By: Jason Easley
Source: PoliticusUSA
Sen. Bernie Sanders stood firmly behind the diplomacy of President Obama today while shredding the warmongering speech that Netanyahu delivered to Congress.
In a statement, Sen. Sanders reacted to Netanyahu’s speech:
More than a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost us thousands of lives and trillions in treasure and made a difficult situation even worse. Those experiences should reinforce our resolve to make every diplomatic effort to avoid another rush to war.
It goes without saying that Iran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. It goes without saying that the United States will stand by our long-standing friendship and support for the nation of Israel. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Netanyahu did not offer any serious alternatives to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
At this point, harsher sanctions won’t stop Iran’s nuclear program. Neither would a dangerous resort to military action. The sanctions currently in place have brought Iran to the bargaining table and current negotiations resulted in Iran freezing its nuclear program. And for the past year, Iran has been subject to heightened international inspections. All of those things have made us safer.
I commend President Obama for his continued cooperation with the United Kingdom, France, China, Germany and Russia to reach a final agreement to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Sen. Sanders (I-VT) saw right through Netanyahu’s language of seeking a better deal. Netanyahu was trying to push for a better deal. Netanyahu compared Iran to ISIS and North Korea. That is not a comparison that gets made if a leader believes in diplomacy.
Besides boosting his reelection chances back home, Netanyahu was trying to provoke military action against Iran. The Democrats who skipped the speech did not miss anything. Netanyahu’s remarks could have been delivered by Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, or any number of a variety of Republican neocons. There was nothing in his speech that the American people didn’t hear thousands of times during the Bush administration.
Netanyahu tried to argue for war, and Bernie Sanders called him out on it.