Iran war hawks are furious at the peace deal President Trump says is on the table.
Commentators across the conservative spectrum expressed their distaste for reports of a one-page plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and enforce a temporary 30-day peace agreement until a larger deal is reached.
“This would be a terrible deal. I hope the terms of any deal would be significantly stricter: No enrichment, ever. HEU to us stat. No more proxies. Turn on the internet,” said Hugh Hewitt, the conservative commentator who called the disastrous invasion of Iraq “one of the wisest” decisions made by former President George W. Bush. “President Trump never gives up leverage. Why would he start now with #Iran on the ropes?”
“If this regime remains in place, they will do all they can to continue moving forward with their agenda, funding terrorism, developing nukes and ballistic missiles,” Zionist Organization of America head Morton Klein told The Hill. “And if they’re so desperate for a deal, as President Trump keeps saying, why are we in a position to dictate to them what the deal has to be? I really don’t understand this.”
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board felt similarly.
“It will be essential for Mr. Trump to hold firm, knowing that Iran has no need for domestic enrichment other than for a bomb, and that he can’t count on a change in regime behavior over time, a mistake Mr. Obama made,” they wrote on Wednesday. “He also can’t trust a future President to reimpose strict limits later. Mr. Trump has been unique in his willingness to confront Iran. The task in any deal is to secure full nuclear dismantlement while Mr. Trump is still in office. If Iran won’t do it, the President will have to make good on his threats.”
“If the Axios report is close to accurate, the Iranian regime will survive, the Iranian people will face even more extensive brutality, and the Israeli government could fall in the October election. A disastrous result,” pro-Israel neoconservative and Fox News host Mark Levin wrote on Wednesday, making no mention of the death and displacement that this U.S.-Israeli war has already brought to thousands of Iranian and Lebanese civilians. “I also know that future presidents will not take military action to enforce an agreement, based on our past history and internal opposition, which will only grow worse given the evolving nature of the Democrat Party and the influences of the Marxists-Islamists.”
While this supposed peace deal could certainly be another bluff to settle the markets, it’s also wholly possible that Trump has realized—as prices soar, civilians die, and Iran comes no closer to surrendering—that this war was a grave mistake. Yet this cadre of conservative voices would rather see even more violence than any kind of peace.