As they do so, they must contend with critics who are already attacking the agreement that Secretary of State John Kerry and his team have delivered. In particular, members of Congress should be prepared for five familiar claims that have been argued vigorously in opposing previous arms-control agreements. Each sounds right. But if lawmakers review the record, they will find that history has proved each wrong. In one-liners, these arguments assert that “the U.S. cannot possibly reach an advantageous deal with Iran ...”

Claim #1: “Because negotiated agreements undercut America’s ability to use force.”

America’s history of negotiations and agreements over weapons of mass destruction with enemy powers since the end of World War II makes clear that deals to constrain nuclear weapons are not an alternative to military, economic, political, and covert instruments in geopolitical competition. Instead, they are one strand of a coherent, comprehensive strategy for protecting and advancing American national interests.

Ultimately, a negotiated agreement with Iran does not limit America’s ability to use force if Iran breaks the agreement—or after the agreement expires. Moreover, it does not reduce the effectiveness of such a military option.

This is not my conclusion only. It is the judgment of the individual who arguably knows the most about using military force to prevent states from acquiring nuclear weapons. As a young soldier in the Israeli Air Force, Amos Yadlin was one of the pilots who dropped the bombs that destroyed Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981. As Israel’s head of military intelligence, he designed the attack that destroyed Syria’s nuclear plant and developed capabilities and plans for attacking Iran’s nuclear program. Assessing the parameters of the framework agreement that Iran and world powers struck in April, Yadlin wrote, “[M]ilitary action against the Iranian nuclear program in 2025 would in all probability not be much more complicated or difficult than in 2015. … [T]he Iranian program will be reduced compared to what it is today, intelligence about it will be better, and it will be less immune than it is at present.”

Claim #2: “Because Iran is an evil regime.”

The use of “evil” in this claim is provocative—and even justified—but ultimately not relevant to the question. No 20th-century leader showed greater strategic clarity in calling out the evil of Nazi Germany than Winston Churchill. And no 20th-century leader demonstrated a clearer view of Stalin’s Communist Soviet Union than Winston Churchill. But that did not stop Churchill from allying with Stalin to defeat Hitler, whom he rightly regarded as the primary threat. When critics accused him of having made a deal with the devil, Churchill replied: “If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”