Nuclear Negotiations With Iran Are Essential To National Security

US Secretary of State visit to UK. US Secretary of State John Kerry looks down as Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond (not pictured) speaks to the media about the attack that took place on worshippers in a Jerusalem syn... US Secretary of State visit to UK. US Secretary of State John Kerry looks down as Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond (not pictured) speaks to the media about the attack that took place on worshippers in a Jerusalem synagogue before their breakfast meeting at 1 Carlton Gardens in London. Picture date: Tuesday November 18, 2014. See PA story TERROR Synagogue. Photo credit should read: Matt Dunham/PA Wire URN:21500961 MORE LESS
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The deadline for Iran to achieve a nuclear agreement with the international community is fast approaching, set for later this month. Over the past year, our nation’s diplomats along with other world powers have worked tirelessly to produce an agreement that will prevent both an Iranian nuclear weapon and another war in the Middle East. Keeping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is central to keeping American safe—and achieving this through diplomacy is difficult, but absolutely critical for us to pursue.

I spent nearly three years deployed as a soldier in Afghanistan, and if nothing else has been clear to me, it is that military action has profound costs and consequences for our men and women in uniform, as well as for civilians caught in the midst of conflict. Air strikes may take out objectives, but they also can leave behind a void of destruction, hatred, and a ripple effect of continued violence that may prove worse than what we sought to destroy in the first place. Diplomacy is our best and most promising tool right now — but it will take the full support of the American people to succeed.

As our world changes, global powers like China and Russia are waiting in the wings to see whether the U.S. will lead or back away on projecting our values across the world as a force for good. I for one believe that American leadership makes the world a better, safer place. From the Marshall Plan to leading on nuclear non-proliferation, opening Communist China, and brokering accords to secure Israel, the Balkans, and other nations, America has shined at bridging great divides of mistrust, laying the groundwork of conditions that can foster cooperation, and doing the hard work through seemingly insurmountable differences to resolve pressing global challenges through diplomatic leadership. When it comes to Iran and nuclear weapons, tough diplomacy promises far better outcomes than anything that military strikes could ever accomplish.

Congressional leaders have helped get us where we are today with strong sanctions on Iran that the Obama Administration has enforced, and nuclear negotiations have already yielded tangible results. Iran’s nuclear program has been frozen for nearly a year and, with a robust international monitoring and verification regime in place, global partners have kept an eye on Iran’s facilities, ensuring that no weapons-grade fuel has been produced and that dangerous material was destroyed. This is significant progress, and in the upcoming weeks, our diplomats could lock in a deal to make this progress permanent.

Yet calls by some political leaders to enact additional sanctions now are missing the point. Sanctions are a tool to get a state to the negotiating table, but Iran is already there. At this point, further sanctions and reckless, saber-rattling from public officials are threatening to undo the painstaking work that has resulted in progress and already making us more secure. Either we are willing to support our experts and diplomats in finishing the job with Iran or we leave the door open for military escalation on both sides. To succeed in a lasting resolution that will continue to keep us safe, Americans need to be as united behind our diplomats as we’ve been behind our troops. There are many challenges yet to be solved to ensure that Iran permanently abandons a nuclear weapons program, but we’re at the verge of a historic step towards just that.

Sun Tzu wrote thousands of years ago that the supreme art of war is to subdue an enemy without ever fighting. We have an opportunity for diplomacy to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of Iran. We are in the home stretch of achieving a permanent deal with Iran to keep America and our allies safe, and our men and women in uniform out of harm’s way. We must do everything we can to support that effort.

Kristen L. Rouse is an Army veteran and a member of the Truman National Security Project‘s Defense Council. Views expressed are her own.

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