OPINION:
During his presidency, Barack Obama, a foreign policy novice, decided to replace Israel as America’s favored ally in the Middle East with Iran, a Jew-hating theocratic dictatorship (“Warfare in Middle East sends shock waves all the way to Harris’ presidential campaign,” web, Oct. 1).
With then-Vice President Joe Biden and then-Secretary of State John Kerry, Mr. Obama formulated the Iran nuclear deal as a prelude to a grand vision of American friendship with Iran, a nation he hoped would supplant a pesky Israel, which was always questioning his bona fides in this region.
When he was in the White House, Donald Trump, also a foreign policy newbie at the time, recognized the danger and terminated the nuclear deal while employing tight sanctions against Iran’s primary source of revenue: oil. President Biden, a foreign policy veteran who had been more wrong than right in that arena, immediately reversed the Trump sanctions, thus allowing Iran access to the funds to support its Israel-hating proxies (Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad).
Mr. Trump is not wrong when he shouts at Vice President Kamala Harris that the war in Gaza would never have happened on his watch. Ditto the new war in Lebanon and Iranian attacks against Israel.
PAUL BLOUSTEIN
Cincinnati
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