Back in the 1980s, The Fall Guy was a popular television series. It featured as the hero a stunt man whose movie popularity was a given. But now, Vice President Vance seems to have taken his place as the “fall guy” for the Iran war.
The president was joking — wasn’t he? — when he said the the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran that, “If it works out, I’m going to take the credit. If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD.”
The Republicans have another, better, choice for 2028: Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Mr. Vance has put himself in a very tough position. He’s not the only cabinet member who has put himself in political jeopardy with strong support for the Iran Memorandum of Understanding. But he has been in the lead and quite outspoken on it.
Mr. Vance said, in response to a questioner at a White House briefing,
Well, the number one thing is that we actually see where the money moves down because of what we’ve done with the financial sanctions. We actually know where the money is going to move. And so we have great confidence that we’re gonna be able to see if they try to fund terrorist organizations. We’re going to be able to see that. But you said that millions of dollars is a lifeline right now. The Iranian nation is a nation of 94 million people. Their economy is in a freefall. They have sky high inflation. And fundamentally about $1 trillion of damage to their industrial base was caused over the last three months. The idea that selling a few million dollars worth of oil barrels, or a few million dollars worth of oil, is going to fundamentally transform the Iranian economy. That’s just not true.
But the monies that Iran gets from their oil sales is not transparent. They will continue to fund Hizballah and Hamas and there’s little we can do about it other than to resume the war.
Hizballah has rejected the latest Israeli peace proposal.
When President Trump announced that it would be unfair for countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia to have missiles while Iran didn’t, Vance defended his statement likening Israeli defensive missiles to Iran’s right to self-defense. He added that Iran wouldn’t be allowed missiles to threaten the world.
The most ridiculous thing Mr. Vance has said was that CENTCOM troops and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps would be “hanging out” together in Doha and perhaps gain more understanding of each other. The IRGC is comprised of religious fanatics which no CENTCOM troops can get along with far less “hang out” together.
In short, Mr. Vance has publicly defended the MOU in terms that seem unreasonable.
Meanwhile, Iran’s “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has said that Middle Eastern countries wouldn’t be able to host U.S. bases and that “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” would continue to be Iran’s mottos and goals.
In a statement published on his official site on X, Khamenei said, “The nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for American bases” and that, “America will no longer have a safe haven for mischief and the establishment of military bases in the region.”
He has told Israel that, “You’re a country of 9 million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.” That conflicts directly with the policy of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu who is busy killing the Hizballah terrorists in Lebanon.
Mr. Vance has a record that can only be attributed to an isolationist. He led the Senate in opposition to Ukraine aid and is reportedly the sole cabinet member to have opposed the Iran war. His advice was ignored by the president as it should have been.
Vance said that the MOU immediately helped secure a halt to military operations and successfully reopened the Strait of Hormuz, praising Tehran for honoring its commitment not to fire on ships, which they have resumed and the president has responded to by attacking Iranian positions. The Iranians have also attacked Bahrain after the MOU was signed.
The MOU is falling apart. One Republican senator, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, called the agreement “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades,” which is entirely correct.
The Iranian attacks on a cargo ship have been responded to by U.S. bombing of their missile emplacements and drone storage facilities for two nights so far.
Mr. Vance can either redefine himself, which he has done in part by supporting the MOU, or he can stick to his former positions of isolationism. That is the choice he has to make.
Iran has 60 days to reopen the Strait of Hormuz which it hasn’t done yet. Iran has also promised to exact tolls from ships passing the Strait. Mr. Vance has already defended the MOU for that precise goal.
The Republicans have another, better, choice for 2028: Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Mr. Rubio has not defended the MOU which is, in so many ways, falling apart. He is not an isolationist and would prove to be a far better nominee in 2028.
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