nuclear capability by the United States for peaceful uses. When the revolution came, Iran's government was replaced with a more extreme one. The past government's work spilled into the hands of the new leaders and over the next two decades, Iran quietly began developing centrifuges, uranium enrichment, and other technologies to develop nuclear weapons. It didn't become apparent to the world that Iran building up a nuclear arsenal would be a reality until the early 2000's when the United States and allies began to impose sanctions on Iran in order to try to pressure them to cut down on their nuclear developments. In the years since 2003, the world powers slowly developed policies that later morphed into the JCPOA. In November of 2013, the JCPOA was finalized and signed, removing sanctions on Iran and supposedly solving the nuclear problem for a time.

Although the goals of the JCPOA were verace, the actual execution of it was what came to nought. World leaders tried to come together to solve the threat of Iran harboring nuclear weapons in a diplomatic way as to not involve military action. The countries that developed the JCPOA used sanctions as their enforcement arm, keeping Iran out of critical economies and stopping them from buying nuclear technologies from around the world. But what the JCPOA didn't do (which is not actually the fault of the deal but of the excessive diplomacy it incurred) is that the world couldn't actually verify whether or not Iran had actually destroyed or removed any of their nuclear capabilities. Although inspections were allowed by Iran, even cameras installed in their facilities to keep them in check, there was no telling whether or not Iran was really being truthful about their nuclear whereabouts, the locations of facilities, and the actual data as to how much nuclear equipment they have actually dismantled or removed. Iran has a history of being deceptive to the world as they have repeatedly failed to disclose nuclear facilities and there really is no telling if a government which has been linked to terrorism would actually be truthful to countries that they have publicly disrespected. The JCPOA's main problem isn't that it is not a good deal, it's that it's basically unenforceable. Yes, sanctions do place a price on Iran, but, the sanctions seem to come and go (especially in the United States.) To be fair, the United States was right to be in the Iran Nuclear deal, but it was also right for Trump to can the agreement since it really has no value to controlling Iran on the nuclear front. The answer to the question as to how we control Iran is to ultimately take some kind of military action or threat campaign to form a possible deterrence. It's either that, or face Iran in a possible nuclear conflict or have Israel being threatened by Iran in the next two or three decades. But I think the decision doesn’t have to be that way. I think we can find a way to do both: for whether Iran removes its weapons or does not. First, sanctions must stay in place, it should never be removed as long as Iran continues to enable and help terrorist organizations. Second, we must begin a threat campaign to remind Iran that the United States is the nuclear boss; we should remind them that we have the superior nuclear arsenal. Third, we must break any alliances between Iran and China, or Iran and Russia. Fourth, we should develop relations for Israel and Iran to become allies and remind Iran that if they remove themselves of their nuclear and terrorist engagements that the United States would undo sanctions and release the world economy to them. We should also remind Iran that they don't have to change their culture, laws, religious views, and do not have to remove Sharia law in order to be allowed a lifting of sanctions. Finally, if the above policies do not work, small military action should take place to alert Iran that the game is up, it's time to pack up their nuclear operations and go.

The JCPOA is a good step towards uniting the world on the issue of Iran developing nuclear weapons, but does not address, nor deter the actual problem. It is highly likely that Iran has lied about the progress they have made towards following the agreement, though the world seems to think they are in compliance. It has been shown by the U.S and world agencies that Iran has continued to not disclose their nuclear facilities, and has only continued enriching uranium and developing centrifuges beyond their capacity in the agreement.

The JCPOA should be scrapped and nuked. Too much bearucratic radiation is coming off of this isotope! Only time will tell if we can actually stop Iran's development. I think Iran harboring nuclear weapons is a clear danger to Iraq and Israel, as well as to the United States. Iran is a mixed bag if it controlled nuclear weapons. That's because they have supported terrorism and continue to do so. What would keep them from selling or giving away nuclear warheads to terrorist groups, or giving them the materials to make them? Terrorists are the last people in the world who should have nuclear weapons. We must stop Iran from developing these weapons and we must disable their capabilities and facilities where they would develop the technology.

The Biden Administration has decided to go the other direction than that of the previous Administration. The Iran Nuclear Deal will likely be renewed and Iran's mission to acquire nuclear weapons will continue. However, the United States should actually take a different stance on Iran. A bearucratic check-up on fake Iranian facilities will not seal the deal as to where their nuclear capabilities are. But rather, we should pursue a preventative stance against Iran to disable their ability to actually make nuclear weapons by increasing surveillance and taking military actions against Iran’s facilities.

To let Iran know that the United States will no longer enable them to make nuclear weapons, we should follow a plan of action to prevent them from further advancing towards nuclear warheads but this action plan should only be pursued if Iran fails to stop their engagements after new U.S policy fails. The first thing we should do is reimpose all sanctions on Iran taken off in 2021, impose more sanctions and completely cut Iran off from the world, especially from access to Indian markets. Next, we should destroy all of Iran's nuclear laboratories and use increased surveilancing to find the facilities. Iran cannot fight back against the United States, by destroying their facilities, we cripple their ability to develop weapons and force them to start back at day one. The U.S should assassinate all the leadership of the terrorist organizations tied to Iran to send them a message that we are serious about stopping their terrorist activities. We should also remind them that we could assassinate their leadership if needed. The U.S should immediately scrap the JCPOA and move on. Either destroying nuclear facilities or conducting a more threatening approach to force Iran to give up their nuclear aspirations should do, but enabling them with the JCPOA would only cause them to develop further. The United States should declare Iran a hostile nuclear state and disrupt any alliances they may have. The U.S should go on a campaign of educating world leaders of the dangers they face if Iran were to harbor their own nuclear weapons. The U.S can also remind Iran that the continuation of their terrorist activities will jeopardize their fragile political system and would lead the U.S to assassinate Iranian leaders.

Though strength and military action would stop Iran's nuclear activities, we could also hold diplomatic talks to come to an agreement that if Iran was fully removed of its nuclear capabilities, and that if they verifiably removed their nuclear laboratories and materials, that the United States would undo all sanctions, open up the world economy to Iran, and guarantee a NATO Article 5 equivalent defense treaty that will guarantee Iran's security, and sustainability, but only on the terms that they remove all of their nuclear engagements and terrorist activities.

It is also important that Iran and Israel get over their longstanding aggression towards each other. The U.S should actively pursue a mission to ally Israel and Iran to develop longstanding relations between the two countries economically and diplomatically. That would include reminding Iran that it would not have to change their religious views, laws, especially Sharia law, and culture to attract Israeli citizens or anyone around the world to interact with the country.

Finally, we must block Iran from alliances with China and Russia which would be dangerous to our security as they may provide nuclear weapons, materials, and help them evade U.S and ally sanctions and prevent U.S military operations in Iran.

Iran poses a severe threat to the United States and our allies. We should be sanctioning, keeping their military on a terrorist list, and projecting strength in the middle-east to prevent revolutionists from taking advantage of the situation. However, what have we gotten from this Administration so far? Weakness and empty promises. The weakness: in that we completely ruined twenty years of hard work to democratize Afghanistan; the empty promise: that the United States would never let Iran attain a nuclear weapon, but so far, that promise seems to be falling upon itself. The Biden Administration is actively working to restore the JCPOA, and they think with sincerity, that a 159 page, government text font paperweight with John Kerry's and, soon to be replaced with: Antony Blinken's signature on it is going to pressure Iran to stop its activities and thus, stop Iran from harboring nuclear weapons. We must scrap the JCPOA entirely and cut Iran off of the world market. We must continue to call Iran a state sponsor of terror and keep their military out of Yemen, Afghanistan, and Israel. And most importantly, we should sabotage, or destroy Iran's nuclear facilities to stop them from creating nuclear weapons. In time, the United States will be in a restorative position to restore strength, civility, honor, and power. Hopefully this time around, American leadership will be renewed with a strong cast of characters and not the weak government "safe routes" that we see in office now. May God protect Israel, may God bless the United States, and may God protect our troops.