Congress Airs Dirty Laundry

Growing up in my house, you just didn’t air your dirty laundry for the neighbors to see.

Sure, behind closed doors, we had plenty of, um, disagreements. Like any kid, I’d challenge my parents’ authority. Because sometimes they were just wrong.

Still, I knew better than to confront them when we had company.

In public, we kept a united front. If I even started to say something disrespectful or obnoxious, my dad had a certain look that quickly assured me I wouldn’t be able to sit for a week. And I shut my mouth.

Still, when I did get spanked for my misbehavior, it wasn’t out in the yard.

In light of this, I wonder how the 47 senators that signed that letter to Iran were raised. Were they taught that their own goals were more important than their families? Did Ron Paul teach his kid Rand that it was OK to go behind his back to get what he wanted?

In the military, bucking the chain of command is a pretty serious offense. It can put your entire career in jeopardy.

In politics, who knows?

Who’s Laughing at Us Now?

Starting with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, U.S. foreign policy has been one disaster after another. I’d list a few, but really, it’s just too damn depressing. Frankly, I’m tired of America looking clueless and inept on the international stage.

But these senators don’t seem to care one whit how America looks to the rest of the world. In fact, they seem to delight in putting forth the image that America is weak, divided, and incompetent.

I don’t care how much you dislike your Commander in Chief. This is still America…

What’s more, this is Iran we’re talking about — one of the few countries in the world that we can call a real enemy.

To break the chain of command and undermine a negotiation with an enemy state is really outrageous.

Our President isn’t without fault here. It’s the wrong move to simply cut Congress out of the picture. But given Congress’ consistent knee-jerk obstructionism, it’s not surprising that Obama would just say, “Screw you, I’ll do it myself.”

This is only part of the issue. The other part — perhaps the bigger part — is the role of the United States in global affairs.

Speak Softly…

There was a time, I guess, when America was the world’s policeman. We fought the battles against communism because we were the country with the vision of how the world “should” be.

It simply doesn’t work that way anymore.

The whole point of international law and the UN and NATO is to have a unified group, a coalition, to address the wrongs in the world… so America doesn’t have to be the world’s watchdog anymore.

And the American people want it this way. We don’t want to send our soldiers into Syria or Ukraine or Pakistan or wherever else things have gotten really screwed up. It quite literally isn’t our responsibility, and we quite literally have plenty of problems here at home that need attention.

Do these congressman really think we should take on Iran and mandate that it either stops its nuclear development or we will go to war? Because that’s the consequence of an all-or-nothing policy…

Let’s just face facts here: Iran is a sovereign state halfway around the world. It is not America’s job to tell Iran what it can or cannot do, even when it comes to nuclear development.

Does the freshman senator from Arkansas who penned the letter to Iran think we should be ready to go to war? Do the 46 other senators who signed it think we are still the world’s police force?

If these senators had their way, America might well have soldiers on the ground throughout the Middle East, along with parts of Europe and Africa, too. And heck, why not have a go at the Chinese as well?

I’ll say it again: Americans do not want a war with Iran, for any reason. The only way for us to gain anything from Iran is through negotiations. Do these senators really think the Americans back home who voted them into office were also voting for war with Iran?

Of course they don’t. They think they were voted in to enact a scorched earth campaign to stop Obama at any and all costs, regardless of the consequences. But enough is enough; it should go without saying that there are consequences that simply aren’t worth it.

No wonder only 26% of Americans think national-level institutions like Congress are making progress…

Iran is Laughing, That’s Who

I saved the best part for last… In a case of truly unforeseen consequences, the Iranian Foreign Minister is actually laughing at our 47 congressmen.

In case you missed it, in the letter, our elected congressman told Iran: “It has come to our attention… that you may not fully understand our Constitutional system.”

The letter goes on to say that these Senators may be in office after Obama is gone, and they may dissolve any agreement with Iran with “the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.”

It is clearly a threat that Iran should not sign any agreement on nuclear proliferation with President Obama.

Iran’s Foreign Minister said: “[N]ot only do [the 47 Senators] not understand international law, but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy…”

He went on to say:

I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the United States, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfill the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.

He finished with this: “I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with the stroke of a pen, as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law.”

I’ll admit, that last bit made me chuckle.

The world is used to American politicians bickering about domestic issues. But we should keep our dirty laundry out of the world’s view. It was wrong when Nancy Pelosi did it with Syrian President Assad in 2007, and it’s wrong now.

Until next time,

Until next time,

Briton Ryle

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A 21-year veteran of the newsletter business, Briton Ryle is the editor of The Wealth Advisory income stock newsletter, with a focus on top-quality dividend growth stocks and REITs. Briton also manages the Real Income Trader advisory service, where his readers take regular cash payouts using a low-risk covered call option strategy. He is also the managing editor of the Wealth Daily e-letter. To learn more about Briton, click here.