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MUTINY.
SAY NO TO
DEALS WITH DEVILS
OUR GREATEST
GENERALS AND ADMIRALS TURN
A group of nearly 200 retired generals and admirals will send a letter to Congress Wednesday urging lawmakers to reject the Iran nuclear agreement, which they say threatens national security.
IRAN DEAL ANALYST: Mark Moyar, author of Strategic Failure: How President Obama’s Drone Warfare, Defense Cuts, And Military Amateurism Have Imperiled America. Moyar is a visiting scholar at the Foreign Policy Initiative.
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“The letter is the latest in a blizzard of missives petitioning Congress to either support or oppose the agreement with Iran, which lifts sanctions if Iran pares back its nuclear program. Letters have been sent by ad hoc groupings of rabbis, nuclear scientists, arms control and nonproliferation experts — and now, retired senior military officers, many of whom have worked in the White House during various administrations dating back to the 1980s.
The letter, addressed to Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate and the House, is a response to one sent last week by three dozen retired senior military officers who support the nuclear deal.
“The agreement will enable Iran to become far more dangerous, render the Mideast still more unstable and introduce new threats to American interests as well as our allies,” the letter states.
The signatories include retired generals and flag officers from every branch of service, including a handful who were involved in some public controversies during their careers.
One is William G. “Jerry” Boykin, the former undersecretary of defense for intelligence under President George W. Bush and currently executive vice president of the Family Research Council. He had a history of making controversial speeches, including one in which he characterized U.S. military operations against Islamist extremist organizations as a Christian fight against Satan.
It also was signed by John Poindexter and Richard Secord, who were involved in the Iran Contra affair in the Reagan administration, in which arms were sold to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua.
Many of the signatories served in the White House, under Democratic administrations as well as Republican. The only thing they appear to have in common is that they consider the Iran deal a threat to U.S. interests in the region and its own national security.
Leon A. “Bud” Edney, a retired admiral who served as vice chief of naval operations, initiated the letter after he read the letter by other retired officers in support of the Iran nuclear deal.
“I looked at the letter they published, and thought it was very weak,” said Edney. “I just don’t agree with it.” He then got the alternative viewpoint rolling through e-mails sent to some of his Navy and Marine friends. They in turn passed it on.”
READ: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/retired-generals-and-admirals-urge-congress-to-reject-iran-deal/2015/08/26/8912d9c6-4bf5-11e5-84df-923b3ef1a64b_story.html
PLUG BOOK: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1476713243/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1476713243&linkCode=as2&tag=markmoyarcom-20&linkId=IJ5P5GY6SRYYP27F
BIO: Mark Moyar, a distinguished historian and expert on US national security, has served as a consultant to the senior leadership of US Special Operations Command, US Central Command, and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. His previous books include A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq and Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965.
WEBSITE: markmoyar.com, foreignpolicyi.org
TWITTER: @MarkMoyar, @ForeignPolicyI
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