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There has just been a general election on planet Mars. It might as well have taken place there, for all the attention paid in Britain during the past few weeks to the most urgent issue facing our world. This is that the President of the United States is poised to surrender the security of the west to its mortal enemy, Iran.
As far as I could see, this issue was not mentioned at all during the campaign. Yet the US-led P5+1 alliance of which the UK is a member is set to enable a terrorist regime, with countless western deaths on its hands, and many more threatened, to achieve nuclear breakout capacity.
The Obama administration swears the deal it is brokering will prevent this by providing oversight to ensure Iran doesn't break its undertakings. Yet the Iranian regime has repeatedly stated that no monitoring or inspections of military bases will be permitted, while sanctions must be lifted immediately.
In other words, this is not a deal but abject capitulation by America.And in case this wasn't clear enough, last week Iran hijacked a US-flagged container ship in international waters in the Straits of Hormuz, a kind of victory dance to rub America's nose in its own humiliation.
The regime also declares that wiping out Israel is non-negotiable; but hey, who cares? Not President Obama, who once he has thrown Israel to the Iranian wolves looks set to abandon it at the UN if the Palestinians declare a state.
Is everyone really so naive and suicidally stupid? Yes
Having thus trapped Israel in the pincer of nuclear, diplomatic and terrorist attack he will then leave office with his hands wiped clean of the impending carnage.
America's renunciation of its historic role as freedom's global protector has enabled Iran to gain power in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen. It is arming Hamas and intends to foment military insurrection against Israel from the West Bank. Yet Obama ignores this. He ignores Iran's violation of Security Council resolutions by continuing illegally to procure nuclear materials through front companies. The media has reported continuing Iranian arms shipments to Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Hizbollah and Hamas. Yet no country has reported these breaches to the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee, doubtless to avoid jeopardising the negotiations.
The Arab world is horrified by the deal, which would give Iran an enormous influx of cash to pour into its military allies and proxies. The Gulf states have presented the US with a military shopping list to achieve parity. Yet, as the former US Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz have warned, America might commit itself to such defence pacts in a futile attempt to reassure Arab allies only to find the US dragged into a war between nuclear-armed combatants. Iran's nuclear breakout, they say, may occur through the gradual accumulation of ambiguous evasions.
Congress is horrified but seems powerless to stop this capitulation. The US Jewish community is aghast. But in Britain, there has been not a bat-squeak of concern. The Government mouths the same dishonest platitudes as Obama.
No one in Britain seems to have noticed the world is now hurtling towards a terrible war. They have forgotten the paradox that the way to avoid war is to threaten it and mean it. Appeasing an enemy with a non-negotiable agenda means not peace but war on the enemy's terms.
What is the matter with everyone? Are they in some kind of trance? Are they really so naive, so cynical, so suicidally stupid? Yes they are.
Melanie Phillips is a columnist for