President Trump’s announcement this week that the United States and Iran would temporarily stop fighting each other is welcome news that Americans should support.But the war Trump started was a self-inflicted disaster that cost American lives and burned through taxpayer dollars.Now, the ceasefire deal he and Vice President Vance negotiated delivers Iran a better deal than the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Trump spent years ridiculing.So far, the United States has spent what could be a staggering $200 billion on this war of choice.
That is more than the cost of paying for free college for every American, universal childcare for $10 per day, and standing up one thousand new trade schools.VANCE REJECTS CLAIMS TRUMP-IRAN DEAL ECHOES OBAMA-ERA LOGIC AS HAWKS RAISE ALARMInstead of Ayatollah Khamenei, Sr., Iran is now led by an even more hardline Ayatollah Khamenei, Jr., who has emerged from the conflict emboldened from using drones and economic chaos to face down the world’s most powerful military.Worst of all, at least 13 patriotic servicemembers have lost their lives in another senseless Middle Eastern war.The details of the ceasefire released this week show that Vice President Vance woefully misled Americans on at least five accounts when he claimed the administration’s deal was better than the JCPOA that President Obama negotiated in 2015.First, under the terms of the deal, Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is to be diluted inside Iran — not destroyed — contingent on what may prove to be years of difficult diplomatic negotiations.In contrast, the JCPOA forced Iran to ship 98 percent of its enriched uranium out of the country while mandating the remainder be capped at 3.67 percent enrichment, well below weapons-grade threshold.Second, under Trump’s deal, Iran is allowed to immediately restart exporting oil — roughly 90 percent of which is sent to China — which will bring in a flood of petrodollars, directly funding the Iranian...