Kevin, chill. You seem to think I have some agenda here. I don’t. You are getting hot because you are not making your point.

I am embarrassed by Trump, but I’m not clear on why Sunni terrorism or Saudi malevolence is at all relevant to the question of what legal rights Iran got in the JCPOA. Whataboutism is a pretty powerful tell that you don’t really want to stay on topic. It comes across as apology for Iran. I am not defending Trump’s action. I am ignoring Sunni depredations only because they are irrelevant to this discussion.

I don’t “throw around” the word “terrorism.” Our government says that Iran is supporting terrorism. That doesn’t make the claim true, but it does make the word relevant to a discussion of the limits on sanctions. Sanctions for supporting terrorism are in place, and I want to know by what principle or obligation they are limited, because if they are not limited, I don’t see what good the JCPOA did Iran vis a vis the USA. As I said, sanctions are fungible; if we can impose them for anything, why can’t we impose them for everything? Withdrawing from the agreement is mere theatrics if evading it was legally possible.

Your argument about our dishonorable conduct makes sense to me. I agree with it. But I have never been comfortable with the idea that so important a multilateral agreement was not a treaty. Frankly, I lay that at Mitch McConnell’s feet. If he weren’t the worst person in the history of American politics, Congress and the President would have worked together to produce a treaty to which we would still be adhering, Congress’s approval rating would be at least twice what it was in 2016, and Trump would never had hijacked the GOP or won the election. But Trump did not so much dishonor us as reveal our lack of honor. If we were anything like our PR says we are, we would never have allowed Newt and Mitch to break our politics, nor would we have reacted by electing our very own Mussolini.

My questions are not rhetorical. I really don’t know what Iran got (beyond its frozen assets) that could not be taken away under some pretense or other. Because Iran isn’t stupid, I assume they did get something, and if they did get something, is that thing not “off the table” as retaliation for some future misdeed? And doesn’t that make such misdeeds more likely?