The big world news this week is a temporary nuclear non-proliferation deal between Iran and the world.  For six months, Iran agrees to halt its nuclear enrichment activities in exchange for a moderate lifting of crippling economic sanctions.  After the six months of compliance elapse and trust has been established, a longer agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions could come to fruition.

The whole thing almost didn’t happen because of France of all nations.  They issued a series of last minute demands that caused Iran to walk away from the negotiating table.  And if that weren’t weird enough, it also caused Republicans to praise France.  That’s got to be a first.  It’s hard to believe that Freedom Fries was only a decade ago.

This agreement obviously proves that Obama is an appeaser and we are falling right into the hands of the evil Iranians.  Or at least it does if you’re John “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” McCain.  After all, Iran is just six months from getting a nuclear bomb and they have been for over ten years.  Clearly, a deal to stop them from pursuing it that doesn’t involve pounding them back into the stone age can only end in failure.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also come out vociferously against the temporary agreement saying that it was an “historic mistake”.   I swear I can’t tell the difference between him and Dick Cheney these days.  All either of them does is sell visions of mushroom clouds dancing in childrens heads with zero evidence.  He also proclaimed the boilerplate “Israel will defend itself” blah blah blah.  Fear is so easy to sell.

That isn’t to say that skepticality isn’t called for.  Iran is not exactly the most trustworthy of governments to work with and they do sponsor terrorist groups with regularity.  And with so many players wanting so many different things, getting even a six month agreement is fairly low on the probability charts, let alone getting them all to come up with an agreement that extends past six month.  But if the six month agreement fails, we’ll just be six months later and Iran will still be just six months from getting a nuclear bomb.  This seems like a win-win agreement to me.