Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Image by getty images

What does Charles Schumer want from his — but hopefully soon-to-be-reconsidered — vote against the Iran deal?

We used “distrust but verify” on all arms control deals with the Soviet Union — that is, with an untrustworthy “evil empire” that covered one sixth of the land surface of the entire earth — over decades, and with absolute success. So we obviously have verification procedures down perfectly pat, to say the least. So what is the issue here?

What sort of issue could there be that wouldn’t have just as well stopped all arms deals, any and all and ever, with the Soviet Union?

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Even beyond this: From such a vote trying to torpedo the deal, what could Schumer possibly want? To bring on the collapse of world sanctions that the United States could no longer sustain and that would begin to come apart immediately? To start a full-fledged and further decades-long Iran-U.S. Cold War? To humiliate and destroy Iran’s relative moderates and to vindicate and re-empower their comparative hardliners? To let them rush on, without any agreement or sanctions-based restraints, straight to the bomb? Or, if none of this, could Schumer prefer a war?

Hopefully Schumer will rethink — and much more carefully this time — what it is he actually wants to come of this dangerous vote. And then either change his vote to accord with the view of his President and Secretary of State and Party, all of whom he is thumbing his nose at, or explain clearly to the public what result he’s angling for with his vote — other than Iran’s unimpeded rush to a bomb or a war.

James Adler

Cambridge, MA

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