On Iran, Trump Becomes A Prisoner Of His Own Hyperbole

Peter Bergen wrote for CNN on President Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the Iran nuclear deal:

In withdrawing the US from the Iran nuclear deal, President Donald Trump is taking a huge gamble. And aside from his desire to repudiate everything done by his predecessor, President Barack Obama, it's really hard to see why he is making this decision.

Let's stipulate first that the Iran nuclear deal is working surprisingly well. That's according to the congressional testimony of Trump's own secretary of defense, James Mattis, who testified in October that the Iran deal was in American national security interests.

That the deal is working is also the considered view of some of the most hawkish Israelis -- for instance, Ehud Barak, who is a former Israeli prime minister and former defense minister as well as a former chief of staff of the Israeli army.