LETTER TO THE EDITOR: U.S. can still fix Iran deal

OPINION:

President Obama may not have any interest in war, but war may have an interest in him, as the old Russian proverb goes. Congress and the next president must correct the dangerous Obama defense policy on ground forces before it does real harm to the U.S. military.

Having reduced the U.S. Navy to pre-World-War-I levels, the Army to pre-World-War-II levels and nuclear weapons to below 1950 levels, Mr. Obama is slashing national security to the point that the United States will be ill-prepared for the kind of missions that history, demographics, technology and politics counsel us to expect.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is on his way to recapturing large parts of the territory the former Soviet Union lost after its collapse. He is now looking to take control of the Arctic Sea and already routinely violates our airspace over Alaska, Hawaii and Guam with long-range bombers. Russia and Red China are routinely encroaching on our shores with submarines and warships; China’s navy will soon grow strong enough to dominate the Pacific and up its bullying of our allies Japan and the Philippines. China, Russia and Iran are establishing bases and outposts in Latin America, Cuba and the Caribbean. Mr. Putin has taken over the Middle East and considers Mr. Obama a weak fool who can always be stared down.

Mr. Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, a corrupt theocracy that has killed thousands of Americans in past years, is not based on reality. The Iranian version of the deal is a far cry from the Kerry/Obama pronouncements and has no practical value for America. Iran has made a treaty with Mr. Putin, Syria and Iraq and has flouted Mr. Obama’s peace advances, continuing to sponsor global terror and taking more U.S. citizens prisoner. The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Iran’s policy toward the United States will not change.

But it’s not too late to reverse course. America can still strike the nuclear and terrorist facilities in Iran and destroy them. If we don’t, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries will become nuclear states.

LT. COL. DOMINIK GEORGE NARGELE

U.S. Marine Corps (retired)

Arlington