When the former Vermont state senator took the microphone Friday in front of nearly 100 people at Brattleboro’s Centre Congregational Church, he promised an answer to the program’s advertised title, “The U.S. Versus Iran: Will A Proxy Fight in Syria, Iraq and Yemen Lead to War?”
But the crowd gathered by the Windham World Affairs Council discovered Galbraith also wanted to talk about President Donald Trump and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian 2016 election interference, then tie everything together by the time the presentation ended with applause.
“Talk about confused,” the Vermonter said of the current state of affairs. “It is an extraordinary moment.”
Galbraith, a Democrat who served during the Clinton administration as the first U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Croatia from 1993 to 1998, began by noting the Trump administration’s recent withdrawal from an Iran nuclear agreement known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Back when President Barack Obama’s administration and five other world powers reached the accord in 2015, the Vermonter used his annual Windham World Affairs Council speech to outline the benefits of reducing Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for relaxing international sanctions.
“Was it ideal?” Galbraith said Friday. “No, but it had a lot of merits. And an important part was Iran was following the deal. No one has quarreled that they are in full compliance.”
Trump pulled out, in part, because of personal concerns about Iran’s activities in the nearby Middle East countries of Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Galbraith, who negotiated the 1995 agreement that ended the Croatia War and currently is working on a Syria-related mediation project, questions that explanation.
“A major motivation for Trump has nothing to do with the agreement’s merits,” the Vermonter said. “It’s that Obama negotiated it.”
Galbraith noted the Trump administration, while expressing worry about Iran, supports Iran’s allies in Iraq, is clearing the way for Iran’s longtime ally in Syria to win that country’s civil war, and is against the force in Yemen most opposed to the al-Qaeda network of Islamic extremists that has targeted the United States.
The Vermonter added the nuclear agreement withdrawal has angered U.S. allies while driving Iran closer economically to Russia, China and India, which refuse to cooperate with renewed U.S. sanctions.
“You might detect there is a certain incoherence,” he said. “Some people in the administration are obsessed with Iran as the source of all evil and believe there is a military solution to everything. I would call that a foolish faith and not being very strategic.”
Galbraith said the current situation is only alienating this nation from the rest of the world.
“The United States is doing so much damage to itself,” he said. “From the Iranian point of view, if your adversary is about to jump off a very high building, it’s not your job to push.”
Galbraith, a Townshend resident who served in the Vermont Senate from 2011 to 2014, noted his father, the late economist and President John F. Kennedy adviser John Kenneth Galbraith, also spoke annually to the Windham World Affairs Council. But politics, he pointed out, were different then than they are now.
The younger Galbraith was asked why Trump supports Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who allegedly oversaw the assassination of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
“In the case of Trump, he’s pretty transparent,” he said. “It’s about money.”
Galbraith closed his program by noting this past week’s news about the president’s personal lawyer acknowledging he made false statements about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
“I think it’s all about the business of the Trump family organization,” Galbraith summed up the spate of headlines he had addressed over the hour. “Are we going to end up in a war with Iran over this? I don’t know — but one wonders.”