In this video, George Bush’s former Secretary of State comes out championing President Obama’s historical nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, praising it as a good deal and solidly rejected the fearmongering and hyperbolic doomsday prophecies of his fellow Republicans:
“It’s a pretty good deal… I know there are objections to it, but here’s why I think it’s a good deal. One of the great concerns that the opposition has that we are leaving open a ‘lane’ for the Iranians to go back to creating a nuclear weapon in 10-15 years are forgetting the reality that they have been on a superhighway for the last ten years to create a nuclear weapon or nuclear weapons program with no speed limit.”
He then demonstrates just how much we really got from the deal, in contrast to the constant protestations from the right which falsely claim that the deal doesn’t go far enough to be effective:
“In the last ten years they’ve gone from 136 centrifuges up to something like 19,000 centrifuges. This agreement will take them down to 5,000 cent all of this will be under IAEA supervision and I think this is a good outcome. They had stockpiled something in the neighborhood of 12,000 kilograms of uranium. This deal will bring it down to 300 kilograms. It’s a remarkable reduction. I’m amazed that they would do this this but they have done it. These are remarkable changes. We have stopped this highway race that they were going down and I think this is very, very important.”
This is only the most recent in a long string of ringing endorsements for one of President Obama’s biggest diplomatic achievements. Powell was joined by the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, in standing up for a peaceful resolution of the threat posed by the Iranian nuclear program. It is a world changing deal that potentially saving an untold number of lives, and it is critical that this deal passes through Congress.
Colin Taylor is the managing editor of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.
