Thoughts  from Iran Deal Lies Have Consequences by Jonathan Tobin.

Fact The White House lied to the American people when it was selling the Iran nuclear deal to the media, Congress and the public matter? 

Source:  Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes in his interview with David Samuels as published in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, May 8, 2016.

Consequence:  The  nuclear  deal  guarantees that the Islamist regime will eventually get their nuclear weapon. That puts Tehran in a position to make good on its quest for regional hegemony. And   the West  won’t be able to do much about it. 

The lie at the heart of Rhodes’ sales job for the negotiations and then the deal was that the Iranian presidential election in 2013 put in place a set of new leaders that were amenable to cutting a deal with the West that would, in President Obama’s phrase, allow Iran to “get right with the world.” But as even some administration figures have admitted in the last several months after deal began to be implemented, there are no “moderates” in Tehran. The disputes within the regime are between different sets of hard-liners whose differences have nothing to do with their support for the acquisition of a nuclear weapon or an aggressive foreign policy

 The support of the liberal mainstream media  helped  keep wavering Democrats in line behind the president. It was that factor that, cenabled the deal to squeak through Congress via a Senate filibuster.

The lie is of lasting importance because, if there are no real Iranian moderates and no sign whatsoever that the regime wants to change, then what Rhodes sold to the press was a fatal mistake that strengthens and empowers a dangerous regime. As the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Mark Dubowitz noted ,

As a result of sunset clauses in the deal that see most of the key restrictions disappearing over an eight to 15 year period, Iran will be left with an industrial-size nuclear program with near-zero nuclear breakout, easier advance centrifuge-powered clandestine sneak out, an ICBM program and a more powerful economy increasingly immunized against sanctions. If the Iranian regime has not moderated by then, the United States will be facing a much more formidable and dangerous enemy and may have little choice but to use military force (as sanctions power will be severely degraded) to stop Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. At that point, Iran will be stronger and the consequences of military action more devastating. In selling the Iran deal on a lie, Rhodes may have made war with Iran more not less likely.

 The bottom line here is that a nuclear Iran will have  the financial might to stand up to any belated Western attempt to undo Obama’s mistake. Obama and his “mind-meld partner” Rhodes endangered the security of the United States, Israel, and the West. That it was done on the strength of a falsehood and with the help of credulous, feckless Washington press corps is less important than the catastrophic nature of the mistake they have made.