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He writes: “The deal does nothing to stop internal repression or international bad behaviour and the end to sanctions will give an economic and financial bonanza to the regime and at best will buy a bit of time in slowing down Iran’s March to having a nuclear weapon.”

After all that it’s difficult to imagine Rae would add a “yes, but…”

But he does.

In his view the deal is the worst thing imaginable, except for the alternative. If he offered some compelling evidence for this, he might have a case. Unfortunately he doesn’t. His main reasons are: 1. Benjamin Netanyahu and Stephen Harper are against the pact, and 2. If we don’t do a deal with Iran, even a really bad one, Iran might do something to make us regret it.

Appeasement has a very chequered history as a control device for dangerous regimes. It didn’t work at Munich, and, more recently, it didn’t work in North Korea when President Bill Clinton sought to buy off Kim Jong-il with a similar agreement in 1994. The deal later fell apart on accusations of cheating by the North Koreans, and resulted in an even-more belligerent Pyongyang, now headed by the erratic and ruthless boy dictator Kim Jong-un, armed with the bomb and conducting regular tests on missiles capable of delivering it.

If appeasement is suspect, appeasement backed by claims of weakness seems altogether senseless.

Rae warns that if Iran is angered by rejection of the accord, the combined resources of the western world, joined by much of the Middle East, wouldn’t be enough to prevent it from whatever destructive path it chose to follow. Europe, China and Russia couldn’t be counted on to maintain sanctions and international resistance would simply dissolve.

It’s the same gloomy claim of helplessness that argues against Canada’s part in offering armed opposition to the Islamic State. Sure, we all agree ISIL is a pack of brutal, sadistic, barbarian killers, but, the argument goes, that’s not enough to justify acting forcefully against them. According to the Liberals and NDP – both of which Rae has served as leader – we should limit ourselves to helping the victims with humanitarian aid. Someone else can halt the actual killing.