Magicwands89

The optimist in me wants to pat Trump on the back for finally signing a framework deal with Iran, which is far better than returning to war in the [unlikely] hope of getting Tehran to cave. But the pessimist in me says this entire arrangement is just a return to the pre-Feb 28 status-quo. The U.S. fought a war of choice for six weeks, then paused it for a few months, only to end it (for now) by kicking the hard problems down the road to a later date. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes you have to do this. If the framework deal was tied to resolving all the nuts and bolts of the nuclear issue, the two sides wouldn’t have been able to sign anything. Still, in the end, we haven’t really solved much. All we’re doing is digging ourself out of a hole we created. Re-opening the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic is great, but the chokepoint was already open before the war. Similarly, ending the U.S. blockade is good from the standpoint of de-escalation, but again, there was no blockade before the war. This is a re-winding of the clock. Meanwhile, the nuclear dispute that has roiled U.S.-Iran relations for more than two decades is still there. And if it’s not resolved in 60 days time—a resolution will require both sides to come to terms on Tehran’s uranium stockpile, centrifuge production/operation, enrichment, international inspection and verification protocols…ie highly technical stuff that took two years for the Obama administration to hash out more than a decade ago—Feb. 28 might make another appearance sometime in July. So what have we really accomplished here? Is this merely a delay of the war for several months or the beginning of a real conclusion?