McClatchy DC has the article President Obama Delivers A Statement On Iran. There is good news and bad news in this article.  Let me start with what I consider the bad news in these words of President Obama.

Since I took office, I have made clear my determination to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. As I have said many times, my strong preference is to resolve this issue peacefully, and we have extended the hand of diplomacy. Yet for many years, Iran has been unwilling to meet its obligations to the international community. So my Administration worked with Congress, the U.N. Security Council and countries around the world to impose unprecedented sanctions on the Iranian government.

There is stuff in here that is obviously put there for domestic consumption, but is of questionable truth or  at least it is deceptive. “…we have extended the hand of diplomacy” should come with the additional information that while we extended the hand of diplomacy  we have also extended the hand of the sucker punch at the same time.

Here is another quote from the President.

We approach these negotiations with a basic understanding: Iran, like any nation, should be able to access peaceful nuclear energy. But because of its record of violating its obligations, Iran must accept strict limitations on its nuclear program that make it impossible to develop a nuclear weapon.

It is not so clear that Iran violated its obligations when in fact they may have been reacting to the sucker punch that we delivered to them while they were looking at our hand of diplomacy.

Okay, so here is some good news:

Over the last few years, Congress has been a key partner in imposing sanctions on the Iranian government, and that bipartisan effort made possible the progress that was achieved today. Going forward, we will continue to work closely with Congress. However, now is not the time to move forward on new sanctions – doing so would derail this promising first step, alienate us from our allies, and risk unraveling the coalition that enabled our sanctions to be enforced in the first place.

Perhaps the sanctions are what worked and perhaps it was the sudden United States’ decision to stop issuing the sucker punch with every diplomatic offer that created this opportunity.  President Obama is finally pleading with our own war mongers to please refrain from adding a new sucker punch to the deal before we have a chance to see if diplomacy alone can work.

As in other grass roots successes of recent days (the end of the filibuster), it is up to the grass roots to put enough pressure on Congress and the President to not try a sucker punch when it will destroy the opportunity. It would be a sad day if there were more pressure from the grass roots to promote a sucker punch than there is pressure to stick to diplomacy.