America is exceptional, dating back to its very founding. The concept of a democratic republic was the sort of thing left for philosophers to speculate on up until the US actually did it. The fact that a nation that most of the world expected to collapse was able to hoodwink France out of the vast majority of its North American land for pennies, survived a Civil War, exploded into a superpower after surviving two world wars (leading the charge in one) that it wanted nothing to do with and ultimately stared down the Soviet Union to win the Cold War is pretty amazing, no matter how you cut it.

 

We're becoming less exceptional, though. The rest of the world is catching up to us. To be blunt about it, the Cold War is over. We're no longer the voice of the west. The EU is as important as we are these days. The Soviet Union might be gone, but Russia is still a major player in world politics. China...yeah. China has blown up as their economy has grown to the rest of the world.

 

Point being, the old dynamic of "America says go, the west goes" no longer exists. We no longer get to pound on the table until the other party relents. This deal is a perfect example of that. Instead of the "deal" that the right wing would have preferred--release the prisoners, give us all your nuclear material and research, destroy the reactors, allow an American "supervisory force" to stick around and make sure you're behaving, sanctions stay in place anyway but hey, we won't invade you today--we got something that every country involved signed off on. Does it keep Iran nuke-free forever? Probably not, but it means that there are now several European nations, not to mention Israel, that would turn Iran into a parking lot if it fired a nuke.

 

The US no longer gets to decide who can and can't have a nuclear bomb. Israel has eighty. Eight, zero. The rest of the Middle East has none combined. You think the fact that Israel, Iran's mortal enemy, is protected by the US and allowed to have more than enough nukes to leave a smoldering green hole in the ground where Iran used to be might be causing some resentment? You think the fact that Iran was heavily sanctioned by the west while Israel, which commits war crimes against Palestine, is coddled and supported might have something to do with it? The simple truth is that the US has gone out of its way historically to enhance hostility with Iran, whether we intended to or not, and the world government will no longer allow us to do so.

 

America has an exceptional history, and we're used to being "exceptional" meaning that we aren't just a world leader, we are the world leader. That's not the case anymore. We don't get to set the rules. As hard as this concept is for some people (not necessarily you, JIB) to grasp, we can be exceptional without being the only voice at the table. I think this Iran deal is an example of new American exceptionality. I don't know what President Obama wanted out of this deal. I somehow doubt that he went in with these terms. In fact, I suspect the original framework was very different, and much more harsh. Thing is, we don't get to just put take-it-or-leave-it deals down anymore. We worked with multiple nations, Iran included, to come up with a deal that was made in good faith and acceptable to everyone. That's not Neville Chamberlain. That's getting [BLEEP] done, and that is the sort of exceptionality America needs to pursue going forward. Telling everyone which rules they'll play by is no longer an option. Sitting down and getting everyone to agree on those rules and enforce them equally? That's the future we're already living in.

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